Logic is on his third studio album, produced almost entirely by himself and 6ix, along with No ID, PSTMN, Vontae Thomas, Bobby Campbell, Deats, DJ Khalil, Wallis Lane and J. Cole. Guests are Chuck D, Black Thought, Killer Mike, Alessia Cara, No ID, Big Lenbo, Khalid, Lucy Rose, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ansel Elgort, Damian Lemar Hudson, Juicy J and J. Cole, uncredited in the final song.
When Kendrick says those last two words in "Control", he kills the careers of a lot of MCs, even talented at first, like this guy Bobby Hall. After hearing the phenomenal "To Pimp a Butterfly" two years later than those words, Logic deludes himself that he can create an equally powerful socio-conscious / political album, also on the East Coast. I want to spoil the ending: he fails, due to a number of factors, which I tend to lead mainly to a very bad production created by incompetents and a very bad lyricism written by an incompetent. Yes, competence is important, even in rap. Especially in rap. Especially when you are committed to creating such a complex concept as in this project, which the guy can't hold up for even for a minute. In summary, the album is another failed attempt by Logic to create the Great American Rap Album, having already tried it with "The Incredible True Story" two years ago.
It ends up being a big mess, a whimsical scribble in what is a good year for hip-hop: lyrically, the rapper says nothing and makes very little effort to leave something as minimally important as he would like to do, its tracks are too lazy, without any commitment, too easy. Lyrics and rhythms are both simplistic, the interpreter seems to have suddenly become unable to write decent lyrics and the synthetic production of Logic & 6ix, as usual, doesn't work and bad artificial tracks come out. The Maryland MC doesn't surprise, despite trying to diversify his perpetually bland flow multiple times, going from Migos-signed semi-mumble styles to Marshall Mathers' patented random super-speed, ending up singing almost all of his hooks and other passages, and also delivering in spoken word in some moments.
Usually, there's an exception to the rampant mediocrity, there's a track that jostles through the crowd and raises its hand to be distinguished from the grayness, this often happens even in the Logic records: here it is, and it's "Ink Blot". This song is easily the best of the edition, where on a trap production of rare goodness, with nice samples and honest drum, Logic spits bars together with Juicy J, which lights up the path of this LP. It's kind of funny that it's this particular track that stands out over any other of these thirteen, because Juicy J himself ends the song with words addressed to the listener about committing suicide, just minutes before the anti-suicide cut "1-800-273-8255", to demonstrate the very poor consistency of Logic and its disk. Among other guests, Killer Mike is decent on his track, Lucy Rose does a nice job on "Anziety" with a melodic pop hook on decent-good rhythm, just before Logic ruins it all with the ultra-fast rap and the spoken-word, while Black Thought and Chuck D fail to carry on "America", due to a very weak boom bap.
Among the many choices, there are some to highlight, in negative: "Hallelujah" is the standard of the record, it anticipates everything else, there's a good rhythm, then a guy first sings, then spits ultra-fast, always without any personality, in a shoddy and exhausting pop rap cut, whose length goes beyond what is acceptable. "Take It Back" is one of the record's many worst moments, possibly the worst ever, and lasts seven minutes: on an incredibly annoying trap rhythm, Logic spits with a poor rap delivery and creates a track among his worst ever, it couldn't be more annoying, but the boy gets over it by putting the sound of a baby crying at some point, just to add to the annoyance. "Waiting Room" is a senseless and pseudo-deep / conscious five-minute skit, but the pinnacle of the whole project is the money-grabber single "1-800-273-8255": this anti-suicide cut is the high point in Logic's career, on a melodic production the rapper invents a very banal and superficial pop rap song, which would have easily been labeled as "lame" on its release if it had been a solo song. Bobby Tarantino himself is totally aware of it and, in fact, he calls two young artists, established and above all with a "clean" reputation like Alessia Cara and Khalid exclusively to legitimize the song and nothing else, they both have minor roles for being such a heavy song and they don't have to do much, Alessia Cara has half verse and Khalid performs the outro. The song is a huge success and is nominated for a Grammy song of the year and music video of the year, while Logic's bank account grows.
Released by Visionary and Def Jam, the album is a huge commercial success, from which three singles are extracted, the worst of which is certified platinum. The anti-suicide single ranks everywhere — never at #1 — and rips certifications in a dozen countries, while the album sells 200,000 physical copies in the first week and less than 10,000 in the second, setting a record for the largerst second week drop of all time, a clear sign that listeners understood how it's not a good product. In any case, it ranks on four continents, comes first in the US pop and rap chart and second among UK rnb records, continuing to grind certifications (gold arrives later than expected, after three months, platinum a year later). Consisting of 13 cuts that are often too long, with over half a disc consisting of tracks over five and a half minutes, for a total of 71 minutes, this project is bloated, exhausting and difficult to listen to. It disappoints from the first to the last second due to its shoddy pop rap nature, and ends up being a parody of socio-conscious and political LPs made in the past. 2.5/10.
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