Image via Daniel Prakopcyk
Polo G keeps winning. In April 2021, the Chicago rapper scored his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Rapstar.” The achievement followed the success of his sophomore album, The GOAT, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.
“I put a No. 1 song down on the list of goals of mine,” he told Complex when “Rapstar” first topped the charts. “I’m big on manifesting everything. I’ve damn near manifested my whole life.”
Born Taurus Tremani Bartlett in January 1999, Polo G took an interest in rapping at an early age. Growing up listening to artists like Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne, and Tupac, Polo G has said that he tried rapping as a hobby at first. But by the time he reached high school, almost everyone noticed he had a real talent.
Today, Polo G is known for his vulnerable and truthful storytelling, which illustrates vivid images of his time growing up in the trenches of Chicago and overcoming obstacles like gang violence and drug addiction. And with time, Polo G is only getting better. Here’s everything you need to know about him right now.
There are two meanings behind his name
Polo G didn’t come up with his rap name at random. During an episode of GQ’s Actually Me series, he revealed that each part of his name has a meaning. The “Polo” in his name represents his favorite clothing brand of the same name. And the “G” stands for his friend who passed away at 16 years old, whose name was Gucci. Polo G also spoke on the name “Capalot,” which he commonly uses on his social media handles. “In Chicago, we used to use that term a lot,” he said. “Like, they’re not the chill person. Basically the opposite of chill.”
He wanted to go to an HBCU to be a sports broadcaster
Before Polo started focusing on rap full time, he had dreams of attending an HBCU college. In a 2018 interview with Pitchfork, Polo revealed that he planned on attending a university in Pennsylvania to study broadcasting. “I was accepted to Lincoln University, an HBCU. I was going to go there for a year then transfer to Clark Atlanta University,” he said. “I always wanted to go to an HBCU. I just love my culture so much. That was my plan. I wanted to be a sports broadcaster like Stephen A. Smith.” He ultimately decided not to go, he says, because he had “too much love and appreciation for rapping.”
The passing of a close childhood friend influenced him to rap
When Polo G first started writing raps, his friends would try to pressure him to recite them on their block. At the time, Polo was still a little self-conscious and didn’t want to share them. But his outlook started to change when tragedy struck. He recalls seeing people he knew getting killed on their way to school, which ultimately inspired him to write about them on wax. “With so many of my childhood friends passing away, it made me feel like I need to tell our story, and I needed to tell it from a perspective of where I’m from,” he explained in his 2020 documentary.
Polo G passed English class his senior year because of his rap skills
By the time Polo G got to high school, everyone knew he could rap, even his senior English teacher. According to Polo, rapping actually helped him pass English. “I literally used to rap for him after class,” he recalled. “He passed me in the classroom just off the strength. He made me do spoken word and shit like that. So, it was like a trade-off, because I’d never make his class.”
He's known for his versatile sound
Polo G first entered the game making aggressive Chicago drill music, but he has incorporated more melody into his music over time. Now that he’s become known for his melodic sound, he says he gets some mixed reviews from fans whenever he goes back to the aggressive style, but he previously told Complex that he has “a lot more to offer as an artist” than most realize and he intends on including songs with both styles on future projects. He also wants people to know that he is not a mumble rapper. “I definitely don’t count as a mumble rapper,” he stated. “I’m a real lyricist. I got a broad message, like, a real story to tell every time I spit.”
His mother is his manager
Polo G’s mother Stacia Mac is his manager. Mac first stepped up to the role when she noticed Polo’s growing interest in becoming a rapper. “It was out of necessity,” she told DJ Booth, explaining what inspired her to become a “momager.” “He would try to fund music on his own, and I saw he was struggling. He didn’t want to lean on me financially and be a burden, so he tried to take odd jobs and do whatever he could to afford the studio. As a mother of four, he understood I had my hands full financially. But it resulted in him getting into trouble sometimes, so I would help fund his studio time.” Mac said she manages more than just Polo G’s schedule, though. She also makes sure he doesn’t “get a big head,” instills “hard work ethic, and helps organize his life.”
Polo G suffered from a three-year drug addiction
Polo G has been very vocal about his past addiction to prescription medications. On his single “21,” which appeared on his sophomore album The GOAT, he briefly touched on the topic, spitting, “Can’t relapse off these drugs, man R.I.P. to Juice/ We was tweakin’ of them Percs, I popped my last one with you.” In a now-deleted IG post, Polo G went more in-depth about his addiction, revealing he was hospitalized at one point. “I had a real bad X addiction for like 3 years. I used to think I had to be high to feel alive. It took a moment where I almost lost my life to that shit to finally let it go and pay close attention to my health,” he wrote. “Ever since my hospital incident, I quit doing X and Xanax (it’s been 5 months) and I’ve been two months completely sober (lol definitely gettin drunk tonight tho). I said all that to say to all the people battling a drug addiction, it’s more to life than that. There are more things you can put your energy into.”
