In June this year, Polo G earned his first-ever no. 1 album with Hall Of Fame, his third studio album featuring appearances from The Kid Laroi, Lil Wayne, Roddy Ricch, Young Thug, and more. Today, a little under six months later, he’s followed up with the deluxe edition, Hall Of Fame 2.0, looking to extend the shelf life of his hit album through the end of the year.
To mark the release, he’s also dropped the Ryan Lynch-directed video for “Young N Dumb,” one of the 14 new tracks that appear on the deluxe edition. In the video, Polo and his crew visit fallen friends at the cemetery and share an introspective walk on the beach.
Along with “Young N Dumb,” the new version of the album also includes the Michael Jackson-sampling “Bad Man (Smooth Criminal)” and the NLE Choppa-featuring “Jumpin.” The new tracks also include appearances from Lil Baby, Lil Tjay, Moneybagg Yo, and YungLiV, marking reunions for Polo with both Lil Baby, with whom he released “3 Headed Goat” last year alongside Lil Durk, and Lil Tjay, who appeared on Polo’s breakout 2019 single “Pop Out.”
Watch Polo G’s “Young N Dumb” video above.
Hall Of Fame 2.0 is out now via Columbia Records. You can stream it here.
Chicago rising star Polo G is gearing up to embark on his first-ever headlining tour for his No. 1 albumHall Of Fame next month, announcing the tour dates today. It’ll also be his first tour in two years and his first since achieving the aforementioned benchmark.
In a press release for the tour, Polo said, “I’m excited to head back out on the road and perform all of these songs for my fans for the first time. Die A Legend tour was big but this will be even bigger.” The Chicago rapper was unable to tour his second album due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Songs from Hall Of Fame include “Rapstar,” “Gang Gang,” “Painting Pictures,” “So Real,” “Party Lyfe,” “Toxic,” and “Black Hearted.”
The tour’s venues will determine safety protocols and tickets will go on sale Wednesday, September 29 at 10 am local times. You can purchase them here. The tour’s organizers encourage fans to check out their venue’s respective safety protocols and local regulations. You can check out the tour dates below.
10/8 — Cincinnati, OH @ Ovation
10/9 — Columbus, OH @ Express Live
10/15 — Norfolk, VA @ ODU Homecoming
11/23 — San Francisco, CA @ Warfield
11/28 — Los Angeles, CA @ Novo
11/30 — Denver, CO @ Mission
12/2 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
12/3 — Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom
12/6 — Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
12/9 — Washington, DC @ Echostage
12/17– Jacksonville, FL @ Daily’s place
12/18 — Tampa, FL @ MFCU Amphitheatre
12/19 — Atlanta, GA @ The Roxy
Polo G continued his successful Hall Of Fame rollout this week with the release of videos for “Painting Pictures” and “Party Lyfe” featuring DaBaby, as well as his conversation with NBA Hall Of Famer, Scottie Pippen. However, he wasn’t done yet. Last night, he stopped by The Late Late Show with James Corden via video chat to discuss the album and deliver a pre-taped performance of the album cut, “So Real.”
During their conversation, Polo recalls how he got involved in AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball in his hometown Chicago, earning an invite to the Late Late Show staff pickup game from Corden. “How’s your jumper?” he jokes. Then, Polo takes the “stage” to run through an emotive performance of the affectionate track with his band. Sitting on a stool in a darkened room and embellishing his performance with smoke machines and a dazzling laser light show, Polo builds on the techniques he’s developed with similar performances on The Tonight Show and NPR Tiny Desk Concerts, adding another impressive performance to his growing collection.
Watch Polo G perform “So Real” above and check out Uproxx’s review for Hall Of Famehere.
Hall Of Fame is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
In the lead-up to releasing his new album, Hall Of Fame, Polo G gave an interview with Complex in which he restricted the possibility of collaboration with elite rappers like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar to one crucial condition: his own improvement as a straightforward, bars-first spitter. Now, having heard Hall Of Fame in its entirety, I can confidently say that he was being way too modest and he’s not as far away from that upper echelon as he seems to think. In fact, the best moments on the album come when he operates in that mode more than any other.
That isn’t to say that he should shrink his focus or his drive for more mainstream, playlist-friendly hits. If anything, he shows that he has the versatility to tackle a wide range of subjects and styles — or at least, he will, with a tad bit more practice. For now, songs like “For The Love Of New York” feel out of his reach and out of place with an album that sticks mostly to Polo’s established talents: Painting pictures of his tormented, Windy City upbringing and the dreams of excavating something of value from the scenes of carnage.
That’s the rather literal note on which the album opens. “Painting Pictures” might be on the nose as a song title, but it’s also fitting, as Polo fleshes out the characters that have populated his world as a former resident of Old Town Chicago, where the infamous Cabrini-Green high-rise projects used to tower. “Lil Wooski ain’t your average teen, he see the opps, gon’ bang it out,” he rhapsodizes somberly. “They killed Lamp, he took three with him, they all know what your name about.”
