''Hall of Fame'' is the third studio album by American rapper Polo G. It was released on June 11, 2021. The album features guest appearances from

the Kid Laroi Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard (born 17 August 2003), known professionally as the Kid Laroi (stylized as The Kid LAROI), is an Australian rapper, singer and songwriter. He was first discovered by Triple J Unearthed in 2016 at the age of 13. As ...

Lil Durk Durk Derrick Banks (born October 19, 1992), known professionally as Lil Durk, is an American rapper. Regarded as a pioneering artist in the Chicago-based hip-hop subgenre drill music, he is often considered the subgenre's most commercially suc ...

, Lil Wayne, Scorey, G Herbo, Rod Wave,

DaBaby Jonathan Lyndale Kirk (born December 22, 1991), known professionally as DaBaby (formerly Baby Jesus), is an American rapper. After releasing several mixtapes between 2014 and 2018, he signed with Interscope Records in January 2019 in a joint ...

, Young Thug, Roddy Ricch,

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...

, the late

Pop Smoke Bashar Barakah Jackson (July 20, 1999 – February 19, 2020), known professionally as Pop Smoke, was an American rapper. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, he rose to fame with the release of his 2019 singles "Welcome to the Party (P ...

, and Fivio Foreign. Production was handled by Einer Bankz, Angelo Ferraro, D Mac, Karltin Bankz, Londn Blue, BKH, Synco, Tahj Money, Varohl, & WizardMCE, among others. The deluxe edition, '' Hall of Fame 2.0'', was released on December 3, 2021, with fourteen bonus tracks. It features additional guest appearances from Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo, Yungliv, NLE Choppa, and

Lil Tjay Tione Jayden Merritt (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) (born April 30, 2001), known professionally as Lil Tjay ( ), is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. He rose to prominence with his 2017 single "Resume", and signed with Columbi ...

. ''Hall of Fame'' debuted atop the ''Billboard'' 200, earning 143,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, becoming Polo G's first number-one album of his career. The album was supported by four singles, including his first number-one hit on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

, " Rapstar".

Background and recording

In April 2021, Bartlett hinted at a song with fellow Chicago rapper

and Australian rapper

with a recorded music video. In May, he confirmed fellow Chicago rapper G Herbo would appear on the album, with DJ Scheme previewing a snippet of their song during an Instagram live. On May 16, 2021, Polo took to Twitter to confirm that he had finished recording the album.

Artwork

The album's artwork was created by art director Zanic, and features Polo G in a suit standing at a podium with platinum plaques for his prior albums behind him, and a bust of Polo G.

Release and promotion

In September 2020, Polo released the album's lead single "

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". It peaked at number 47 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. On February 5, 2021, he released the album's second single " GNF (OKOKOK)". The song peaked number 55 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. On April 9, he released the third single " Rapstar". The song peaked number 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, marking the song being his first number-one single in his career. "Rapstar" was previously previewed back in May 2020 in a YouTube video in which Polo and the song's co-producer Einer Bankz performed an acoustic version of the song. The song was then announced two days prior to its release with Polo posting a teaser for the music video. On May 21, "Rapstar" was certified platinum and the same day he released the album's fourth single, " Gang Gang" featuring Lil Wayne. The song peaked number 33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. On May 27, Polo released a teaser trailer for the album which also revealed its release date of June 11, 2021, and features a snippet of a new song coined "Lil Wooski" by fans with an option to pre-save the album for all streaming services. On June 2, Polo posted an Instagram video teasing another song from the album with the caption "Toxic", indicating the song's title. On December 3, 2021 Polo released a Deluxe version of the album with 14 additional tracks featured on it.

Critical reception

''Hall of Fame'' was met with critical acclaim upon release. ''

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'' writer Matthew Ismael Ruiz said in his review of the project: "The Chicago rapper steps further into the mainstream on his third album, an ultimately hopeful exploration of how trauma manifests". Fred Thomas from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

also stated that "''Hall of Fame'' swims even further into the mainstream, offering more of PoloG's catchy if painful reflections over more accessible and pop-minded production. Even still, Some of ''Hall of Fame''s best moments come when PoloG is in his original element, like when he's commiserating with fellow pain rapper Rod Wave on 'Heart of a Giant' or trying on more aggressive approaches on the short but ruthless 'GNF(OKOKOK)'."

Commercial performance

''Hall of Fame'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, earning 143,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s (including 18,000 copies as traditional album sales) in its first week. The album also accumulated a total of 181.9 million on-demand streams of the album's songs during that week. During the week of September 3, 2021 the album sold 17,100 equivalent units bringing its cumulative total to 514,100.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2021 albums Polo G albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Nick Mira Albums produced by Taz Taylor (record producer) Albums produced by Wheezy