Lil Baby’s My Turn album helped fuel the Atlanta native’s rise into the upper echelon of rap’s next generation of superstars and played a major role in Baby putting forth a banner 2020 campaign. On January 7, Neilsen Music/MRC Data revealed My Turn was 2020’s most popular album throughout all genres in the United States.

My Turn earned 2.63 million total album-equivalent units for the project to take the top spot over Taylor Swift’s Folklore at No. 2 (2.204 million). Baby’s sophomore album was also the most-streamed effort of the year with the collection of tracks, banking 3.93 billion streams during 2020. However, the LP has only sold about 40,000 copies in traditional album sales.

Rap was well represented across the Top 10. Behind Baby and T-Swift saw Pop Smoke’s posthumous debut Shoot For The Stars, Aim For the Moon (No. 3/2.198 million), Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die (No. 5/1.990 million), Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding (No. 6/1.895 million), Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake (No. 7/1.860 million) and Roddy Ricch’s Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial (No. 8/1.792 million) round out the list.

The Quality Control rapper unleashed My Turn on February 28 last year. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 with roughly 197,000 total album-equivalent units and held the No. 1 spot for five nonconsecutive weeks. My Turn reportedly raked in over $19 million during the year and became the first 2020 project to go multi-platinum.

According to Billboard, Hip-Hop/R&B was responsible for over 30 percent of all on-demand song streams in 2020, which is the largest of any genre in music.

Find the entire Top 10 list of albums below.

1. Lil Baby, My Turn (2.632 million)
2. Taylor Swift, Folklore (2.204 million)
3. Pop Smoke, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon (2.198 million)
4. The Weeknd, After Hours (2.032 million)
5. Juice WRLD, Legends Never Die (1.990 million)
6. Post Malone, Hollywood’s Bleeding (1.895 million)
7. Lil Uzi Vert, Eternal Atake (1.860 million)
8. Roddy Ricch, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial (1.792 million)
9. Harry Styles, Fine Line (1.522 million)
10. Luke Combs, What You See Is What You Get (1.475 million)

Kyle Oashu, releases his latest album, I Just Want to See the Sun Again. The South Carolina Hip-Hop/Rap artist has created this album as part of his self-discovery journey.

When asking the young artist what the album is about, he replied: “A statement about how I want better days for myself and for the ones I love and how I’ll do anything to achieve that.”.

Starting the album off with the intro “Nimbus”, the artist brings an old school feels to the table with a memorable chord progression.

His second song “My Grandma Lives in Heaven” takes a different approach with its unique style and vocal chops in the background.

Continuing with our favorite, “Glasswinds” follows a more mellow and smooth rhythm with its beautiful piano melody.

“Erased” is one of the sadder songs the 6-track album has to offer. It digs a bit deeper into the emotional side.

Next, “Godloft / Awake” reminds us of a Kanye West style chopped beat mixed with a vocal style almost comparable with XXXTentacion at certain parts.

Kyle ends his album off with “Pretty Little Monster” meaningfully. The song touches on sensitive topics and has a reminiscing feeling.

If you would like to listen to the album yourself or follow the artist on his musical adventure, you can do so here:

I Just Want to See the Sun Again is available now on Spotify and all other major platforms. Follow Kyle Oashu on Instagram for future releases and more information.

Rapidly rising Chicago rapper Polo G has released his second album, The Goat, just a few days in the past. This launch follows his 2019 No. 1 album Die A Legend.

The enw 16 track effort features BJ The Chicago Kid, Stunna 4 Vegas, Juice Wrld, Lil Baby, NLE Choppa, and Mustard with Mike WiLL Made-It, Tay Kieth, Hit-Boy, Murda Beatz and more on the production.

Chicago rapper Polo G is purposeful in the case of life, particularly his music.

Immediate success? His single “Pop Out,” which had launched in February 2019, was a success record that made it onto the Billboard Hot 100.

How about endurance? A year later, “Pop Out” was labeled certified platinum (4X platinum) by the RIAA. Understanding you’re solely nearly as good as your subsequent record, he adopted it up with another single, “Go Stupid.” Last week, the RIAA confirmed the record’s gold status.

Even the title of his new album, “The Goat,” slated for a May 15 release, has a objective — sharing the identical birthright with iconic influencers who’ve made names for themselves throughout varied platforms.

“It’s really a play on my zodiac sign; I’m a Capricorn,” mentioned Polo G. “I guess the animal (sea-goat) that represents a Capricorn. There’s a double meaning behind that because a lot of famous people are Capricorns: LeBron James, Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Tiger Woods and Denzel Washington. They are all considerably some of the best working professionals, so I feel like it’s just me to be great.”

Polo G stated to his followers that he can anticipate way more reflective content material from “The Goat” in comparison with “Die a Legend,” his gold record debut project.

“A lot of versatility,” mentioned Polo G. “A lot of different sides of me; more of like a relationship-type of vibe with certain songs. More of a heart-felt ‘Polo’ they’ll hear inside their heads. They’ll see me as a more versatile artist after this album is released.

“My first project was getting to know who I was, like what I got to offer as the artist. But now it’s chapter two of that. I got even more to offer — just showing my growth as an artist and how I can switch it up”

A number of the standout tracks on “The Goat” embrace “Martin and Gina (the names of the main characters from the hit FOX sequence “Martin”),” “Don’t Believe the Hype,” (the place he raps “Everybody has input on how we live”), “Still No Changes,” “Flex” ( a collaboration with fellow Chicago native Juice WRLD, who died in 2019) and “Be Something,” on which Lil Baby drops a verse that was originally slated for Polo G’s debut album.

He believes his album is relevant amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I feel like I’m touching on a lot of topics that have happened now, but the broader message about certain songs and what’s been going on in the world right before coronavirus,” said Polo G.

And on account of his meteoric rise — on the pop charts and back home — Polo G, who grew up within the Cabrini-Green Houses and the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, finally made the transition so many Chicago-ans who achieve fame and notoriety had to do: relocate.

“I just wanted to get away from the city,” mentioned Polo G. “I just know that … I’ll always love is my hometown, but I just know that you can get in a lot of trouble … especially someone of my caliber; you’re bound to get into something. … I feel like everything happens for a reason, so I don’t necessarily regret it.”

Whereas he has the downtime COVID-19 creates, he fills his days by hanging out along with his household, taking part in basketball, and video games. He’s seen how the pandemic continues to crush gig employees.

“I had a few shows that were lined up before this happened; all of those were canceled,” mentioned Polo G. “So all of those were some pretty good shows that were overseas. I’ve been doing features here and there; that’s pretty much it. I’m waiting for other opportunities that I can do as far as endorsements and things of that sort. Music-related? That’s the only thing right now.”

“I’m pretty good at delivering my songs, but I just want to perfect the craft by creating melodies,” he mentioned. “Perfecting my craft and constructing a song and putting together what I could throw in there. … to perfect what I’m better at.”