Not long after recording his major-label debut Die a Legend, the northside Chicago rapper packed up his family and moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to avoid fulfilling the prophecy of his album’s title.
Polo’s style of melodic drill—sparse compositions comprising soft piano melodies and gentle guitars atop booming basslines—is tailored to convey emotion, an intentional diversion from the bleak murder raps of drill’s first wave.
While his first two LPs coped with death , Hall of Fame finds him facing forward: Father to a young son, poised for fame and looking to leave behind the drugs that would numb his pain but take his friend.
“Ain’t no limit in these streets/Can ride a bike, you old enough,” he raps on “Black Hearted.” He still wields considerable talent as a lyricist, dropping brazen one-liners as deftly as he transitions from gun-toting villain —sometimes in the same verse.
To take a step further into the mainstream, Polo taps an array of producers, and while he has a strong ear, his distinct taste in instrumentals lends itself to homogeneity, with tracks like “Go Part 1” teetering on the edge of generic.
It’s co-produced by Einer Bankz, a YouTuber who courted viral fame via acoustic ukulele performances with what seems like every rapper on the planet, and who has made videos for Polo’s last two album rollouts.
Though Polo has proven he can carry an LP on his own, the guest stars help infuse Hall of Fame with new energies.
If Die a Legend was an insular, tightly woven portrait of a teenager manifesting his future, Hall of Fame is a cluster bomb aimed squarely at the mainstream, chock full of everything he could think of that might help him graduate to the next tier of stardom.