Polo G - Wikipedia

2018–2019: Beginnings, record deal, and Die a Legend

Bartlett's first song ever recorded was titled "ODA", which he released to YouTube. Upon creating a SoundCloud account in 2018,[17] he released the track "Gang with Me", which quickly racked up millions of plays. He continued gaining traction with his songs "Welcome Back" and "Neva Cared". Bartlett went on to release "Finer Things", a song he wrote while incarcerated, in the latter half of 2018 and quickly gained millions of views. In early 2019, Bartlett released "Pop Out" featuring Lil Tjay which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's music video gained over 200 million views on YouTube and led to him signing a record deal with Columbia Records. Bartlett also released videos for his songs "Deep Wounds", "Through da Storm", "Effortless", and "Dyin' Breed" from his debut studio album Die a Legend, which was released on June 7, 2019, and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200.[18] "Heartless", a single released later in 2019, featured production from Mustard, and was later featured on his second album.

2020–2021: The Goat, Hall of Fame, and Only Dreamers Achieve Records

On February 14, 2020, Bartlett released the track "Go Stupid", with rappers Stunna 4 Vegas and NLE Choppa with featured production from Mike Will Made It and co-production from Tay Keith.[19] "Go Stupid" became his second song on the Hot 100 (after "Pop Out"), peaking at number 60.[20]

Bartlett then released his second studio album, The Goat, on May 15, 2020.[21] The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and ten songs from the album hit the Hot 100, including "Flex" featuring Juice Wrld and "Be Something" featuring Lil Baby, peaking at numbers 30 and 57, respectively. The same month, he was featured alongside Lil Baby on "3 Headed Goat" by Lil Durk which peaked at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In July, Bartlett was featured on Juice Wrld's posthumous album Legends Never Die on the song "Hate the Other Side". The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first top-ten single. On August 11, 2020, he was included on XXL's 2020 Freshman Class.[22] Later that month, he released the music video for his single "Martin & Gina", which peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. In September, he released the single "Epidemic", which peaked at 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. On October 30, 2020, he was featured on "The Code" by King Von off his debut album Welcome to O'Block. The song peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted in Canada.

In September, Bartlett announced his own record label, Only Dreamers Achieve (ODA), with Syracuse-based artist Scorey being his first signee.[23][24]

Bartlett was honored in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 listing, under the music category.[25]

On February 5, 2021, he released the single "GNF (OKOKOK)".[26] On February 12, he was featured on the soundtrack for the film Judas and the Black Messiah, on the song "Last Man Standing".[27] On March 5, Bartlett was also featured on the soundtrack for the 2021 film Boogie on the song "Fashion" by late rapper Pop Smoke. Bartlett collaborated with Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign on the song "Headshot", released on March 19. His song "Rapstar", released on April 9, 2021, debuted at the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100.[10] On May 17, he announced that he finished recording his third studio album Hall of Fame. He released the album's fourth single "Gang Gang" with Lil Wayne on May 21, with the song peaking at 33 on the Hot 100.[28]

On June 11, Bartlett released Hall of Fame, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and became his first number-one album, selling 143,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. He released Hall of Fame 2.0, a deluxe edition of the album, on December 3, 2021.[29] The album featured fourteen new songs in addition to the previous twenty,[30] and contained guest appearances from Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo, YungLiV, NLE Choppa, and Lil Tjay.

On July 15, 2021, Bartlett participated at the remix of the song "Lurkin", as a tribute to his friend and late Chicago rapper King Von, to whom the song originally belonged together with Funk Flex.[31]

2022–present: Hiatus and Hood Poet

On June 3, 2022, Bartlett released "Distraction", the presumed lead single to his next album. It was accompanied by a music video directed by Christian Breslauer which was released the same day.[32] "Distraction" peaked at number 66 on the Billboard 200 chart.[33]

Bartlett released a variety of singles throughout late 2022 and early 2023, including "Bag Talk",[34] "My All" (including a music video that released on the Lyrical Lemonade YouTube channel),[35] and "No Time Wasted" featuring American Rapper Future.[36]

On March 31, he was featured on the single "Grown Man" by American DJ Marshmello alongside Atlanta-based producer Southside.[37] On April 14, he was featured on NLE Choppa's album Cottonwood 2 on the song "Disability Checks" alongside G Herbo.[38] On May 5, he was featured on SleazyWorld Go's single "Off The Court," where in the accompanying music video he can be seen recreating basketball star Ja Morant's Instagram Live gun-flashing incident in a strip club.[39] On July 14, he was featured on both the posthumous King Von Album Grandson on the song "Phil Jackson,"[40] as well as on the song "Beat The Odds Part 2" on Lil Tjay's album 222.[41] On July 21, he was featured on the country song "Heartbroken" by Diplo alongside country singer Jessie Murph,[42] which peaked at 64 on the Billboard Hot 100.[43]

On August 11, Bartlett became the first and only rapper to have all of his albums certified double-platinum.[44]

On August 15, 2023, Bartlett officially announced his next album, Hood Poet (stylized as H.O.O.D P.O.E.T., an acronym for "He Overcame Obstacles During Pain or Emotional Trauma)". He announced a single titled "Barely Holdin' On" for release the following Friday, with the album to release on September 15, 2023.[45] However, the album was delayed after Bartlett and his brother, who raps under the name "Trench Baby," were arrested on kidnapping, armed robbery, and assault charges.[46] Trench Baby was later charged in a separate drive-by murder case.[47] The album was released in August 2024.[48]

On February 16, 2024, Bartlett released the single "Sorrys & Ferraris".