HOOD POET by Polo G | Album Review
4th Album From A Chicago Rapper Gives You Less Guitar, But Maintains The Same Polo Flow
LISTEN TO HOOD POET: APPLE MUSIC | SPOTIFY
Polo G has been one of the rising stars in hip-hop and also a great example of quick success. After his debut project, Die a Legend, the Chicago rapper swiftly accumulated coverage and popularity with the break-out track “Pop Out”.
Over the following years, Polo G continued his growth with 2 more studio albums, namely THE GOAT and Hall of Fame, which both had different receptions and were turning points in his career.
If the former displayed Polo’s impeccable lyricism and showcased that the rapper has a message to convey, the latter simply attempted to prolong his slightly tired ambition with overly simplistic production selections.
Hall of Fame released in 2021 became a major disappointment among fans and followers of Polo, making him take a 3-year break, which led to Polo’s 4th studio album HOOD POET.
What I always quite like about Polo is that he knows how to kick off the record on a high note, and a HOOD POET is not an exception.
With its impressive horns and dynamic soundtrack synths, the first track, “God’s Favorite,” makes a grand entrance and immediately grabs the listener’s attention, setting the stage for the rest of the album. In an intro track, Polo sets the bar incredibly high, however, he struggles to maintain that level of quality during the rest of the album.
With a 3-year wait, Polo doesn’t show much progression that the community foreshadowed him, rather he sticks to what he was doing the best all of those 5 years.
In the album, as per usual, we are presented with melodic tracks where the artist expresses his emotions and pours his heart out. However, this sound and approach no longer work for Polo, rendering it rather generic and tedious.
In the track “Barely Holdin’ On” we see Polo delving into a lyrical aspect of his artistry, openly talking about his insecurities, and what he was going through, and despite strong lyrical content, the track sounds outdated.
Polo’s performances don’t induce much emotion in you, and I must say the record is certainly much better than some of the usual generic trap stuff. The artist still gives you notable wordplay that might be entertaining, however as the entire project, Polo G runs out of the gas pretty fast.
By going from “Same Me” to “Thorns” on his track run, he showcases a complete disinterest and incapability to capture attention, leading to an exceptionally lackluster performance all around.
Polo G is by any means not a bad rapper or a poor singer, however, he is a mediocre album artist.
With a nearly one-hour album duration, Capalot lacks variation in song structure, as most tracks begin with similar melodic instruments in the background and finish with a fade-out. The thing to note is the more you explore this album, the more you realize that his delivery and flow become dull, as he essentially repeats the same thing throughout.
I can’t even fully blame the production, as it has just been his comfort zone for over 4 years and naturally it became stagnant.
Beats are inauthentic and kind of obsolete, and with such curation, they simply don’t work anymore. Polo’s lifeless flow with subpar mixing and those beats don’t do him any good.
And talking about the mixing, it is extremely unbalanced and inferior. With such a long wait, Polo’s voice sounds completely inadequate and sometimes you can’t even understand what he is trying to say. Great examples of this are “Detox” and “Only Gang”.
HOOD POET did not induce many emotions in me. With a few decent tracks, Polo can’t compensate for the rest of the indifference that he exhibits here. Do I feel like it is a better record than the Hall of Fame? I think they are both equally the same and for this reason; I give the album.
FINAL RATING: 5.3/10 ( MEDIOCRE )
FAVORITE TRACK: “God’s Favorite”, “No Recruits”
LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS: “Detox”, “No Turning Back”, “Bad Kids”
Scores guideline:
0–2 (dramatically bad)
2.1–4.5 (bad)
4.6–6 (mediocre/mid)
6.1–6.9 (Ok)
7–7.5 (good)
7.6–8.6 (great)
8.7–9.9 (amazing)
10 (perfect)
