Logic — No Pressure

Sir Robert Bryson Hall II announces his retirement from the rap game a week before releasing his latest album.

Launched by the excellent mixtapes series "Young Sinatra", the rapper manages to get a contract with Def Jam and releases his first studio album, "Under Pressure". It's one his best work, probably, and it's a great commercial success, as is the follow-up, the discreet "The Incredible True Story"; however, he achieves even greater success with the popular "Everybody", diving into the pool of hot pop rap and practically never wanting to emerge again. Meanwhile, he also tastes the trap trend with his mixtape series "Bobby Tarantino", when he arrives on his fourth studio album he seems to be able to revive his career supported by the full Wu-Tang Clan, but his LP is full of trap and commercial influences and it's only the beginning of the end: the following year two of the worst albums of the season arrive, his fall in commercial is frightening, with "Supermarket" turning into indie pop. Then the arrival of the son and the retirement from music.

Logic redeems himself fully in his latest project, somehow a sequel to the debut, from which it takes the sensations. It's one of Logic's best studio albums, if not the best, it features a laid-back mood and combines smooth, velvety jazzy production with effortless and smooth, pretty dope rapping delivery: its lyricism is solid and decent, there it's several good narratives, introspective bars, and a few forgivable slips along the way — he can't avoid some extravagant lines — but his flow is good and particularly fit with the production of No ID. The musical choice of the beatmaker, aided by Logic and by his longtime collaborator 6ix, is based on the boom bap with a pleasant, coherent soulful jazzy mood, which gives life to a clean and crisp soundscape, excellent. The album consists of fifteen cuts for a total length of one hour and its fluidity is often broken by annoying female skits of the robot Thalia, already present in Logic's debut album: despite being devoid of featuring, of banal lyrics nonsense and commercial choices, it has a fair amount of forgettable and just-ok songs, the album is too long, at eight / ten tracks it would have made one of the best hip-hop albums of the year. Undeniable return to Logic of the good times, it's a shame he came back so late and at the same time, it's lucky that he finally came back.

Highlights: "No Pressure". Energetic jazzy boom bap, simple East Coast rhythm left to breathe, effortless, fast and flowing delivery. "Celebration". Soul sample looped in the background, energetic progressive boom bap, Logic's calm velvet syncopated delivery, simple hook, jazzy vibes, sample soul chopped and looped in the background with a style similar to the blueprintian chipmunk soul. "Soul Food II". Classic cut. Amazing, dope female soulful sample paired with a perfect production: lively and energetic boom bap, Logic's dope syncopated smooth delivery, unstoppable, sample sharpening towards the hook, is one of the highlights of the Baltimore rapper career. The sample fades mid-cut, then skit, melodic female soul sample, jazzy boom bap initially light, then heavy, to accommodate a calm delivery from Logic. "Man I Is". Melodic soulful sample, simple jazzy rhythm, then energetic boom bap, skinny syncopated drum machine, let-to-breathe rhythm, smooth syncopated delivery and simple hook, for the last good cut of the LP.

Rating: 7.6/10.