Logic Calls the Success of ‘Under Pressure’ a ‘Wake Up Call’

Logic is an easy guy to root for. The Maryland-born rapper is bright, laid-back and someone an everyday Joe could realistically hang out with. Wearing an oversized jacket with NASA patches embroidered all over it and carrying two Rubik's Cubes while walking in to the XXL offices last week, the smile on the 25-year-old MC's face spreads from ear to ear. Despite being in the latter half of a grueling 47-city U.S. and European tour that started three months after his debut album for Def Jam, Under Pressure, dropped last October, the former XXL Freshman still shows the charisma and energy of a human being who regularly gets sleep.

But Logic has a reason to be happy; things have been going quite well for him. His Def Jam debut sold 73,000 copies in its first week, landing at No. 4 on Billboard 200 and coming in less than 10,000 copies shy of matching T.I.'s first-week sales for Paperwork which came out the same day. The tour has been going great, with the rapper selling out Webster Hall in New York City on March 13. He recently got engaged and is getting more exposure than ever by landing festival gigs at Soundset and Governors Ball. While the leader of the RattPack was in New York City, he stopped by XXL for a wide-ranging interview where he revealed some nuggets about Under Pressure, life after his successful debut, what it means to be a superstar, becoming an engaged man and his love for anime. —Emmanuel C.M.

XXL: How’s tour life?
Logic: It’s dope. It’s exhausting but it’s pretty amazing. It’s weird; sometimes when I’m on stage and I’m rapping I think about the craziest shit. Sometimes I go on autopilot. I know I’m rapping and I’m doing this, but I’m kind of in the back of my head with my feet up just thinking about shit. I think about how grueling it can be and how crazy it is, but I also think about [how] there will come a time when I don’t tour and who knows when that is going to be. It could be 20 years from now. I could go into acting and do that and I’ll look back at how incredible it was.

So sometimes [when] it’s hard I just think about that. It’s weird, like, sometimes I hear celebrities complain about just how tough their life may be or the things they do. For most people—like at the time I had a regular job—I would say, "Get the fuck out of here. I’ll kill to do that." But now that I’m in the position, as a musician it’s pretty intense. But still my worst day on this job beats working a job that I'd hate. So touring is amazing.

I've spoken to a bunch of MCs and the general feeling about touring is it's the best and worst experience an artist has. It’s great because you’re seeing the world, performing and thousands of people pay money to see you. It’s the worst because it’s like a boot camp; you barely have time to think. How do artists balance all of that? How do you keep up physically and mentally?
Mentally, I think you just train yourself. Everybody is different. I don’t do any drugs; I don’t do any of that. I’m engaged, so it's not like I’m worried about bitches. Plus, I never was on the road like that because I'd never fuck a woman who called me Logic, you know what I’m saying? That’s not cool. All I have to really focus on is the actual show and recording. I love to record all the time so I would bring my gear with me. So a lot of the time I’m exhausted because I perform, get off stage and I’ll be up to like five, six, seven in the morning and be on the bus recording, which isn’t that good for me.

But on this [Under Pressure Tour] I’ve been a lot better. I think the last tour it was difficult because I was working on my album. Now I’m just recording; who knows when the next album is going to drop. It might not drop 'til mid, end of next year. I’m just chilling. This is definitely the best tour I’ve been on because my team knows what to do. I know what to do. It’s been nice.

The album dropped and the response has been pretty great across the board.
I don’t know how I’m really perceived in the world. I would like to think that I’m a gentleman and a nice guy. But I don’t be givin' a fuck about nothing. Like, I don’t give a shit. Obviously deep down I want people to enjoy my music, but the only people I want to enjoy my music are the people who want Logic to win and are fans of me. So I’m not really worried about what anyone else says. To have created this album and to know that people who were not fans of me, even in the industry, see all these people show up to my show in New York, it’s like, Woah, shit is actually poppin’.

The response has been really great, especially from the fans. As long as I put my heart into it, they’re going to love what I do no matter what. As long as I know and they know that I gave it my all and I really put my heart and soul into everything, they’re going to love it. As for the general public, I think it was a wake up call to me that I am doing the right thing. In a way it's very reminiscent because you can hear a lot of the influences, but it's new because its my story and my flows and my kind of sounds. It's just been received in a positive way and I'm happy.

Do you read reviews?
Yeah, I think artists are interested in what people think of them. Look at Kanye—he’s a legend. I’m sure he checks his stuff out and wants to see what the people think. I’m the same way. I don’t really search for it. Like, my managers or my homies, I would just ask them or they will tell me about stuff, like a tweet or a write up. It’s pretty awesome when you come across those things and people enjoy it. Some people don’t, some people feel how they feel.

