Album: Logic – College Park
“There was days when I wished I was Cole, wished I was Kendrick/Days when I wished I was Lupe, hella eccentric,” Logic raps on “Clone Wars III” from College Park. The Maryland-hailing MC has been nothing if not honest over the course of his career, but it’s refreshing to hear someone as accomplished as Logic look back on a time when he wasn’t so sure of himself. The song is actually about the rapper realising that all he really needed to do to succeed was to be himself and let those who got it (his undying love for golden-era hip-hop, his complex backstory, his love for anime and video games) get it. And we get plenty of it across College Park, a project that features the RZA, Norah Jones, Redman, Bun B, Lil Keke, Andy Hull, Joey Bada$$ and Seth MacFarlane. Topically, it’s all grown-man B-I, Logic rapping about what life could have been like had he fallen victim to the streets (“Wake Up”), his battles with anxiety and the power of therapy (“Redpill IV”), his devotion to craft (“Self Medication”) and, on “Playwright”, a revelation wholly unsurprising to long-time fans: that it’s still “family over everything”. As an MC, Logic is today who he’s been his entire career; it’s just that, as he puts it on “Paradise II”, he’s got even more to be proud of. “No longer are the days of my childhood,” he raps. “My priority nowadays is making sure my wife and my child good.”