LOGIC EVERYBODY REVIEW ABSTRACT. Carlos E. Valdivia. Valdivia 0

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1 Valdivia 0 ABSTRACT LOGIC EVERYBODY REVIEW On May 5th, 2017, Logic released his third studio album Everybody by Visionary Music Group and Def Jam Recordings. The album is supported by three singles Everybody, Black Spiderman, and Carlos E. Valdivia May 28, 2017

2 Valdivia 1 Contents History Repeats Itself... 3 Happiness in Hip-Hop... 3 Def Jam Artists... 4 First Impressions... 5 Chorus, verse, chorus, outro, longer outro... 5 Bad Outro, Longer Skits... 6 The Universal Message... 8 Final Thoughts... 9

3 Valdivia 2 Preface o I initially started writing this review on May 10, 2017 and ended May 29, I originally was going to finish writing the review within a week but I decided to give the album multiple listens before I can give my honest thoughts. Everybody came out amid final exams. After listening to the album in the car, at home, and while jogging I was ready to write my thoughts. This is the first album review I have written since my sophomore year in high school in my Broadcast Journalism class. I have forgotten how enjoyable it is to write when it s not about books we are assigned and forced to read for a grade. Enjoy the review, and y all know this is only my opinion, right?

4 Valdivia 3 History Repeats Itself On July of 2013 Kanye West did a what is now called a classic interview with the Breakfast Club. This is the interview where Charlamagne tha God basically tries to get under Ye s skin any chance he got, but with good reason. Charlamagne was showing his distaste for Kanye s then new album Yeezus, in which Kanye takes a minimalist approach with word play in his lyrics and instead focuses on the drums, 808 s and overall sound aspects of the album. While the discussion of Yeezus can itself be explained on a separate analysis, there was no doubt that Ye was showing a new musical direction. One that continued on to the Life of Pablo. Careless whispers, eye fuckin', bitin' ass Neck, ears, hair, legs, eating ass I m in it Yeezus (2013) Now if I fuck this model And she just bleached her asshole And I get bleach on my T-shirt I'ma feel like an asshole Father Stretch My Hands Pt.1 Life of Pablo (2016) Ultimately Charlamagne not only opposed this new musical direction on from Kanye but he also feared that his persona was changing. Promptly introducing him as Kanye Kardashian at the beginning of the interview. Like many others, Charlamagne started to see how much Kanye had distanced himself from pink polos and gucci backpacks to BEEN TRILL t-shirts. In the eyes of many, the Old Ye was dead and gone. At this point, I kinda understand what Charlamagne was going through after hearing Logic s new project. Now I am not trying to compare the sound quality of Yeezus and Everybody, neither am I putting Logic next to Yeezus himself. But there is certainly a resemblance in how Logic is presenting himself to his fans and the media [both as an artist and a person] The element of bringing people together in his music has always had a presence, but now his message is so blunt and obvious, his own tagline is PEACE, LOVE, AND POSITIVITY. Happiness in Hip-Hop Not to come off as Joe Budden mistakenly saying that happiness does not belong in hip hop, but Logic does overwhelmingly shove down that tagline of positivity during his interviews, public appearances and especially concerts. Which is fine. The reason for going to a social function is to have a good time and enjoy the act that you have paid to see. No one goes to a concert expecting that their life would be put in danger. The earliest footage I can recall dates to August of 2015, on a video that was posted through Logic s official YouTube channel simply titled Logic Breaks Up Fight During Concert. In the video while Logic is performing a fight breaks out between three guys in the middle of the show. Suddenly Logic starts Joe Budden, one of the anchors for Everyday Struggle caught some heat for trashing Lil Yachty s place in hip hop. Yachty subsequently makes what he calls happy music yelling out his PEACE, LOVE, AND POSITIVITY tagline. Just about a year ago before that event happened, a video of the Migos shows the complete antithesis of a Logic concert. On October of 2014 during a show at Springfield, Massachusetts, the Migos were promoting their then current mixtape No Label II, performing live as a trio for the first time since Versace blew up (Offset

