Beats Per Minute: Logic’s ‘Bobby Tarantino’ fails to stand out

Of the many self-made stars that hip-hop has seen in the Internet age, perhaps no other is as polarizing as Logic.

Logic, a Maryland native, has made waves since his breakout 2014 album “Under Pressure,” a forward-thinking, socially conscious hip-hop album that I enjoyed very much. His first record reached gold sales and put him on the map as a noteworthy artist.

Since then, Logic has produced two more gold albums as well as a Billboard top 10 single in “1-800-273-8255,” a song that drew attention to suicide prevention and garnered Grammy nominations in the process.

Throughout his career, it has been clear to me that Logic is a “good” guy. He often espouses messages of peace and positivity in his music and encourages others to do the same. To many, his goofy, go-lucky demeanor is a breath of fresh air to a genre saturated with hedonists and apathists.

This attitude frequently permeates his music, often through a lens of social consciousness. As such, I have always been able to see the appeal of his music, as his message is usually well-intentioned.

In addition, Logic’s substantial technical skills as a rapper, through his articulate and cutting flow, show that he can rap.

It is the culmination of this talent and focused musical direction that made his debut album so captivating.

However, I have found myself critical of Logic’s work since that point.

I believe that, since his first album, Logic’s music has followed a downward trend. It has become less original and thoughtful as his career has progressed. This is especially disappointing to me, considering that I once thought of Logic as someone with immense potential, who would grow into his own unique sound.

On his new mixtape, “Bobby Tarantino II,” Logic has no apparent intention of sonic uniqueness. By this, I do not mean Logic is a bad rapper.

On the sequel to his 2016 “Bobby Tarantino” mixtape, Logic often employs rapid-fire flows, some decent wordplay, and his usual “peace and positivity” attitude towards lyricism. Yet, on the second mixtape in this “Tarantino” series, Logic acts as a bit of a cultural chameleon who can’t quite tell his colors apart.

“Bobby Tarantino II” does a decent job at attempting to mimic a lot of popular sounds in hip-hop, but comes up marginally short of a standout track. There are few points on the mixtape that I would consider definitively original.

There are numerous points on the tape where Logic’s delivery reminds me of something I’d hear off of a Lil Uzi Vert or Migos project. However, his rendition has significantly less personality than his contemporaries’ best tracks offer. Not only is he blatantly ripping other artists’ sounds, but he’s failing to do so as well. 

A great example is his track, “Contra,” where Logic’s ad-libs, flow and vocal inflections are noticeably similar to those of Migos. While the “triplet flow” is a popular one among rappers today, Logic appears to have copied straight from Migos’ (“Offset,” in particular) playbook with the one that he employs on this track. What I mean can’t necessarily be gleaned from text alone, but consecutive listens to Logic’s “Contra” and Migos’ “Brown Paper Bag” might serve as a good reference. 

I also can’t ignore Logic’s very awkward use of auto-tune, which fosters yet another comparison to Migos (Quavo, namely) and is flat and monotonous, failing to create anything captivating in the way of melody.

With respect to the whole mixtape, the 44-minute-long tracklist, though relatively moderate in length, drags on. I attribute this to a run-of-the-mill beat selection of unremarkable trap instrumentals and generally unfocused song topics. On these songs, Logic flexes his hustle, money and comeuppance in the rap game in a blasé fashion. 

He is especially guilty of this in “BoomTrap Protocol,” with one of the most lazily-written lyrical sections on the whole project.

Logic raps, “Like woah, goddamn, yeah that boy he been On The Low / About to blow, about to show / About to show ’em, I don’t know ’em.” Logic then proceeds to rhyme the next four bars with “’em.”

The track also features a sung hook with a dull melody, only made worse by Logic’s subpar vocal abilities.

While the MC does have a success story to tell, his repeated assertions about his newfound status do not make for an engaging listen over 13 tracks.

Moments like the laid-back, stoner track “Indica Badu (feat. Wiz Khalifa)” and the lone quality feature on “State of Emergency (feat. 2 Chainz)” try their best to add some flavor to the tape, but are only decent songs at best. 

With “Bobby Tarantino II,” Logic has put forth a half-hearted attempt at capitalizing on popular trends in hip-hop. The mixtape offers no offensively poor tracks, but rather a mostly forgettable collection of songs that is, at best, background music.

RATING: 2/5

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William Newbegin, ’21, is an assistant sports editor and columnist for The Brown and White. He can be reached at [email protected].