“You are now watching a master at work.”
The smoke has cleared after a month and time of deep analysis. This may not be an article that many current fans of rap want to hear, however, Logic’s recent project YSIV (Young Sinatra IV) has prompted a dialogue on whether or not to reach a definite verdict on his rap career. There have been longstanding fans of Logic’s career, with some even going so far back to remembering the mixed-race MC from Gaithersburg, Maryland, who rose from a simple busboy and high school dropout to an undeniably worldwide sensation selling out shows across the world, landing number one records and lyrically standing up for the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia) area as of one of its most prominent vanguards post-Gogo scene.
There was a time (2009-2013 to be more specific) when Logic’s personal contributions were needed in providing the current template for the meteoric rise of DMV Hip Hop in today’s New Skool Hip Hop climate. Logic would release a slew of mixtapes which evolved in both lyrical and thematic brilliance per tape. Logic would expand his brand from homelessness to University of Maryland College Park to opening up for Ghostface Killah to almost crashing Datpiff.com with how many people downloaded his mixtapes to finally XXL Freshman in 2013.
Not to do a play on words, but Logic’s recent projects have prompted mixed feelings for old fans and new fans alike about where he ranks in today’s Hip Hop New Skool pecking order.
The kid can rap for sure, and anyone who says otherwise has not peaked into his past projects to see the level of meticulousness in crafting his bars.
However, in recent years, especially with last year’s album Everybody, Logic has taken a societal nosedive in many respects in the conversations of being a unanimously acclaimed top-tier rapper in the New Skool Era. Everybody was Logic’s most commercially successful album to date in terms of sales and prestige. However, Logic drowned us more with the message of togetherness and utopian-like qualities (which is great) and not with the lyrical gravity he was championed before in the past that could provide balance to these concepts. Everybody, for this fact, missed the chance to become a certified classic, but it exposed him to the greatest audience of people he has ever had, giving them the impression that Everybody was the full-extent of his lyrical skills.
Logic shined earlier this year with his Bobby Tarentino II mixtape. It showed a great return to the hungry mixtape lyrical Logic who is in love with the art of rap and can prove it with each and every track. It showed Logic’s ability to be facetious and playful with his content as well, incorporating cartoon characters Rick and Morty into the opening skit and even a structured clapback lyric at Joyner Lucas. However, Logic could still not convince the new masses that he was a great MC deserving of his new heightened position even though he had proved his place over half a decade prior.
So here comes YSIV, the long awaited final installment of Logic’s Young Sinatra mixtape series that spurred him into the limelight of rap. The last of Logic’s “true” mixtapes existed on DatPiff with Welcome to Forever, a mixtape that could pass for his 1st album in arguably his greatest work to date showing the full range of his lyrical songwriting and storytelling abilities. Bobby Tarantino started a new persona, but the first installment of this series in 2016 was more banger-oriented tracks, sacrificing his lyricism. The announcement of YSIV’s release raised the question of if we were to see Logic at his unfiltered prime or regurgitated/disappointing projectings of his politics in a surface level way. As a fan, it became hard to defend Logic to other people. YSIV was also my personal last chance to see if one of my favorite artists of the New Skool was still worth boasting about. By the grace of the Hip Hop Gods, I was not disappointed and it displayed that Logic has nothing more to prove in Hip Hop regardless of the future Ultra 45 being his final album or not.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ysiv/1437034675
YSIV ushered in the return of skits, samples, concepts and even Easter Egg hooks from past Young Sinatra projects. YSIV showed Logic revisiting his unique rapping skills beyond just rapping fast, and being very intentional about the depth of his varied vernacular, verbal inflexions and more. YSIV has shown Logic in his most powerful form in over 5 years in the same way that Gohan was able to redeem himself in the final moments of the Tournament of Power in the Dragon Ball Super anime.
We will never see the heights of Logic as we glorified in the past, but this shows that even Logic in his current form will not let himself be filtered on such a questionable level ever again as he showed in Everybody.
We saw a sharper and more relentless flow in which Logic even comes for the throats of each and every hater, even going so far as to neglect his pure pacifist persona exuberated on Everybody by saying that he will indeed smack the shit out of somebody. The disappointments of this project were not in Logic’s lyrical ability, but his ability to really make this the best Young Sinatra installment of all time by also including some individuals he left out that were essential to the series. For example, Phil Ade, the character of Marty Randolph, and C.Dot Castro would have been incredible additions to the power packed roster. The greatest highlights of this tape were a few tracks in particular.
1.) One Day
2.) The Return
3.) Wu-Tang Forevr
4.) 100 Miles and Running
“Wu-Tang Forever” is undoubtedly one of the top posse cuts of the year for Logic being not only being able to assemble all living members of the original Wu-Tang Clan, but to set the stage on the track by going toe-to-toe with each and every one of them with a merciless attack on the beat. Logic would also rap on the highest velocity I have ever seen him do with “100 Miles and Running.” After Wale decided to go Super Saiyan God on the beat, Logic had to go Mastered Ultra Instinct and tap into a side of him that I have never heard him flex with as to not get completely washed.
YSIV is indeed a triumph. While it may not be received by the masses because of their perception of him, Logic has delivered to himself and his fanbase a reassuring project to end a defining part of his persona that will be absorbed into the canon of his career and as a defining artist of the New Skool Era of Hip Hop.
You can peak the album on all streaming platforms today.
https://logic.lnk.to/ysiv
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