5 Valdivia 4 was serving time in jail during the entire rise of Drake s remix to their club anthem). While Quavo and Takeoff lip sync all their lines, Offset can be seen just staring at the crowd, most likely eyeballing someone who was probably shouting at him or one of the hundreds of crew members that were there on stage for some reason. He then jumps off the stage with a clutched fist aiming at somebody at the crowd. I can see why some would call what Logic did an act of bravery but I m just gonna say that when I first read the title of the video I thought Logic was going to do something brave by physically breaking up the fight. Def Jam Artists But what happened in the last three years since Logic signed to Def Jam? Logic was already an established Maryland rapper who had five mixtapes dating back to Logic already had a cult following, and in his mixtapes even declared that signing to a major label would be like selling your soul to the Devil. "Basically, what we're going to do is get rid of that, okay? We want to put you in the limelight with a bunch of bitches and popping bottles... cos nobody cares about that stuff." Sell Out Records [Skit] Young Sinatra (2010) This small skit from his early mixtape is a comment on the how labels ruin the integrity of a rapper. Logic was always self-aware of his status and how his fans portrayed him. He was never the flexing type always stayed humble. But eventually, Logic did give in to Def Jam in In my opinion he got a pretty sweet deal. It s not often that a major label lets you have your first commercial album with NO features from popular artists to boost sales. For those of you who might not be aware, artists who are on the same label are forced to contribute with each other by contract. Def Jam must have wanted Logic bad. I remember flipping through an XXL Magazine the year Under Pressure was released, and there was an advertisement for Def Jam showcasing their upcoming projects with their artists. From the list was Rick Ross promoting Mastermind, Iggy Azalea for the New Classic, and Logic with Under Pressure. Three completely different albums released on the same year: Mastermind being the typical braggadocios opulent rap album, Under Pressure for the hip-hop heads with laid back beats, and The New Classic was just a pop album terribly disguised as a rap album to fill the billboard audience. They even gave Logic Def Jam s house producer No I.D to executive produce his first commercial debut album. No I.D being Kanye West s mentor during the early 2000 s was the one who inspired the sounds of The College Dropout 1. Under pressure was a great debut album that perfectly introduced Logic to a new audience. Although he was not taking a complete different approach from his past mixtapes, he could perfect his craft through the production and guidance of No I.D. His sophomore album, The Incredible True Story or in acronym form T.I.T.S was released the following year in Now this album contained a huge improvement on instrumentals, ie Fade Away, Like Woah, and Young Jesus. However, Logic started introducing longer skits that just took away from the album. In Under Pressure he made it evident that Quentin Tarantino was one of his favorite film directors 1 No I.D is responsible for much of Chicago s iconic sound of sampling, before the Chiraq era there was the Chi- Town era. Some of his most famous collaborations besides West are: Common, John Legend, Twista, Jay-Z, and many more. Today, besides Logic he produces Jhene Aiko, Big Sean, Vince Staples, Drake to name a few.

6 Valdivia 5 and maybe he was trying to take a jab at making his own screenplay with a story and characters. There's a total of three skits in this entire album (each their own separate track). To me just kinda takes away from the album. I mean sure it s cool to listen for the first time because it's new material. But imagine every time you pop in the album you must sit through three minutes of talking that just takes away from the music. Not a fun experience, and takes away from the replay value of the album. First Impressions Finally, we reach Everybody. Logic s third studio album by Def Jam Records. This album was long anticipated by fans, and the original title of the album was going to be AfricAryaN. A word combination of African and Aryan. He must have gotten some negative feedback from the intended title because he switched it near the release. The album artwork seems a little exaggerated. Although I do get the point, that he is trying to include literally EVERYBODY in the cover, it's a complete miss. For one, most of his audience is probably listening to this album on their iphone and can t zoom to see the cover, and even on physical copy it would be hard to spot each individual. Also, the people on the album cover are mostly Logic s very close friends, so the average consumer would find this image confusing. Only a REAL genuine fan, one that not only knows his music but sees all his video blogs to recognize can truly appreciate this album cover. Sadly, that is only a few selected people. At least in Sgt Pepper: a cover Two of the most recognized album covers in the entire world. The Beatles Sgt Pepper depicts several dozen of celebrities in one colorful image. Meanwhile Pink Floyd s Dark Side of The Moon contained a minimalistic picture based on the band s stage light show. of several dozens of people, had cultural icons such as, writers, actors, musicians, and philosophers that others would be able to recognize. This cover is just a failed attempt to form an artsy cover, sometimes simple is more direct and powerful (i.e Pink Floyd s Dark Side of the Moon). Chorus, verse, chorus, outro, longer outro The intro to this album was well executed. Unlike Under Pressure and True Story, the intro Hallelujah, contains a strong instrumental of lush beats and harmonies right from the beginning of the track. No skits, dialogue, or dramatic openings, this time he let the music speak for itself. The rapping is the usual Logic doing his we are all one family bit. Not much else to say, EXCEPT there's only one verse followed by a lot choruses in between. The outro of the song might be considered a second verse but at the same time all I could hear was the word strollin repeated a thousand times: Strollin' down the highway, I m strollin' And I was strollin' down the highway Strollin', strollin', strollin', strollin' I was strollin' down the highway With my mind ablaze Strollin' down the highway For days and days Strollin' down the highway

