Originally published October 18, 2021.

Homecoming weekend for Old Dominion kicked off Friday. The big event of the day was the homecoming concert headlined by Chicago rapper Polo G. This concert had been highly anticipated by the students at ODU. As the crowd shuffled into Chartway Arena ahead of his performance, that reality became more clear observing the immense diversity of the crowd, reflective of the student body of ODU. Everyone was there for one reason: to have a good time singing or rapping along to the music led by none other than Polo G.

There were plenty of artists who got the opportunity to get the place warmed up before the headliner got a chance to put his stamp on the night. At first, it felt as if the crowd was in store for a tough wait as everyone was standing around as more and more bodies piled into the stadium and onto the floor. The DJ was doing his best to get the crowd to loosen up and show some energy to get the night started, and he wasn’t doing a bad job. He began to play all the popular songs that our parents know simply as “what the kids are listening to these days” in order to get the crowd’s energy up. The energy shown held up well leading up to the opening acts.

Unlike most opening acts at a college show, the first artists on stage were able to get good reactions from the crowd. It would be a shame to not get an audience reaction after jumping into the crowd and throwing money into the air, which is what one of the acts did. This started a small roar in the pit as everyone in the first few rows was racing to grab the money out of the air. Shortly after money finished falling from the sky, the security briefly allowed people sitting in the stands to come down to the floor if they chose to. This sparked even more havoc as hundreds of people began sprinting to the floor in order to get to the pit before security discontinued what was basically a free upgrade. After this, the insanity ended but the music kept going. Every opening act used simple calls to action in order to get the crowd involved, which included sayings such as “make some (expletive) noise” and “put your phone lights in the air.” This gave the crown the ability to shift their focus from when Polo G would come on stage. After some time, the DJ told everyone “make some noise if you ready for Polo G!”

The final opening act was “Trench Baby”, who was introduced after chants. There were slight boos as the crowd anticipated Polo G to come on. He continued with his set, but chants of “Polo” began at 9:53 p.m. and lasted until around 10 p.m. As the time got closer and closer for Polo G to come out, the chants of “Polo” got heavier. At 10:06 p.m., a Polo G instrumental caused the crowd to go wild, and out came the man everyone was waiting for.

Polo G got all the crowd reactions that the other artists were seeking with much less effort. Everyone was thrilled to do chants or the wave of the arms when Polo G requested. Most of Polo G’s men did the hyping for him, whether that was speaking or calling out requests for the crowd to put out phone flashlights, chants, art, sways, or jumping. However, Polo G would sometimes let out a simple “make some noise” call before the next song played. In addition, he took a moment to request the release of fellow rapper YNW Melly from his incarceration. Once the music kept playing, everyone knew who Polo G was and what he was about. Every song turned heads and got a positive response from the crowd, especially his hit singles such as “Rapstar”, “Gang Gang”, and “No Return”. Although Polo G was only on stage for just under an hour, the crowd enjoyed every moment of the show that will be remembered for a long time.