Did you feel like Under Pressure came out the way you wanted it to?
Creatively? Yeah. In the span of when I was [first] signed to Def Jam [in April 2013] I created like four albums. I was in a phase where I was inspired by a bunch of Drake or a bunch of Wu-Tang, all types of different artists and sounds that I was messing with. In one instance I was like, "I know I can make bangers, I’m going to make all bangers." I’m listening to like Mustard beats and saying to myself, "I’m going to make all this." Then I’m thinking, "I’m going to be doing a straight boom-bap album, straight drums and this and that." Then at the end of it, I ended up going to the studio for a month and knocking out this album. And when I created “Under Pressure,” the 9-10 minute song, I was like, "This is who I want the world to know."

On my mixtapes I was doing a whole bunch of different shit, like some fun kind of party shit and some serious shit, then some emotional stuff, then super boom-bap hip-hop. So you were getting all these things. But for the album, the thing that really separated it from my mixtapes [was] I told myself, I am going to do 12 records. So what that means is it’s not like a mixtape where I can have 20 records about the same thing but with different sounds because I’m experimenting. After “Under Pressure” I said, "This is the sound I want. So let me say everything I want to say on a song like 'Nikki' on one subject." Same for “I’m Gone” or “Buried Alive”; explain everything I need on this song and not talk about it any more.

Like, “Gang Related” is about my home, what I dealt with in my household contrary to what people may believe about where I’m from. "This is where I’m from, this is my family and I’m going to talk about it right here and nowhere else." The fact that it actually worked out and I did it and people liked it is great. It just lets you know that I'm going to continue to do this. Not the same sound, subject matter, but the same heart, the same emotion, but reinvent myself sonically.

I think probably the best thing you did for Under Pressure was make a commentary album for the LP available on Spotify. Who thought of that?
It’s funny because I've seen a couple artists do that, but of different genres. I saw indie rock, never really hip-hop. I always wanted to do that, especially with Spotify. So I went to the building and I think I brought it up and they was like, "Yeah, we want to do that with ya." So I recorded [it] from my crib and I have the setup and they said just record whatever you want and send it over. So I recorded the whole thing and sent it to them.

Which is great, because I was trying to understand if there were multiple meanings for a song like “Nikki.”
That’s another thing that really brought this album together, the different themes on it. Like the whole homage to A Tribe Called Quest like with the computer voice and me talking about Nikki throughout the whole album, then you finally get to the song and you realize what I’m talking about. I had like four or five songs done. Then I did "Nikki" and said, "Woah this is dope." So every other song that I recorded [I was like,] "Let me mention it once in all these other songs." That way, I know that a lot of these records are going to come before “Nikki.” I knew in my head that “Nikki” was going to be one of the last records. So say it a whole bunch before and when you get there? [Bangs hand] And when you did, it was pretty cool. It kind of just went that way.

So what’s next for you? You already said no album in sight for right now.
I’ll be touring off this album for a minute, probably all year. Fans can expect records in time, some collaborations here and there. As for the next album, I’m not even thinking about it. I’m not even working on an album, I’m just recording. By no means am I just enjoying what’s going on. I’m constantly working all the time. I’m just touring, getting this money, seeing my fans and just making music right now. Because there is no demand for new material because I believe that my album that I gave to the public is really holding up.

Looking back, how is it different recording now rather than for the album?
It’s crazy because I was working for a couple months in the studio after the album came out before I went on this tour. But I always have concepts and ideas. I love concepts. But sometimes I just like to rap. Sometimes it's just fun for my producer to make some in-house beat like a Primo and just rap. I think a lot of my fans enjoy that raw hip-hop stuff. But it’s all different types of stuff. I’ll be in this muthafucka singing like '80s tools and experimenting. I’m always kind of pushing the boundaries of myself. But my recording process is no different pre- and post-album when it comes to creating songs. I just write. It always has been the same. Sometimes I just get an idea in my head about a punchline and write it down. Sometimes I get a concept for a song and just write it down. Sometimes I may just get an idea from a movie I’m watching.

Speaking of movies, who was that in “Metropolis?” That was a cool skit.
It’s really funny; not a lot of people know this but it’s the woman who voices Thalia [who narrates the album]. It’s almost like a different world and it's not chopped up and she’s laughing. So I’m talking about Europe and places I’ve been to; that’s why it’s called “Metropolis.” On that song I view the world as one big city and I’m hopping on the train to different places. It was originally going to be called “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and I just thought about all my experiences. Then I thought about maybe the perfect woman or the perfect way I would meet a woman, whatever the case may be, [and] that woman would be my muse or my inspiration that I’m talking to. 'Cause I talk about listening to Mos Def’s Black On Both Sides and just being on the train in Belgium and kind of what that experience was like and painting that picture. Maybe that was a conversation I did have, maybe I didn’t have it, but it's something that gave that song or the album as a whole a different element and allowed me to be a nerd and talk about movies without just rapping.

It was moreso, I can just have a real conversation with someone. And that's what it was, too. It wasn’t scripted. I sat down when we did it in the studio and I was talking to this girl who worked at the studio [Anna Elyse Palchikoff, according to the album credits] and mid-convo I was like, "Yo, we should do a skit. Your voice is dope." I think this was before I asked her to do Thalia. So we did the skit and we were talking; before, we barely knew each other, she just worked there. I was like, "What do you like? Music, movies?" And then I was like, "You know what? Let's stop right here." Then I set up the microphone. That’s why the convo sounded so honest and genuine, because it really was. Those were questions I asked her for the first time.

