LOGIC’S REFRESHING & CAREFREE ‘COLLEGE PARK’ IS HIS BEST ALBUM IN YEARS

Not at all as horrible as some make it out to be. His ability to rap well, imitate flows, have a discography with significantly more successes than misses, and solely rap about being bi-racial are all ridiculed on social media. Logic has never been good; let the internet tell the story. This claim can be disproved in two minutes by listening to any of his seven major label albums or innumerable mixtapes (18 albums over a ten-year period, to be precise).

Twitter thinks Logic hasn’t been able to shed this try-hard, culture vulture reputation for most of his career, despite his street cred and tenacity as a rapper. So how does Bobby Tarantino, who recently went record label-free, handle the years of online slander? by returning to his Maryland roots and releasing College Park, one of his best albums in a long time.

The overall plot of College Park is comparable to Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, mAAd city. It follows the same “one-day-storyline” as Kendrick’s opus and is set in the rappers’ formative years as they travel in a car with friends. But Logic is not engaging in peer-pressured break-and-entry or searching for Sherane here. He is traveling by car from College Park, Maryland to Washington, D.C., to play a sold-out event for 150 people. Logic gives it credit by adding his own flair to the record that is a structural spitting image of GKMC.

But in contrast to GKMC, College Park first stumbles before gaining traction. The abstract track “Cruisin’ Through The Universe” serves as the album’s opening track. It begins with a protracted guitar-heavy hum and ends with a spacey RZA appearance that probably belonged on another song. Unusual for an album with such a strong story element.

The following song, “Wake Up,” is a strong introduction to the 24-hour universe that Logic is about to immerse the audience in. Logic discusses his background and the process of “waking up” in order to realize his rap goals. Like the metaphorical script for this album, songs like “Lightsabers” and “Insipio” work perfectly by itself on a playlist. The skits are where it diverges most from GKMC, though. Most of them are overly literal, and some of his crew’s voice acting is downright embarrassing.

The momentum this album generates is lost every time Bobby tries to channel Tarantino because Logic has never been adept at skits (The Incredible True Story being the main offender on an otherwise decent album). The “Paradise II” farce about a gas station robbery is simply too absurd to be watchable; it should be avoided at all costs.

Every rhythm on College Park is strong, with the exception of the aforementioned “Cruisin’ Through The Universe”. The word “playwright” has the impression that it was taken directly out of a Large Professor handbook. The dreamy melody and lively boom bap percussion are like chicken soup for the Hip Hop head’s soul.

“Gaithersburg Freestyle” shifts gears as Logic viciously raps over a track from the crunk period that causes speakers to distort. He receives lyrical assistance from the people riding in his Chevy Impala, including C Dot Castro, Big Lenbo, ADE, and even Fat Trel, giving the song the feel of a drive through rush-hour traffic on the Beltway.pl

The album’s Hip Hop-heavy trip comes to an end when Logic inserts one song too many that stands out as an experimental afterthought. The song “Highlife” is a glitzy, Auto-Tuned sing-along that has nothing to do with the album’s storyline. It is a horrible song with no genuine references to College Park, no contextual skits, and worst of all, Logic’s karaoke vocals that sound more like your inebriated uncle at Thanksgiving than a legitimate artist. As the album’s final track and figurative end credits, “Lightyear” performs both functions. A multi-layered boom-bap beat by 6ix, PosT, and Kal Banx is served up with complex small accents and tweaks, and Logic glides over it with ease.

Although no rapper ever calls it quits, this song suggests that Logic’s next release may be his final one (although we’ve heard this assertion before). With lyrics like “Thank you for riding with me beyond a reasonable doubt/Logic out to the fans that ain’t need me to spell all this shit out,” That is, until 6ix changes the beat and Logic rejoins for his own cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Rigamortis”—a beat that is practically hard to rhyme successfully over. It is easily resolved by logic.

Logic sounds more liberated, enjoyable, and powerful than it has in a long time at College Park. It’s safe to say that the Internet has already formed an opinion about the record, and regrettably Logic’s perceived corniness cannot be dispelled with a single strong performance. But it’s difficult to argue against the ride when Logic has such strong bars, beats, and optimistic beliefs.