Hall of Fame (Polo G album)

In April 2021, Bartlett hinted at a song with fellow Chicago rapper Lil Durk and Australian rapper the Kid Laroi with a recorded music video.[4] 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.[5]

On May 16, 2021, Polo took to Twitter to confirm that he had finished recording the album.[6][7]

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.[8]

In September 2020, Polo released the album's lead single "Epidemic".[9] It peaked at number 47 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

On February 5, 2021, he released the album's second single "GNF (OKOKOK)".[10] The song peaked number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100. On April 9, he released the third single "Rapstar".[11] 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[12] and the same day he released the album's fourth single, "Gang Gang" featuring Lil Wayne.[13] 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.[14] On June 2, Polo posted an Instagram video teasing another song from the album with the caption "Toxic", indicating the song's title.[15] On December 3, 2021 Polo released a Deluxe version of the album with 14 additional tracks featured on it.[16]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
HipHopDX	8/10[18]
Pitchfork	7.0/10[2]
Riff Magazine	9/10[19]

Hall of Fame received generally positive reviews. Pitchfork 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".[2] Fred Thomas from Allmusic also stated that "Hall of Fame swims even further into the mainstream, offering more of Polo G's catchy if painful reflections over more accessible and pop-minded production. Even still, Some of Hall of Fame's best moments come when Polo G 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)'."[20]

Hall of Fame debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 143,000 album-equivalent units (including 18,000 copies as traditional album sales) in its first week.[21] The album also accumulated a total of 181.9 million on-demand streams of the album's songs during that week.[21] During the week of September 3, 2021 the album sold 17,100 equivalent units bringing its cumulative total to 514,100.