Do you ever think about how big you can be as a rapper? It seems like you could be on the path of a Big Sean or a Meek Mill.
Yeah, it happens every day. I also think perception is a muthafucka. It's funny because, what’s big? I’m selling out certain venues, 3,000 [people], could have did more. Who knows what could have been done? I know people—and not to name any artists out there—who everybody knows their name and the one dope song they have but they don’t have fans. So what makes them bigger than me? Because more people in this little circle of hip-hop might know who they are? But if you break into my circle it's bigger than just hip-hop because I’m engaging into real life people. Not saying hip-hop doesn’t do that, I’m talking about my core demographic. It's not just some hardcore hip-hop people. It’s people who want to hear a good message.

I go to my shows and there are 12-year-old kids there and there are 45-year-old people there, there’s Black, White, Asian, Dominican. I had a father and son fly from Australia to come to my show. I was like, "What?" I couldn’t believe it. I had to have them show me the flight itinerary. They did and I let them stay backstage with me and we gave them all this free merch. But the perception about what is big, I get what you’re saying. Yeah, I look at it like I can be this huge entity and a superstar because I believe that I can work hard. I’m charismatic with people, I’m good with my words. So when I think about what I am and what I could be, it’s amazing.

Years ago I used to just want to be a XXL Freshman more than anything. I looked at J. Cole, I looked at Big Sean and Wiz [Khalifa] and [Kid] Cudi and Wale and Asher [Roth], Mac [Miller], Kendrick, K.R.I.T. Man, what class was that? 2011? That’s when the blogs were poppin’ and I was looking at these people like, "Oh my God." Then I got here and was actually on the cover. I dreamed of everything where I am now. Now that I’m here, I got the XXL Freshman cover and I’m in magazines and doing shit, I’m like, "This is cool but I want to sell out the Madison Square Garden, The Staples Center, Wembley Stadium." I want to do that and I honestly, truly, whole-heartedly believe I can do that. I always tell myself, "Just stay on this path, make the right decisions, don’t do no dumbass shit and focus everything on your music and your fans and you’ll be okay."

A promising young hip-hop artist who’s engaged to be married. That’s outside of the norm, for sure.
I never really been a whore. [Laughs] More power to anyone getting pussy, that’s what’s up, but I never was fucking random hoes and shit. I was never sleeping around anyway. So for me, the hardest part of being engaged isn’t the fact that I can't have other women, because to me this woman is the most beautiful woman in the world. I want to be physically and mentally attracted to a woman. I’m like Jerry Seinfeld. I break up with a bitch if she eats peas a certain way. I analyzed my girl’s forehead like, "Okay, can I wake up to this forever?" So it’s not about that. That’s the easy part.

The hard part is about making time. But we're both good about that. She's understanding, she gets my career and really understands me. I think [that's] all that matters. Times are hard every now and then but for the most part it’s a great relationship that I hope continues to stay great that we're both working hard to do. We’re just growing and we’re experiencing this for the first time together. But the fact that we were together and I created an album—I met her before it was made—then I went on two tours back-to-back, then I turned in my album and promoted my album and [now] I’m traveling all over the world and I’m doing press and this and that... At the end of our most hectic shit and business stuff and all this stuff, at the end of all that we’re still best friends and super tight, me and her. That’s when I knew.

Shit, that’s beautiful.
Thank you, man.

Alright, let's get into anime.
Let’s go. You watch Cowboy Bebop?

Yeah, watched the series twice. I’m ridiculously into anime.
This guy.

I peeped on the Visionary Group Q&A you said you’re a fan of the big ones, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Akira. What others are you into?
I don’t get into the new anime that much. I did get into Lupin The Third and used to watch Shin-chan. You know that?

[Laughs] Yeah, that little bad ass kid.
That’s my shit, he’s always mooning people and he’s like five years old. I used to watch that a lot. I saw at the store Fry's Electronics—it's like the West Coast version of Best Buy but way better—they had Shin-chan on blu-ray. I should have fuckin’ bought it. It's weird, but I’m an anime head in a sense that I got super into specific anime series. I like Samurai Champloo, that was really dope. I watched Fullmetal Alchemist when I was younger.

Any scenes out of Bebop or Trigun you love?
One that comes to mind is when Vash the Stampede is always saying, “This land is made of peace and love!” It’s funny because as much as I loved Bebop and Spike Spiegel, I related more to Vash because his whole thing is about peace and love. Plus, he’s this muthafucka who can really fuck shit up, but he chooses not to. That’s how I feel about the rap game. Like, I can come here and talk all this dumb ass shit and rile everyone up if I want, but that’s not the type of attention I want. I want the attention from peace and love. I want the attention for good music and me handling myself as a man and artist. So I really want to be Vash in that sense.

Filed Under: anime, Editor's Picks, Feature, featured, Logic, under pressure

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