Logic — College Park

«Fine. I'll do "Teen Wolf 3". I've got fair-weather friends to feed.» (Bart in "Behind the Laughter")

Logic's ninth studio album, his first as an independent after spending ten years with Def Jam. The guests are RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Lucy Rose, Andy Hull, Redman, Statik Selektah, Norah Jones, Joey Bada$$, Jordan Harris, Bun B, Lil' Keke, C Dot Castro, Big Lenbo, Fat Trel, Adé e Seth MacFarlane. 6ix handles most of the production, the other beats are made by Logic, Keanu Beats, PSTMN, Eugene, Kaelin Ellis, Soundtrakk, Conor Albert, Boi-1da, Jahaan Sweet, Monte Booker, Travis Stacey and Kal Banx, with the help of live instrumentation provided by Josh Lippi, Steve Wyreman, Kevin Randolph, Pete Jacobson, Travis Stacey, Stuart D. Bogie, Arkae Tuazon and Norah Jones.

Logic's first independent studio album following his departure from Def Jam, even if he's forced to rely on BMG for distribution, it's a sort of little brother to his previous CD "Vinyl Days", if we want a first cousin. It was born without particular ambitions. It seems as if his friends C Dot Castro and Big Lenbo are complaining about the lack of substantial royalties of their own and convince him to drop an album without rhyme or reason. In theory there is a concept, Robert Hall retraces his musical journey from the beginning, nevertheless, in practice the concept does not exist. I originally started with a track by track, but after ten minutes, when the fourth choice "Clone Wars III" arrives, all the songs start to look alike.

6ix, which handles most of the production together with Logic, does a commendable job and creates a set of boom bap rhythms based on jazz samples with enjoyable loops (Mantronix, Ol' Dirty Bastard, both sampled for two different songs; Aphex Twin, Willie Jones III, Cullen Knight, Windy City, The Montclairs stand out) giving life to glossy, lucid, clean, cohesive music. Maybe too cohesive, given that this boom bap production that nods to Hit-Boy's sounds the same for 70 minutes. That's not a bad thing, there just isn't much variation and all these rhythms sound solid and inoffensive at the same time.

Even the lyrics created by the author sound similar in this project, there are socio-conscious extracts, there are reflections on his difficult childhood and his parents' addiction problems, there's boasting, materialism, endless homages to the best hip-hop artists. Logic has already recited similar bars on almost all of his previous records and he did it with a better rapping style than the one proposed on this record, where the interpreter goes on for over an hour with a very similar style and little desire, little charisma, he sounds really uninspired and with limited energy for some reason.

Even RZA gets to sound better than Logic (again, this already happened in "Wu-Tang Forever" from Logic's album "YSIV") in the intro track. The host opens with a good melody based on a simple acoustic guitar, then starts singing the title. After a minute a light-hearted and loud drum arrives. Logic delivers what is his most uninspired verse yet and quite possibly one of the worst of his artistic career, at the end of which it is possible to also pay homage to ODB, and then leave room for the guest, the first of his new album, RZA: Steels doesn't go badly on this almost experimental musical carpet, he sounds inspired, delivers a spacey verse, but the track never really takes off. Big Lenbo arrives to interrupt the Wu-Tang Clan founder's verse and to wake up Logic from his dream of making a track with The Abbot. The guests continue to outclass the main rapper in "Ayo" with Bun B (Lil' Keke is featured on two tracks with no real contribution) and in "Shimmy" with Joey Bada$$, while Logic is almost a spectator in "Self Medication", basically a Redman cut with guest of honor Seth MacFarlane over honest boom bap production amidst Statik's scratches.

Overall, it would still be a decent album and enjoyable if it weren't for the fact that there's a skit for each track. These skits are completely annoying and useless and take up half the album, ruining all the good tracks, making these 70 minutes exhausting, the album seems to never end. With every release, Logic seems to just be a Termanology that made it and this tape is yet another demonstration of it. Stepping back after two good efforts, this release seems like a transition album.

Rating: 5/10.