7 Valdivia 6 Even though the outro was extensive and filled with the same lines, there is a guitar playing in the background that fits the instrumental. Logic is probably one of the few hip-hop artists today that are still using live instrumentation for their projects. On top of that, he uses them very well, and improves with every album. After the song properly ends, we get the first skit of the album while still technically on the first track (totaling of seven minutes). The story of a man who dies, meets god, and has a conversation about reincarnation is the plot of Andy Weir s short story The Egg (2009). In this skit, we are introduced to the two main characters of this project, Neil DeGrasse Tyson as God, and Big Von as Atom 2. Which leads to the following song Everybody, once again just the typical I m back song in rap. He talks about the police coming at him and how he is tired of people coming at his neck for being half white and half black. Confess I mean damn this song has some Dark Fantasy Lost in the World/Who Will Survive in America vibes with the beat and the spoken word in the background. Once again the beats are superb on the album, 6ix and everybody at Visionary Music Group outdid themselves 3. Too bad Logic gotta come with the race talk once again I m a dirty mothafucka, a waste of life/ a waste of skin. You can see how blunt he is in trying to speak about the subject. I heard that for this album, that he was going to be rapping from a different perspective in every song, but if he's gonna be so explicit with the message, then what s the point in figuring out which perspective he s rapping from? Then the following song, Killing Spree he s just tryna make a fool of himself. By taking a jab at what people say he is not, a typical Rick Ross/Bling rapper. Yet that unimaginative chorus: Ass, titties, pussy, money, weed / Everywhere I look a killing spree. While at the same time he's criticizing how people look at life through a cell phone screen. Not a bad topic to touch upon, but the execution could have been a lot better. I mean if he set out to do a typical rap song about cars, money, and women, he could have done it a dozen different ways just by listening to what is being played on radio. Bad Outro, Longer Skits Things just take a downturn during Take It Back. I can t believe this song made the final cut of the album. How can any of the producers, engineers, or friends give this a pass? The astonishing six-minute track starts off with chorus about the history of how the African American race was oppressed by the white man, as he says. There's only ONE verse in the whole song. Logic drops a couple of n-words. Around the two minute thirty mark, the song launches itself into a long outro. The rest of the song is just Logic ranting about how he feels so oppressed by others because in their eyes, he's just another white rapper. I remember listening to this song for the first time while driving back from the university. And I was getting frustrated at the fact that he was literally talking over the beat. A good beat on that note. Because of those four minutes of him ranting, the song loses replay value. What a waste. 2 This is the first-time Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Logic have collaborated. The renounced scientist heard about Logic through his nephew. They were both featured in an electronic issue of Complex Magazine. There s also a twentyfive-minute video on YouTube of them sitting down and discussing various topics. 3 Visionary Music Group is Logic s own independent label, one that he has been reppin for a long time. Often in his concerts and even songs he ll yell throw your V s up

