Polo G — Die a Legend (ALBUM REVIEW)
By: John T. Dougherty
Tags: Hip Hop, Polo G, Chicago, Music, Album Review

Die A Legend (Image Credit: Columbia Records)

20 year old Taurus Bartlett has a pretty decent sounding rap persona under the name “Polo G,” but if I can be honest, it’s kind of funny this kid’s first name literally means ‘bull,’ because at times on his debut record for Columbia Records, Die A Legend, he spits real fast like he’s charging you while you are not looking and flows like he’s a professional. All you need to do is hear the very first song, “Lost Files” off of this thing and you can tell he’s got a lot of fury in him when he raps on gang life and the hood. “Dying Breed” has this nice piano to go with the fast trap. “Through da Storm” is a sweet meditation on lost family members while driving in California away from the family home in Chicago after his projects were taken down and has this baby grand piano giving the song a nice touch, feeling the spirit of his grandma. “Effortless” is appropriately titled because Taurus raps so fast and so smooth in his Chicago tongue about perseverance you almost forget he’s only lived 2 decades.

Admittedly, however, I am not too crazy about his most popular song “Pop Out,” which appears on this in two versions (the first with Lil Tjay and the second with Lil Baby and Gunna at the end of this record) and charted as high as #22 on the Hot 100. It just seems that Lil Tjay’s rap vocals don’t match well with Taurus’s verses and chorus as he raps about getting out of poverty.

And yet I found the other single “Finer Things” to be better in instrumentals and production, with these soft pianos, the bass drum not booming too much, and Taurus’ vocals calmer and more melancholic. “Picture This” details more about the conditions he was in, as he describes how he was starving and the unpredictable conditions when it comes to crime in the slums. “Deep Wounds” is another sad but catchy rap about the memories of the streets of Chicago and moving out to California; “BST” is about the start of Taurus’ impending fatherhood.

Let’s be clear for a moment: the political atmosphere and socio-economics in relation to Chicago is a little bit more complicated than certain political pundits like to make it and the city will have to deal with the political consequences of their elected officials’ legal decisions (plus, they’ll be dealing with the consequences of the neoliberal policies under recently departed mayor and Obama cabinet member Rahm Emmanuel) and, at this point, trap as a sub-genre of hip-hop is over-saturated with soundcloud rappers trying to create the next-big 30 second trapper that catches…for fifteen minutes or less. Yet, Taurus’ debut is so authentic, with his recollections of the Chicago streets and his own crimes behind him as he makes a bigger name for himself out west, even with its shortcomings, and this record is a real trapper gem from a dude whose been through a lot.

Three and a half out of five stars. The kid raps like he’s got something bigger in the future because I dug this.

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