With not much to do in quarantine, many students anticipate the release of rapper, Taurus Bartlett’s latest project, The Goat. Bartlett is a famous Chicago rapper who goes by the name, Polo G, and has risen in popularity over the years. He released his first project, Die a Legend in 2019, and soon started to gain recognition. Many of his songs ended up in the Billboard top 100 and the album was ranked top 3 rap albums of 2019 by the New York Times. As of 2020, his second project, The Goat, was highly awaited, and after giving the album a listen, I would say that it exceeded my expectations.

Bartlett is known for using minimal autotune in any of his songs which makes him stand out in front of other artists. Bartlett can also be categorized as a singing rapper, as in many of his songs, he demonstrates his unique rapping as well as singing talents. “Beautiful Pain” is one song in the album that did a good job in revealing this trait. Many songs in the album were about the struggles Polo faced in his childhood growing up in a poor neighborhood. Tracks such as, “Heartless”, “Be Something” and “21” highlight the poverty, starvation and gang influence he faced as a kid. Despite grinding his way out of the slums and becoming very successful, he reminds himself to stay true to himself: “I told my inner-self ‘I promise you I won’t change’”. His tracks also discuss the problems that black men face in America today. One such track, “Wishing for a Hero,” opens up on the topics of police brutality and the mass incarceration of African Americans. The hook of the song expresses how “That’s just the way it is” and “Some things’ll never change,” which is emphasizing how change is needed in America. To top it off, The Goat, included many popular features such as Juice World, Nle Choppa, Mustard and Lil Baby which made the album even better.

I think that Polo G did a great job in his second project. Although he raps about such serious topics, the passion with which he sings makes his songs unique from other rappers and very enjoyable. For my final rating, I would have to give the album a solid 9/10. I only took off one point since I felt there were a few songs where the beat got repetitive, but other than that, The Goat is an album that I definitely recommend listening too.