Far from the repetitive, heavy bass songs that are in rotation on hip-hop radio stations, Logic’s “Under Pressure” is an explosion of lyricism.
With his major album debut, “Under Pressure,” Logic describes the stress of living in a rough neighborhood, trouble with friends and family and his addiction to nicotine. Logic provides a self-portrait of his personal problems.
As impressive as Logic’s lyricism is throughout the album, it is his ability to create an overall theme, rather than producing a set of random songs, that is most striking. “Nikki” is the best example of him tying tracks to each other. Throughout the album he hints at wanting “Nikki” when he is in need of help, but does not specify who Nikki is until the song titled “Nikki.” It is not until the 2:26 mark of the track does he embarrassingly admit to his love of nicotine.
Logic’s major solo debut “Under Pressure” gets into topic of growing up in a rough neighborhood and all songs in the album are linked through a theme. |G. San Miguel/ The Cougar
Only a few tracks — “Intro,” “Gang Related” and “Nikki” — truly stand out from the rest. It is not that the other songs on the album are not a success, but these three tracks are at a higher level of complexity due to the combination of lyrics, music production and depth.
“Under Pressure” is an easy listen from start to finish without having to skip a track, while “Gang Related” is the best representation of Logic’s talents. Describing the troubles of his neighborhood at a fast, tongue-twisting rate, Logic takes the listener to his old home. The dark instrumental sets the tone to what he lived through. His choice of an echo at the end of a few stanzas also produces a haunting setting, parallel to his rough neighborhood.
One minor downfall of the album is the slight narration from an anonymous female. While there is no reason for her, she does give interesting facts about the behind the scenes aspect of the album.
So much detail is much into the lyrics, organization, theme, music production and overall album concept, it is easy to see why Logic’s first major label album is a success. It is comparable to Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,” but whether it is good enough to get a Grammy nomination remains to be seen.
If this is just the start of the young artist’s career, Logic may be one of the best artists in the future.
“One minor downfall of the album is the slight narration from an
anonymous female. While there is no reason for her, she does give
interesting facts about the behind the scenes aspect of the album.”
Being a true student of hip hop and its history, I believe his reason for this was partially to give background on the creation of the album, but mainly to pay homage to Tribe Called Quest and their similar use on Midnight Marauders.