8 Valdivia 7 America is a standout of the album 4. With features, from Chuck D, Big Lenbo, and Black Thought, the song is balanced out, meaning that no rapper sticks out like a sore thumb, everybody blends in well with the flow. It s also worth noting that Logic got a couple bars from producer No I.D himself. Ink Blot contains an overly long intro before the beat drops. Featuring Juicy J, both his verse and Logic s are mixed together into one. You can hear in the background the classic Mafia! chant that's usually in every Three 6 Mafia song, but for Ink Blot, Logic re-creates the chant with his own voice; which is pretty distasteful. That chant is sacred What could have been a banger, this song falls short in every sense. With a spacious intro, to only ONE verse, the most enjoyable part of this track is probably only forty seconds. Most Definitely is another great track with a simple but hard hitting beat. Logic pays homage to some rappers that had great influence on him such as the Geto boys, Black Thought, and even gives T-Pain a reference. He throws in a couple clever references that remind you that despite all the race issues, Logic is still a very talented rapper. Another skit Waiting Room has its own track in this album, and is only worth listening if you still care about the story at this point. If not, we can skip this song to enjoy the rest of the album and Anziety blend in so well together, it feels like the first cohesive part of this album. In fact, both these songs have nothing to deal with race. These two songs deal with suicide, depression, and anxiety is an homage to all the fans who found Logic s music so relatable and freeing that it prevented them from committing suicide. This song was released prior to the album's release, with a touching video of some fans who confessed to Logic that his music saved their lives. Townshed on his fans.mp4 Anziety starts out amazing with the beat and Lucy Rose vocals 5. But just when I thought the album was going to start picking up, here comes another unnecessary outro. He gives an insight to how he had a panic attack during the premiere of Star Wars in What he was suffering from was apparently derealization. But look how he explains his discovery: I am scared, I am human, I am a man But I look in the mirror and I see a child I am an adult who recognize grown ups don t really know shit What? This anxiety is nothing I have anxiety Just like you, the person I wrote this for Logic sounds like he is discovering human emotions for the very first time. Panic attacks that derive from anxiety are a real issue, but they have been touched on before. Since the era of the Beatles in the mid 1960 s; there have been thousands of songs (even albums) that have been written on teenage angst. But, instead of writing a full song about the matter, Logic decides to talk over the beat instead of rapping. Opting out of writing more verses to fill this fantastic song. 4 America is one of the two songs Logic produced himself or this album per the liner notes. 5 In the Everybody Documentary, Lucy Rose is seen recording her verse. Beside her was Logic instructing her exactly how he wanted her to sing for Anziety. Clearly, Logic proves to have complete control over how he wants his album to sound.

9 Valdivia 8 The Universal Message Black Spiderman is the single Logic (and probably the record label) was pushing forth. Not a bad song, some great vocals from Damian Lemar Hudson at the end and a good delivery 6. This is when the ONE verse starts getting abundant. On the Jimmy Kimmel, live performance of the song, Logic finished his whole verse before he even hit the stage and had nothing else to say once he got there. I guess he had to cut a second verse to fill the album with more skits. We reach the last track of the album. The controversial supposed to be album title AfricAryaN is the longest track of the entire record. Standing at twelve minutes and eight seconds, making the project a total of an hour and ten minutes. That s almost Kid Cudi numbers. (insert picture of last album and footnote on him being on tour with him here). he released a snippet of this song in Bobby Tarantino which was his summer 16 mixtape. The track Studio Ambience previewed AfricArayaN for a few seconds in what sounded like some low-quality speakers. I vividly remember thinking how catchy that Kid Cudi s two previous albums, Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven and Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin range from between 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes hook was and thought to myself now that s a hit. In all honesty, I was a little let down, because what I thought was the hook of the song in the snippet was in reality, five seconds in the real album. The actual hook is simply Oh My being said a million times repeatedly for more than five minutes. The song ends at around the eight-minute mark, leaving the rest for skits. The story concludes with Neil DeGrasse Tyson s message of the meaning of life. Then another skit, this time from characters introduced in his previous album, Incredible True Story. The final line of the skit references that the next Logic album will be his last. Finally, Jermaine Cole delivers a final verse on this project. The story goes that Cole promised to be on Logic s previous album but never sent him the verse. Only recently did he send Logic this verse late at night and decided to keep it all for the album. Although Cole s verse is not presented as a proper song, it sounds as if it was recorded through an iphone five with the screen cracked. He probably recorded this in voice memo and I can t believe this was not touched up for the final product. The vocals sound like a mono mix. Be who you are, identify as a star No one tells you you're that It's something that you just know The world be stealing your glow Cole pretty much sums up Logic s intended idea for Everybody. His message is: don t let anybody label you, tell you what you are or can t be; just be yourself. It s that simple. There was no need for so much skits to fill the whole album. Ultimately it takes away from the listening experience by making frequent interruptions to tell a mediocre story. 6 Damian Lemar Hudson, is a singer Logic met years before he even signed to Def Jam and stayed in contact with. For this song, he did such an amazing job that the told Damian You just earned a feature credit. Damian will be going on the Everybody Tour summer 2017.