But it’s not all melancholy. Polo’s circumstances are in a state of transition, which is reflected in the project’s cover. As opposed to the dark, moody cover images for Die A Legend and GOAT, the cover for Hall Of Fame is brighter, echoing the sentiments expressed on songs like “Rapstar” and “Fame & Riches” featuring Roddy Ricch. Polo is literally and figuratively moving out of a dark place in his life, trying to maintain his optimism for the future as he acknowledges the trauma and turmoil in his past (see: “No Return” with Lil Durk). But in doing so, he’s faced with a dilemma — an enviable one, to be sure, but a dilemma nonetheless.
As with many young stars on the precipice of greatness — he’s certainly set the bar high enough, with his album titles telling us exactly how he wants to be seen when all is said and done — he’s got a decision to make about how best to get there. On the one hand, if he sticks with what got him here, he can appease longtime, day-one fans, and build on their goodwill with increasingly polished craftsmanship a la heroes like Cole, Kendrick, and Lil Wayne, who Polo goes bar-for-bar with on “Gang Gang.” Like Cole and Kendrick, though, this means struggle: Struggle with meeting fans’ admittedly hazy standards for greatness; struggle with mental health and anxiety as he dwells on such traumatic material and the pressure to live up to his and fans’ expectations; struggle to connect on a commercial level.
Both Cole and Kendrick were well into the second decades of their respective careers before achieving their first No.1s. Polo already has, so there’s going to be added pressure to continue to perform, and proportional ridicule should he be perceived to decline or stall out. Fans will demand growth but will reject it if it doesn’t come on their terms. Polo’s insistence that he needs to get better at the craft before attempting to work with these elders suggests that he understands this.
However, pursuing playlist exposure and radio hits has its own dangers. As with some of the sunnier songs in this set, such pop reaches can clash with his already established image as a survivor of Chicago’s trenches. He’s managed to balance commercial viability with that image so far thanks to his breakout hit “Pop Out” and songs like “Rapstar,” but should popular trends shift even a little, he may be out of luck. He already faces criticism of his beat choices, which find him more often than not rapping in a torn legato cadence over moody pianos, but stepping out of his comfort zone means risking the ire of day-ones. Remaining in it means competing with similar acts like Rod Wave, with whom he’s wisely collaborated twice (once on Wave’s SoulFly and once here on “Heart Of A Giant”) to provide a contrast test for their respective sounds, but the lane is still rapidly filling up, and we’ve seen how quickly tastes can change within hip-hop.
Hall Of Fame positions Polo to make either of these choices well enough while also highlighting the potential danger in choosing either. It also shows that they are not mutually exclusive. He shows mastery of the pen on the upbeat tracks and mostly good instincts on the pop reaches (the Nicki Minaj feature notwithstanding). Now, I think, the important thing for him to do is put some distance between his projects — three lengthy releases in back-to-back years leave him with little life experience to speak on and expand his range of topics, which is something he’ll want to do to achieve the sort of longevity that will lead to him fulfilling his dream of making it to the hallowed halls of rap’s greatest of all time.
Hall Of Fame is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.
Polo G wasn’t even born yet when the Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen-led Bulls tore up the NBA and redefined excellent in the game of basketball with six championships throughout the 1990s, but the Chicago native is mindful enough of their legacy to recognize that a nod to the greats would pair nicely with his new album Hall Of Fame. To that end, Polo shared “Hall Of Fame Conversations,” a video in which he interviews the NBA Hall Of Famer Scottie Pippen.
Polo turns out to be a pretty decent interviewer asking Pippen about the championships and accolades that the NBA legend has accumulated over the years. The conversation also allows Polo to speak on his own journey, highlighting how relatively quickly he’s reached the upper echelon of rap stardom over the course of his last three albums. Meanwhile, Scottie draws parallels between the rap game and hoops, complimenting the hard work that Polo has put in to follow his dream.
Polo G’s latest video from his new album Hall Of Fame, “Painting Pictures,” is a prime example of the evocative appeal of the young Chicago rapper’s music. The video, which is shot in his hometown, employs a simple concept to highlight the tales of brotherhood that run through the somber track, on which he reminisces about fallen friends and compares his early days of struggle to his current fame and ability to give back.
“Painting Pictures” is the opening track from Polo’s third album Hall Of Fame, which is currently on track to become his first No. 1 album. Before the project’s release, his song “Rapstar” became his first single to top the Hot 100 chart, debuting there in its first week then returning for a second straight week on the next edition of the chart. Other singles from the album include “Gang Gang” featuring Lil Wayne and “No Return” with The Kid Laroi and Lil Durk.