He has one son named Tremani
Polo G has one son, whose name is Tremani. Polo G has shared photos of his son on social media, and Tremani also made a quick appearance in the “Rapstar” music video. Around the 1:21-mark in the video, Polo G and Tremani are seen shooting a basketball on the court. In an Instagram post, Polo G wrote, “I can’t play with my creation. Give da world to my lil boy.”
Both of his albums have charted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200
Both of Polo G’s first two albums peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard 200. His debut album Die A Legend peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in its first week. His sophomore album The GOAT performed even better, debuting at No. 2 on the same Billboard chart in its first week.
He compares himself to Tupac
Polo G has often likened himself to Tupac. On Instagram, he stated that he is “Pac rebirthed,” and the sentiment comes across in his music, too. On “Wishing For a Hero,” he samples Pac’s 1998 hit “Changes” as he reflects on overcoming his own demons and borrows Tupac’s own lyrics, “Wish we could go back to them days when we played as kids/ A lot of shit changed, that’s just the way it is.” Polo G’s mother Stacia Mac told Complex that her son draws a lot of inspiration from Pac. “When he looks at Tupac, he looks at someone who is multifaceted,” she said. “Tupac was a blueprint when it was not OK to speak out on social issues and when it was not OK to talk about what we experience now with the overwhelming surge of police brutality and so on. Tupac was aware and conscious of those social issues, and he used his platform to speak as much, even if it was not popular at the time. So yes, he’s someone that [Polo] looks to for inspiration on many levels.”
In the music video for “Rapstar,” he dressed up like Pac and rapped the line, “They say I’m Pac rebirth, never put out a weak verse.” Speaking with Genius, he added, “My pops is a big ‘Pac fan. That’s just the culture of our household to listen to a lot of different music. First, I was up on Lil Wayne, but when I figured out I really wanted to rap, that’s when I started looking deeper into 2Pac. And then just finding out a lot of sh-t about him, like the way he moved, what he stood for, just the music he was making. The messages that he had, I just felt like that’s what make him one of the all-time greats. So that’s something that you can marvel at.”
He launched ODA Records in 2020
Polo G launched his own record label called ODA Records, in partnership with Columbia Records. The name of the label stands for “Only Dreamers Achieve Records,” which Polo says is a message to underrepresented communities to keep striving and dreaming. “In our communities we are told what we can’t be. I want to send the message that we control our futures and encourage artists to dream,” he said in a statement. The label’s first release will be from a rising star in Syracuse, NY named Scorey. According to the press release, Polo will be heavily involved in the daily operations of the label as well as scouting and developing new artists. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted a place where I could be creative and where I could work with other talented artists, to help the world see their talent,” he added. “I’m happy to see this come to life.”
He started an AAU team in Chicago to help keep youth out of trouble
Polo is committed to giving back to his community. In 2019, he launched an AAU basketball team in his hometown of Chicago to help keep youth out of trouble. He says he launched his Chicago Grizzlies team after visiting an elementary school in the neighborhood and the kids informed him that they never had any accessible sports programs. At the time of the launch, he said, “I feel like it’s really important just to show the kids something different, because being on the block or in the neighborhood 100 percent of the time, be a waste of time.”
He really wants a Grammy
Polo G is aiming high. In a May 2020 interview, Polo told Complex that his next big goal was to get recognition from the Recording Academy. “[I want] a Grammy nod the next time around,” he said in reference to his next album. Polo also noted that he was looking to go “more mainstream, almost a pop level” with his music in the future. While he explained that he wouldn’t change his sound, he said that he wanted to make “crossover records with bigger pop artists.”
His features run for $150,000 (and the price is going up)
Polo may still be considered a newer artist, but he isn’t collecting rookie checks. When it comes to features, he recently revealed he charges up to $150,000 for a verse. While he notes that he’s “willing to work with them on the price” if he has a history with an artist already, he says his rate will continue to go up as he becomes more seasoned. “I’m going to keep going up on the price for sure because I take everything that I do seriously,” he explains. “So I know you gonna get a good verse out of me.”
His next album will have big features and show his versatility as an artist
Polo G’s next album will be on another level. He told Complex that it will include a lot more collaborations with high-profile artists and show his different styles of music. “On the next album, they can expect a star-studded feature list and a lot of versatility. I’ve got a lot of different types of music on it,” he said. “I’ve got something that somebody from any type or facet of life could pull from on this project. If you don’t like the standard pain, melodic rap, I’ve got something that’s going to turn you up, too. I’ve got all types of shit for somebody to fuck with.”