10 Valdivia 9 Final Thoughts Nothing will make me change my mind that this album, sonically, is amazing. The beats were carefully laid out, from Hallelujah to even how Killing Spree transitions so well into Take It Back and he does it again in to Anziety. The mastering in this album was superb, even though some portions contain heavy bass, Logic s vocals still come in clearly which is important since he is more of a lyrical rapper. Everybody s downfall comes from the excessive skits, and overly long outros. Even though Logic claims that this album was written for his fans, it seems like a personal cry for help. Every other song is about him being insecure of his biracial identity, except for Black Spiderman. I decided to do a little more research to see if I was missing anything. As it turns out, Logic personally went to the Genius (the website that allows users to create annotations for song lyrics) and he gave them personal annotations and videos to accompany his music upon release 7. I have never heard of this. Even though most rappers are familiar with the website, only a few personally annotate their own music. But no artist necessarily needs to explain their own work, especially during the initial release, they let the album breathe a little bit. When Kanye released Yeezus, he did an extensive amount of press but it was never to explain to others what his album meant and how it should be interpreted. The entire point of having a conceptual album is to have other individuals come up with their own interpretations of what the message behind the song is. Members of the Eagles who wrote the worldwide hit Hotel California in 1976 have given their own version of what they believe the song is about: the opulent lifestyle of southern California. Yet, people till this day argue about the song s true meaning; from it being a metaphor for a drug trip, social activism, the music business and even Satanism. Logic gives his fans very little room to interpret this album on their own, and is basically doing all the work for them. It s not just the Genius annotations, but also in the physical copy included a booklet with a story for Logic s personal annotations for Genius on the right. From the lyrics and cover art of Hotel California, many people have led to believe that there is a hidden satanic message in the song. each song, and in the deluxe version in itunes came a forty-five-minute documentary 8. I would have loved to see more on the production and mastering of the album, but instead you get to see Logic s trip to the DMV to get his license 7 Recently Genius has gone through somewhat a revival since they were formally known as rapgenius but are now trying to expand to other forms of music. Most importantly, they have broken out of blogging territory and entered the new more lucrative YouTube business, in other words they are trying to become a Complex News competitor 8 The documentary for the most part shows how Logic collaborated with all the people featured in the album, and their thoughts of working with him.

11 Valdivia 10 Hopefully this album continues to grow on the ears of listeners, and one thing is for sure: this won t be the last we heard of Logic. His continuing fan base is so strong, that he does not need the help of much press/or label to push an album into the charts, as we have seen times before. DJ Akademiks once said in an episode of Complex s Everyday Struggle that Logic has always sold well when it comes to his albums, but will never be able to reach high on the charts with a single. The reason being is that he is at a very sweet spot in his career. He still has this form of an underground scene in the rap industry (with sold out venues and high charting albums) but is not technically considered mainstream where people would recognize his music in the radio 9. The future is uncertain for Logic, some rappers have done extremely well in his position for instance Tech n9ne, Run the Jewels, Action Bronson all have a strong fan base and deliver great albums. Yet they will never reach the mainstream audience, which some choose to stay away from. Logic must eventually decide if he will keep making personal consciousness albums for his fans or once again attempt to become commercial and reach the mainstream audience of America. 9 There was an instant in the Complex interview between Logic and Neil DeGrasse Tyson where Tyson was surprised that Logic never had a charting or hit single as he called it. Which is true, even Logic admitted.