May 24, 2015

I promised @Young Sinatra I'd give Logic a shot and he wanted me to review it here (lol apparently my opinion is important enough), and he recommended I listen to his debut album, "Under Pressure". Logic is another artist I see get lots of hate on this forum (aside from Young Sinatra himself), so I don't know what to expect. PLUS, YS said this is almost up to par with Kendrick's GKMC so I have some pretty high expectations...

1. Intro - 3/10
The intro is just a bunch of singing (which isn't all that good.. pretty cringe if I'm being honest.) over a fairly bangin' beat.

2. Soul Food - 7/10
This is the song where I'm getting more of an idea about Logic's style and rhyming skills. The beat is great... or both beats rather. The beat switches a good part way through.

3. I'm Gone - 5/10
Sonically... this song isn't for me. Some of the sampling sounds off key and it just leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling in my ears. In fact, it's almost distracting from the lyrical content with that s--- in the background. The song drags on a bit too. Pretty difficult and sit through the whole thing.

4. g--- Related - 8/10
This is a good song in the middle of a fairly rocky start. It's short and it packs a pretty nice punch. I'll probably end up listening to this song again.

5. Buried Alive - 9/10
Fantastic song. So far the album is really lookin' up. Everything about the song is great. The hook is beautiful (even the singing surprisingly). Apparently I should like g--- Related more but nahh. This song is gold.

6. Bounce - 7/10
I keep going back and forth on whether this song should be a 6 or 7... Not a fan of all the sounds and layering going on with the "WAY BEFORE THE FAME HOE" but a majority of the song is good... I don't know. I'll probably never fully decide on whether I like the song or not lol.. WAIT Nevermind that f---in part of the beat at the end... is oh my god Definitely 7.

7. Growing Pains - 8/10
Logic flows really well on this.. especially later in the first verse. The beats have some parts that remind me of TPAB (it's somewhat jazzy). The "Are you ready for dinner I'll set the table" part is superb. The rhyme schemes throughout the song are great.

8. Never Enough - 5/10
YS said there were no filler tracks... but to me this one just SCREAMS filler. Not a very great song sonically in my opinion. Very repetitive too. Not a very impressive song either.

9. Metropolis - 5/10
So... this album is supposed to be Logic's version of GKMC... with the whole storyline thing... but this song literally uses the same Bill Withers sample that was used on "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" off of Kendrick's album. I can't take the song seriously now... if it was on another album that wasn't so similar, sure... but this is too much. Other than that, the song does have a nice flow and is beautiful sonically.

10. Nikki - 8/10
The song is beautiful. It has one cringe line from what I can tell (I'm a slave for that Nikki-tine), but I really do like the song... it'll probably end up in my library. From what I can gather, it's a song about addiction? I hope I'm understanding it correctly

11. Under Pressure - 9/10
Logic goes hard on this s---. I'm in love with this song. Song is extremely long... but that takes nothing away. In fact, the song probably would not have worked as well if it was any shorter. This is arguably the best song on the album.

12. Til' The End - 8/10
This was definitely a great end to the album. The flows are awesome and the beat is perfect. "It's Logic, the one nobody would vouch for" <-- that line is pretty true actually. Dude gets lots of hate.

Overall - 6.83/10

Final Thoughts
First mistake, @Young Sinatra , was comparing this album to GKMC. I can see why you made that connection but this is definitely not up to par with that album. Plus, there are definitely parts where you can tell Logic was inspired by Kendrick. The similar sampling alone should be enough to make that discovery.

Logic, as a rapper, has skill. There's no denying it. Not sure I fully understand all the hate for him. I would not consider him one of the greats (again, this is the only album I've listened to) but he's not bad. I find my main issue with Logic is his style needs work. There's nothing refreshing or new about it. It's nothing we haven't really heard before.

Either way, thank you to @Young Sinatra for getting me to listen to the album. There were some so-so tracks but I did enjoy a B*** of it. I was happy to listen to it.