Logic’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” is a Case Study in Wasted Potential (Less-than-enthused-review)

This… This is something. And not in the remarkable, “Oh, what a prodigy, I can’t believe these skills” sort of way, but “If Jupiter Ascending was a rap album, here we are” sort of way. What. Even. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not the biggest Logic fan in the world. I remember putting on “The Incredible True Story” and “Under Pressure” back in the day and just not gelling with it. Not that I hated it, I just didn’t feel it. I did enjoy individual tracks of his such as “Take It Back”, and “Gang Related”, however, so I’ll give him that. All of this is to say, I don’t hate Logic, but wow is this album a disappointment.

Why, you might ask, is this a disappointment? The short answer is: Because it’s a bloody mess. But we don’t do short answers here, now do we? It’s time for a comprehensive post-mortem as to why.
The album opens up decently enough, with the title track “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”. It features gorgeous production from longtime-collaborator 6ix. Logic spits a variety of acrobatic bars about making money, fame, motivation, and the usual “Peace, Love, and Positivity” themes. Not the greatest track, and it feels a bit like it was freestyled, with slightly scattered-brained verses and structure. It’s not a bad start, but when we go into “Homicide” we start to get the sinking feeling of “Oh no”, when Logic hits the end of his first verse
“ Know you feelin’ lyricism when I’m spillin’ it, I’m feelin’ myself
Yeah, yeah, Bobby Boy, he be feelin’ himself
Mass murder like this can’t be good for my health
When I rap like this, do I sound like shit?
Well, it don’t really matter, ’cause I’m killin’ this shit
Yeah, I’m killin’ this shit
Oh yeah, oh yeah, I’m killin’ this shit
Bobby, how many times you been killin’ this shit?
Find another rhyme, goddamn, nigga, shit”

We get another verse of forgettable verbal diarrhea, then the hook transitions to a stellar Eminem verse that makes the previous missteps somewhat forgivable.

Things start to go downhill when we get the total turd of “Wannabe”, here’s the hook for your reading pleasure

“ I wanna be famous, I wanna be famous
Why can’t I be famous?
I wanna be famous, I wanna be famous
Why can’t I be f– I be f–
I wanna be famous, I wanna be famous
Why can’t I be famous?
I wanna be famous, I wanna be famous
I wanna be–”

Now, to be perfectly clear, you can make repetitive, short hooks work (see just about any Rage Against the Machine song) but this one just doesn’t do it for me, with the way it’s delivered and lack of impact it has. The “again-is-this-a-freestyled?” verse doesn’t help and the song feels like a total waste of space.

It’s once “clickbait” wraps up that you really begin to see the problem here. The beats on this album are great. 6ix and company knock it out of the park with gritty and crispy beats that traverse from trap to boom-bap back and in between. The features here are all pretty good too. Em’s verse, as previously stated, is fantastic. YBN Cordae and Wiz Khalifa also have standout guest spots. Everyone else featured pulls their weight too, and arguably outraps Logic (except for Will Smith maybe).
The biggest problem on Logic’s album is Logic himself. The writing is unforgivably sloppy, especially for someone who thinks they are bringing the illest of raps. Time and time again, we’ll get Logic repeating the same line or phrase as of he was writing on a time crunch and needed fill up some space.

“Pardon My Ego” for example has this exhibit of filler
“ How ‘bout a little bitty self-love instead?
I can’t fuck a ho, I’d rather self-love instead
Can’t save a ho, no S on my chest, or gun to my head (Ah)
Get the bread (Ah), get the bread (Ah)
Count this fucking money, boy, now get the bread, uh”

Another example is on his “Show Love” verse
“ Breaking down on stage, break it down the page
Breaking down your age
Like, like now, all you do is compare, compare, compare
Comparing yourself to the world
And you losing yourself to the world
And you’re losing yourself to your money, your fame, and your fans”

Logic also comes across as a hypocrite with his content, taking a segue on “Homicide” to say
“ I got bitches, I got hoes, I got rare designer clothes
No, we ain’t fuckin’ with that”
but then he goes on to rap about hooking up with women numerous times in later tracks and even shouts out $7000 Red October sneakers on “Out of Sight”. Logic’s self-proclaimed superiority is further sullied by atrocities such as “Icy” and “Don’t Be Afraid to Be Different”, in which words fail to do justice as to how awful they are.

Then we get some immature/cringy lines that make you wonder how they even got out put on the album.
On “clickbait” we get this gem,
“ Do your research ‘fore you call somebody homophobic
You make a living off of controversy and you know it
I ain’t that type of artist, respect my name and we can talk about it
I’d suck a dick just to prove it ain’t that way (Nigga, what?)
Ninety-nine percent don’t listen what I say (You gay)
Quote that line but leave out all the mental health
Slap a bitch in the face then I count my wealth”

Later on “Pardon My Ego” Logic drops this worrisome bar,
“ I ain’t bipolar, Kanye make me wish I was
’Cause that level of genius the meanest”

I could go on and on with more damning receipts of Logic’s sloppy writing, but for the sake of time we’ll transition here. Tracks like “Limitless” and “Confessions of a Dangerous mind” are actually OK in terms of quality, but there’s so many horrible hooks and verses that overshadow them that they’re better off just listened to by themselves.
Looking at the album, we wonder how we got here. This man got Eminem and Will Smith on the same album, had an arsenal of solid beats and features behind him, and a track record of some acclaimed records, but he still managed to toss that out of the window. He acts like he’s about the “real rap”, but spends at most of his time with pointless flexing bars, recycled lines, and aggravating fluff that makes you wonder: What was even the point of this album? Its not a lyrical rap-fest, but it has some lyrical guests; it’s not an ignorant cloutwave album, but it brings loads of eye-rolling boasts. At the end of the day, the album feels slapped together and devoid of sincerity and authenticity when topics like self-love and positivity are brought up.

If it wasn’t evident enough already, I can’t recommend this album, unless you like to witness a crash-and-burn. Avoid at all costs if you have a positive image of Logic.

3/10 now go spread peace, love, and positivity

You can listen to the project on Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes,