On May 31, Polo G released his long-awaited single, “Angels in the Sky.” This highly anticipated song was widely considered to be a grail amongst his fan base after a snippet was shared in 2020 during an Instagram Live session. That became one of Polo’s most popular snippets, and fans have been begging him for years to drop this song.

He finally did, and once it was released, the reception was somewhat mixed. The song didn’t live up to the high expectations, but in fairness, it developed such a legendary status that it may have been impossible to live up to expectations in the first place.

Should ‘Angels in the Sky’ have been left off Polo G’s Hood Poet?

Polo G confirmed that “Angels in the Sky” will be featured on the upcoming Hood Poet album. This could be driving some of the frustration, as the track is essentially replacing one of the many songs Polo has recorded with Southside in recent years.

After “Angels in the Sky” was released, some fans argued online that Polo should’ve kept this song in the vault and released a more recent single, perhaps one produced by Southside. The argument is that the production was lacking on this song, and Southside would have fixed that. However, Polo really was in a no-win situation.

If he had dropped a different song, fans would’ve complained that he hadn’t released “Angels in the Sky.” Unfortunately, there was nothing he could’ve done to truly satisfy the fan base outside of dropping a song that was such a classic it would be considered among the greatest songs of all time. Polo G is an incredible artist, but that kind of standard is an unfair expectation for anybody.

If he had released “Angels in the Sky” as a standalone single that wouldn’t be featured on the album, the fan base’s reaction might have been different. With that being noted, let’s get into the review.

‘Angels in the Sky’ review

The chorus isn’t bad, but I must admit to not loving the second part of it. It’s a little lengthy and would’ve been better if it ended after “know losses come with the gang but that wasn’t the plan.”

The original snippet shouldn’t have been the chorus because it’s a bit long and too much content to be used as a chorus. If Polo G left the chorus in place through the “losses” line and added one more line about “angels looking over me” to tie it all together, that would instantly make “Angels in the Sky” one of his best songs. Something along the lines of, “So many funerals, I’m tired of praying in silence / I know I got angels up there looking over me, I feel their guidance,” would make this song close to perfect.

The first verse is incredible, and it could end up being one of his best. Personally, I wouldn’t have minded adding a couple of extra lines to make it slightly longer and have something original rather than just the snippet that had already been circulating online for years. Regardless, this is already one of his top 10 or 15 verses, and an argument could be made that it deserves a spot in his top five.

This part of the track lived up to the hype. The only thing that should’ve been changed is there should be a little space between the end of the first chorus and the first line of the first verse, “Gotta pray over your kids because it’s dangerous in the Chi,” so we can hear it crystal clear. That’s nitpicking, though, which demonstrates the strength of this verse.

The second verse isn’t bad, and it sounds as if the audio with the muffled devil in the background was done intentionally. I don’t love these sound effects and would prefer if they weren’t there, but it is unique and does fit in thematically with the song. It specifically fits with the lines that made the snippet famous, “Devil breathing down my neck, but I got angels in the sky.”

The effects are actually kind of cool, but they can be annoying at the same time. They’re especially annoying when listening to the song in the car with the speakers at a high volume. It would be great if Polo G released another version without the sound effects so that we could choose which version we wanted to listen to at a given time.

Overall thoughts

While the song clearly isn’t perfect, I think Polo G did this for his fans and was in a lose/lose situation. Based on the hype, this track being anything short of the undisputed greatest song of his career would be viewed as a failure. If he didn’t drop “Angels in the Sky” and dropped something else, a lot of the fan base would be upset about it not being released.

One of the major complaints is that this song seemingly replaced a different track on Hood Poet, as the untitled tracklist Polo revealed still had 18 songs, with “Angels in the Sky” being one of them. It would’ve been better if Polo made “Angels in the Sky” a bonus track on Hood Poet, just a random one-off single like “Sorrys & Ferraris,” “My All and No Time Wasted,” or perhaps even the lead single to a throwaways project.

It seems that what people are most upset about is this song “taking the place of” a Southside-produced song, which is a fair point. But, still, my biggest gripe is only with it being included on the tape, which has nothing to do with the song itself. Even if the rest of the song is objectively poor quality (which I don’t think it is), I’m still glad it’s finally released, even on Hood Poet.

Another approach Polo could’ve taken would’ve been to eliminate the first chorus and go right into the verse (similar to the style of Hall of Fame’s “No Return”) so that people who just want to hear the snippet part with high quality can hear it and then skip the rest if they want to.

“Angels in the Sky” might not be perfect, but the first verse is Polo at his best, and overall this is a solid entry into his discography. A remix that removes some of the sound effects and a tweak to the chorus could make this song close to perfect. Overall, though, fans should just be happy that this grail of a snippet was finally released as a full song and added to Polo G’s discography.

Grade: 9.2/10 (A-)