Logic - Everybody (2017)
Fuck, dude. Fuck. Look, I'm gonna get into the positives first: Logic's flow is solid as always, and there are some good beats on here, because 6ix is a pretty damn good producer, and the guest spots (Killer Mike's in particular, which manages to say pretty much everything Logic says on this album but in a much more intelligent and hard-hitting manner) are pretty good, which surprised me to learn that he had gotten Black Thought and Juicy J on this album, which I would've never expected would show up on a Logic album. I want to come straight outta the gate and say I like a few songs on here, and it's probably the Logic album I'd be most likely to just turn on and listen to, so there, if you want my opinion, there it is. That's really the most I can say about things I enjoyed on this album. Now, if you want an analysis of just how fucking dumb this album is, read on: I've reviewed every Logic release up to this point, mixtapes and albums, and it seems like Logic has only gotten dumber lyrically over time, all the while thinking he's actually progressing through his musical career, enlightening people around the globe to things they've never thought about, when all Logic really has to say is just the surface-level thoughts of absolutely fucking everything he tries to encourage and educate people about.
I have some respect for Logic because he's a mixed rapper, and I'm mixed as well (Mexican and Irish, if any were curious) but one of the things he used to always say was "I don't want to be looked at as a mixed rapper, I just want to be seen as a rapper" because he didn't want that to almost be like a gimmick when it comes to separating him from other rappers, with him preferring his music to make the distinction against the millions of other MCs floating around in a lyrical "I'm gonna make it, dude, I swear" above-ground swimming pool that most of them never really seem to get out of, but on this album, this motherfucker is relying on it heavily, and I mean fucking HEAVILY. There are more tracks that he mentions it on this album than there are not, and it makes me look at Logic in an entirely different way as he milks his heritage dry, hoping that dollars will fall out of the udders of this cash cow, which doesn't make sense to me because I was under the impression that he was living quite comfortably before, and even past that.. He had already fucking talked about -all- of this in previous releases. Yes, Logic, we know that life fucking sucked for you growing up, your dad wasn't around, your mom was racist, and you're happy in life now, you've already told us this a shitload of times. To put it in perspective: He has more songs about these subjects than Eminem has about his mom. There is not another way you can phrase the story of his life to make it interesting enough to retell this story another ten times.
On this album, Logic attempts to pull off not one, but -two- concepts with a slight throwback to the "The Incredible True Story" at the very end of the album, but the problem is that both concepts are so fucking far removed from each other that they don't make sense to co-exist on the same album. After some songs, there's little skits about a guy dying and meeting God, and learning that he (the person who died) has been literally every person throughout history, and all that shit, which is a good idea for a movie but severely damages the album when you learn that Logic pretty much ripped it word-for-word from a Tumblr post, and no matter how much your fans tell you "HE CONTACTED THE ORIGINAL POSTER" it's just fucking lazy. Nothing ever really comes of this story, there's no "AHA!" moment where everything comes together as the cohesive combining of two concepts, one of which I didn't even mention yet, which is arguably even worse than that on a pure writing level.
When Kendrick Lamar dropped "To Pimp a Butterfly" in 2015, it was a very polarizing album but you could tell that Kendrick Lamar clearly put in a lot of work in it, and told stories of racism and general shit that black people face every day in creative ways, just look at "These Walls (feat. Bilal, Anna Wise & Thundercat)" for a song that's so much fucking more intelligent than anything Logic could hope to put out. The second concept of this album isn't really as much of a concept as much as it is some "well yeah, fucking obviously" shit that your friend who went to community college posts to their Facebook: That everyone is equal. See? There's the concept: You could possibly be -everyone- (if the man who died becomes you) and -everyone- is equal. If it sounds like some shit your roommate who frequently Googles "how to get GED free online" would release as "something that's going to change the world, the people need to hear it", it's because that's -exactly- what it is. Logic just barely scratches the surfaces of finding your self-esteem and place in a world full of racism, he comes across as absolutely fucking laughably naive, especially when he manages to churn out a "HEY, EVERYONE MATTERS!!" in "1-800-273-8255 (feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid)" which is a song about suicide, it sounds like a 12 year old wrote it as best as they could possibly understand about real life after binge-listening to Hollywood Undead, but the most thought-provoking thing about the entire song is that Logic is 27 years old and still has such a faint grasp on how to describe depression in a meaningful, genuine way past "man, sometimes I wanna die. jk now I don't, life is kewl."
The lyrical content on this album, when Logic isn't just dropping lyricism over some nice beats, is just so fucking juvenile and on the same intellectual level as Hopsin when he asked "DID THE MAN WHO INVENTED COLLEGE GO TO COLLEGE?" in "Fly", because it manages to describe the absolute surface-level of opinions that most of us have, that racism is bad, suicide is bad, etc, and just comes across as a soundtrack to a Saturday morning educational cartoon that had its script written in 20 minutes. It's like he (a huge Kendrick Lamar fan without even having to say anything) listening to "To Pimp a Butterfly" and just walked away with the thought "RACISM = BAD" without really paying attention to how Kendrick Lamar was talking about the cruel racism that he and many, many other black people face in their lives in this current year, despite many white people subconsciously believing that racism ended with slavery. If "To Pimp a Butterfly" was mature, "Everybody" is the little brother regurgitating what it says without the same delivery or experience. If Logic were to come out and say that many of the songs dealing with raising black people's hope were written in ten minutes, there are plenty of moments that I certainly would believe him. This entire album is sometimes so fucking cheesy lyrically that I'm fully expecting to not even have the ability to shit for the next two weeks. Thanks, Logic.
6/10
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