Unfortunately, Polo’s recent success was unable to immunize him from the effects of biased policing. Polo was arrested over the weekend after his release party in Miami for battery against a police officer and criminal mischief. He later tweeted that he believed the officers had been following him since his arrival in Miami, writing, “They playin foul in Miami & dat shit been like that for a minute.”
Watch the “Painting Pictures” video above.
Hall Of Fame is out now on Columbia Records. Get it here.
Polo G has come a long way from the trenches of Chicago and now, he refuses to go back. That’s the legend behind his defiant Hall Of Fame single “No Return” which features The Kid Laroi and Lil Durk. The video, which centers on an armored truck heist and a chemical lab where Polo and his compatriots craft mysterious blue crystals, sees the three rappers counting stacks and battling their way out of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Polo’s new album, which dropped last night, finds him working with a variety of collaborators, including Lil Wayne on “Gang Gang” and Nicki Minaj on “For The Love Of New York,” arrived in the midst of a breakout year for Polo. Not only was he featured on XXL‘s 2020 Freshman cover, but he’s also become an in-demand guest artist as his talents were tapped on Lil Tjay’s “Headshot,” Rod Wave’s “Richer,” and the Boogie soundtrack alongside Pop Smoke on “Fashion.” He also secured his first career No. 1 with “Rapstar.” The success that’s come his way this year has him further than ever on the road to living up to his album’s title.
Watch Polo G’s “No Return” video featuring The Kid Laroi and Lil Durk above.
Hall Of Fame is out now on Columbia Records. Get it here.
Ever since debuting with Die A Legend in 2019, Chicago rapper Polo G has been pretty intentional about stating his goals and following through on them — many times within the titles of the projects he’s released. For instance, after stating he’d “die a legend” on his first project, he followed up by calling himself The Goat in 2020. Now, he’s days away from dropping Hall Of Fame, and you can’t say the young rising star doesn’t aim high.
In a new feature in Complex about the upcoming album, Polo states another one of his goals — and the one caveat preventing him from pursuing it as aggressively as he normally would. He tells Harley Geffner that while he’d love to work with rappers like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar in the future after being shouted out by Cole’s Dreamville partner Ibrahim Hamad, he wants “to get a little bit better lyrically in that style before I would jump on that type of song.”
Hall Of Fame will see him taking steps in that direction, sharing mic time with lyrical all-stars like Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, but as Geffner notes, he may not be as far off as he feels. Look no further than his recent LA Leakers freestyle, which impressed Rap Twitter over its use of DMX’s “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” and Polo’s verse in BET’s 2020 Hip-Hop Awards Cypher, where he stood toe-to-toe with hard-hitters like Chika, Jack Harlow, and Rapsody.
Hall Of Fame drops 6/11 via Columbia Records. Pre-save it here.
There is perhaps no greater sign of a rising artist’s impending superstardom than their album tracklist. After releasing two well-received albums in back-to-back years with relatively few big-name co-signs, it looks like Windy City upstart Polo G will finally arrive at that coveted echelon with the release of his third album, Hall Of Fame. He released the tracklist today, and it’s got some real doozies on it.
While his 2019 debut Die A Legend and its 2020 follow-up The Goat certainly didn’t lack for star power — the first included an appearance from Lil Baby and Gunna just months after their joint mixtape Drip Harder launched a veritable mania for the two Atlantans and the latter had a posthumous Juice WRLD appearance — Hall Of Fame sees Polo attracting the sort of names that get the big font on festival flyers. Those names include DaBaby Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Pop Smoke, and Young Thug, while fellow Chicagoans G Herbo and Lil Durk and fellow XXL Freshmen Fivio Foreign, Rod Wave, and Roddy Ricch also look to contribute. With such a star-studded cast in the wings, the anticipation for Polo’s latest is higher than it’s ever been; thank goodness we only have to wait a week to hear it.
Hall Of Fame is due 6/11 via Columbia Records. See the full tracklist below. Pre-save it on Apple Music and Spotify here.
1. “Painting Pictures”
2. “Rapstar”
3. “No Return” Feat. Kid Laroi & Lil Durk
4. “Toxic”
5. “Epidemic”
6. “Gang Gang” Feat. Lil Wayne
7. “Boom”
8. “Black Hearted”
9. “Broken Guitars” Feat. Scorey
10. “GNF (OKOKOK)”
11. “Go Part 1” Feat. G Herbo
12. “Heart of a Giant” Feat. Rod Wave
13. “Zooted Freestyle”
14. “Party Lyfe” Feat. DaBaby
15. “Losses” Feat. Young Thug
16. “So Real”
17. “Fame & Riches” Feat. Roddy Ricch
18. “For the Love of New York” Feat. Nicki Minaj
19. “Clueless” Feat. Pop Smoke & Fivio Foreign
20. “Bloody Canvas”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
