We live in a world that sees fans discussing record sales every day when most haven’t purchased an album in years. It’s an interesting conundrum as we base this beautiful art that we call Hip-Hop off of numbers that are so far down they look like a Facebook post with only organic reach. If your name isn’t Kendrick, Drake, or Cole it’s a crapshoot on how well your album will do upon release. Did your single get released? Do you have a project rollout? Are you just dropping it and letting fans pick the singles? Marketing an album is even more of a necessity when most fans have the attention span of a goldfish. There are exceptions to the rule but it takes a rabid fan base for an album to do well if you’re not one of the big names.
Logic’s new album, Everybody, is set to debut at #1 on the Billboard charts this week with well over 200k units moved. This third studio album will be the first #1 release for the Gaithersburg, MD rapper. I always speak on fans being toxic for artist evolution but with Logic it’s different. He has a fan base that supports his music no matter what, a rarity in today’s music landscape. Outsiders have yet to see him veer from his usual subject matter but his core fanbase remains satisfied. If you’re able to keep your fans attention for this long then you have to be doing something right. Everybody is Logic’s take on race, religion, purgatory, and many other questions that a human has when they’re searching for the meaning of life. The message is great but the delivery doesn’t fit what Logic is trying to convey on this album.
Sequencing is a running issue on Everybody. ‘Hallelujah’ starts promising with its gospel vibes and Logic setting the scene with melodic singing asking the listener to “open your mind”. This record is long for an intro but the skit at the end doesn’t feel necessary to open the album. If this were a one time occurrence it could be overlooked but it happens too often for a 13 track album. When Logic is just making music he’s a force to be reckoned with. His delivery is nice and his confidence is through the roof. When he’s trying to get a point across it sometimes comes off forced. ‘Take It Back’ is two minutes of Logic rhyming phenomenally before he talks about his life during the next four minutes of a stellar beat. It’s the consistent reminder that he’s biracial that becomes an annoyance as it’s an element of every song. I’m not saying he shouldn’t be proud of his heritage and the struggles he’s overcome. From what you’re told in these stories, Logic has had a really rough life before reaching stardom. The problem is, he feels a constant need to remind you about it, like a friend that won’t let go of that one time he beat you in a game of 1-on-1 four years ago.
Logic has done a lot of things right in his career to get major acts to notice and to have a feature from Neil deGrasee Tyson on his album. Killer Mike’s guest appearance on ‘Confess’ is one for the ages. He doesn’t drop a verse but preaches a sermon that will make you want to put $10 in the collection plate as it makes its way down the aisle. Black Thought and Chuck D make appearances along with No I.D. and Big Lenbo featured ‘America’, a track that sounds like a 2017 version of Public Enemy. Logic is able to show diversity on Everybody thanks to features from Juicy J on ‘Ink Blot’ and ‘1-800-273-8255’ as fellow Def Jam artists Alessia Cara and Khalid create a record that’s sure to make radio before the end of the summer. One thing to note on ‘Ink Blot’ is it feels like Logic is splitting his ethnicity with this record. As Logic, he rhymes from the perspective of his white side while Juicy J fills the Black side of this divide. Whether this is true or not, it’s still a great nod to vintage Three-6 Mafia fans everywhere and an interesting collaboration.
Everybody was structured poorly but when it’s just the music, Logic proves he’s gained this position in Hip-Hop by no fluke. ‘Everybody’, ‘Mos Definitely’, and ‘1-800-273-8255’ are all excellent records and you’ll be playing them the most if you’re a casual fan. For the hardcore fanbase that has helped Logic get to this point, this is an album created just for you. Enjoy because you deserve it. Artists usually don’t cater to their fanbase after they get on but Logic remembers why he has this platform in the first place.
Repeatable: ‘Everybody’, ‘Mos Definitely’, ‘1-800-273-8255’ feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid
Skippable: ‘Take It Back’, ‘Waiting Room’, ‘Black SpiderMan’
By Joe Coad