Review: "No Pressure" Album by Logic
In 2014, Logic released his debut album titled “Under Pressure”. This project was extremely transparent as Logic detailed a lot of his tough home life and struggles growing up. He was relatively new to the rap game and was feeling both the pressure of escaping his troubled youth and the pressure to be a great rapper and artist.
Fast forward to 2020 and I think most would say that Logic has had a successful career. He has a huge, loyal fan base, several quality projects and mixtapes under his belt, several tours, a big radio hit (“1-800-273-8255”) and much more. This made it that much more surprising when about a week ago, Logic announced that he’d be releasing a new album titled “No Pressure” and that it would be his last.
Before even listening to the project, a lot was made clear by just the title and the cover art. Both are flips of “Under Pressure”. The title, mixed with the fact that Logic said this would be his last album, show that he’s now freeing himself from the pressure he’s been under since the beginning of his career. The cover art was essentially the same as the “Under Pressure” art but instead of Logic sitting at his computer he’s almost levitating as his computer monitor and speakers all float away.
From the very start of the album, it was clear to me that this was going to be one of the better Logic projects. His rapping made it very apparent that he was planning for this to be his last release. It almost felt like he was saying “Yo before I go, just remember I rap better than most of y’all”. It felt like he made a conscious effort to showcase his rapping ability instead of trying to make a catchy radio song.
Logic does a good job of mixing in bits of nostalgia for his fans throughout the album. It was just the right amount. He essentially remixed his track Soul Food (a fan favorite) on Soul Food II and occasionally mixed in some pieces of older verses. It was a good way to sort of recognize where he’s come from while also showing how his mindset has changed after several years in the industry. He now cares less about what others think about him and he realizes that some of the things he used to put a lot of weight in are no longer important to him.
Logic’s content matures in this album as he speaks on being a father. On “DadBod” he speaks on what his everyday life is like and how it really isn’t super exciting. He speaks on how fans criticize him for no longer making the music he used to make about his trials and tribulations. He sort of responds to this by saying it wouldn't be healthy for him mentally to always rap about his rough upbringing. Plus, who wants to hear 6 albums about the exact same thing.
The production on this album is excellent, which is to be expected since it was executive produced by the great No I.D. (who also produced Logic’s debut). The beats were perfect for Logic to do what he does best… rap.
I really like the production, sequencing, content and rapping on this project. I liked being able to hear the growth not only musically but emotionally/mentally from his debut up until now. After a few listens, I settled on rating this album an 8.2/10. To put that in perspective, I have “Under Pressure” at around an 8.5, “The Incredible True Story” at around an 8 and “Everybody” at about a 6.5.
Logic has signed an exclusive deal with Twitch as he plans to move into the next chapter of his life. The night before the album dropped, he got on Twitch and thanked everyone from his producers and fans to Kendrick and Drake. Something that really stuck out to me is he said every time he dropped a project he wanted to be loved. He would read the internet looking for that and would always be disappointed. He said that this time around he won’t be doing that because he finally loves himself.
This album was a solid final project for Logic and though I will miss his music, I’m excited to see what the next chapter of his life looks like.