Following up on his sophomore album The Goat, Polo G has released a 13-minute documentary of the same title, which explores his childhood, rise to fame, creative process and more.
“Ever since a kid growing up, I always knew for a 100 percent fact that I wanted to be something,” he says in the video’s opening scene. “I knew I wanted to be rich. I knew I wanted to take care of my family. I always knew there was more to life than just my neighborhood.”
“I would come to school with a rap that I had been writing,” he continued, reflecting on how his career began. “From rapping in school, kids in the neighborhood would say, ‘Say that rap while we on the block’ and try to pressure me into doing it.”
Although Polo admits he was shy about performing at first, he explained that it was his “childhood friends passing away” that made him realize he “needed to tell our story.”
Polo is also known for his philanthropic efforts in his home city of Chicago. Last year, the 21-year-old reinstated his elementary school’s Amateur Athletes Union (AAU) basketball league.
“I feel like it’s important to give back, ‘cause I came up in that city from nothin,’” he said. “I know what it’s like to be that kid with the stomach aches, that kid wishing he had a way out, or some positive outlet to get him away from what he going through.”
“I ended up bringing the AAU team back to my neighborhood because they didn’t even have that,” he continued. “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.”
Polo’s The Goat album debuted at the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200 this week and included features from Lil Baby, NLE Choppa, Mustard, BJ The Chicago Kid, Stunna 4 Vegas and the late Juice WRLD. See behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the album and more in his newly released The Goat documentary below.