After debuting at the top of Billboard’s Top 200 with around 240,000 album sales, Logic’s latest album Everybody has put the Maryland rapper into the music world’s brightest spotlight. As the second of three parts of a saga that Logic is trying to put together, with the first being 2015’s The Incredible True Story, Everybody puts together a story of death, life and reincarnation. It’s an attempt to speak on different social issues that Logic feels the need to address. Some of these interests include racial tensions, mental health issues and self acceptance in today’s world.
From a musical standpoint, Everybody is the most polished project from Logic to date and one of the most pleasant sounding projects of the calendar year. Logic’s signature flow rings out across the album, with creative rhyme schemes and patters spread out evenly across. The instrumental choices made by Logic and his producers were also top notch, with standout tracks like “Black Spiderman” and “Take it Back” being a complete pleasure to listen to.
Logic enlists the talents of renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to play the celestial god figure in the story, dropping bombs of wisdom throughout the albums skits and interludes. In true biblical fashion, the story involves a character named Adam, who dies and is in the process of being reincarnated into something else. The conversations Adam has with the god figure in the story reveal that Adam is a representation of anyone and everyone who has ever lived and who ever will live, and in order to understand life Adam must live every single experience possible. The entire point of doing this is for the audience to understand that everyone’s life is different, while having some of Logic’s own personal experiences tied into the story, like him being bi-racial and suffering from anxiety.
It’s a story that’s been told time and time again, and is hardly the first album to do so. Other albums, like Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN and Amerikkka by Joey Bada$$, dove deep into the problem of institutionalized racism in the United States by looking at it from a grassroots level. Logic’s idea of telling people “Hey, stop being so racist and just love each other” sounds like the sort of thing a teenage girl would post in an Instagram caption. Logic demands these things from people on such a superficial level without giving them any kind of basis other than “I overcame these things, so look at me and be happy,” which isn’t the best way to go about solving the complex problems that he tried to tackle. It made Logic sound more and more preachy as the album went on, with lengthy rants at the end of some tracks reiterating the same points again and again.
In all fairness, I can understand someone appreciating the message that Logic is trying to get across if they haven’t yet had the life experiences necessary to comprehend the complexities of our world. I feel good knowing that a track like 1-800-273-8255 exists in the world because there could be someone that appreciates it more than I do. This song in particular talks about the complexity of suicide and the importance of staying alive. Having Logic talk about suicide and mental health is a conversation that needs to be had in order to bring awareness to the issues, and this is a good way of breaking the surface of such a complex issue. So no, while Logic is nowhere close to the level that someone like Kendrick is when it comes to addressing social issues, it’s a good starting point for someone who may be confused on the issue.
All in all, Logic’s progression as an artist is evident on this album: his technical skills are complemented by a much better palette of instrumentals. While he may have bitten off more than he can chew when it comes to addressing the world at large, hopefully Logic realizes that he can’t solve all the world’s problems at once. The album is something I would recommend, but don’t feel bad if you skip the endings of some songs while doing so.