Four albums and seven mixtapes into his career, Logic is showing no signs of relenting. Here’s Connor Flashman-Wells’ take on Logic’s latest release.
Logic is widely regarded as an eclectic rapper. His nine-year career is marked by frequent and consistent releases — as many as eleven albums and mixtapes — which have garnered critical success. Even more impressive is the variety of sub-genres that Logic appeases; Under Pressure and The Incredible True Story bear the kind of lyrical direction and self-reflection attributed to Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole, whereas Bobby Tarantino and its sequel are more trap-oriented. That is to say, Logic has vast appeal across the hip hop community, and YSIV, the fourth and final Young Sinatra mixtape, should be regarded as no exception to that.
Such variety is, however, testament to Bobby’s hubris — oftentimes he is regarded illegitimate by the very community he ought to appeal to. His last studio album, Everybody, was criticised for its muddled thematic content (covering matters spanning from anxiety to racial identity) and for its lack of originality — its eponymous track plays eerily like Kendrick’s ‘Alright’, for example. Because Bobby doesn’t really fit a lane in the way that Drake or Joey Bada$$ or Pusha T do, and thus lacks focus, he isn’t respected to the same degree.
YSIV plays like Logic attempting to prove his authenticity and worthiness of a top ten spot. ‘Wu Tang Forever’ is more than just an eight-minute reunion of hip hop’s greatest group — resting on a thumping east-coast beat, this song endorses, optimises, and locates Logic’s position within the modern rap canon. ‘Wu Tang Forever’ leads directly into ‘100 miles and running’, a track that proves Wu Tang’s validation correct. Logic’s competence in flow and lyricism are rapidly put to their limits, but he pulls it off. Wale’s feature is a nice touch, too.
Such direction is correspondingly found in the titular track. ‘YSIV’ is coherent proof that Logic is heeding his critic’s words, sounding as intricate as ‘44 bars’ and sampling Nas, yet another East Coast legend. ‘The Adventures of Stoney Bob’ is a mellow, flow-driven track, stylistically reminiscent of Mac Miller. It’s on tracks like this, and ‘Legacy’, that Logic finds his footing, rapping complex cadences over old-school beats.
Where Logic falls down, though, is his hang-up on marketable rap. Admittedly, it is less present here than on prior albums (‘Everyday’, Bobby Tarantino II’s final single, comes to mind), but its trajectory is thrown by blatantly hook-heavy filler tracks such as ‘Ordinary Day’. Having said that, the mixtape’s singles — namely, ‘The Return’ and ‘Everybody Dies’ — are competently produced and feature phenomenal lyrical prowess. Logic feels less concerned on these tracks with streaming numbers and instead reminds us of the raw talent that popularised him in the first place. There is little to criticise him on when it boils down to poetics.
Logic’s refrains from the political on this album, aside from visually. He celebrates his rags-to-riches story on ‘One Day’, for example, which features a Ryan Tedder chorus and a tastefully optimistic descending piano riff. The accompanying music video, however, provides a dual meaning to Logic’s own version of The American Dream, and turns its attention to Trump’s border policy. Whilst this precarious dimension is exempt from the album, so as to not distract from the underlying theme, it is a respectable flourish that consolidates Logic’s relationship with his fan base.
With such a frequency of releases, YSIV being Logic’s second LP of the year, it’s easy to assume he is now about quantity over quality and isn’t the MC he once was. But he calls back to his come-up on YSIV, and in doing so, he calls out his critics and reminds his core fan base why he is the “second highest earner” on Def Jam. Logic really shines on ‘Legacy’ and ‘The Glorious Five’, whilst ‘Wu Tang Forever’ and the title track place Logic among this generation’s greatest rappers. Harking back to his roots, a mixtape like this proves, in spite of its occasional filler tracks, that Young Sinatra is one hundred miles into his career and exhibiting no likelihood of stopping.
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