Behind the lyrics

By Jason K

Have you ever thrown on your pair of airpods or headphones and listened to your favorite music without really paying much attention to the lyrics? Some of us tend to listen to our favorite artist’s songs without understanding the lyrics behind it, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m guilty of that myself as well because I would focus more of my attention span on the beat and flow of the music rather than the lyrics. However, there’s one music artist that I really pay attention to his lyrics, and that's Logic. 

Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, more known for his stage name Logic, is a music artist who’s associated within the rap industry. Logic started making music in 2009 and wasn’t known for anything back then as he was just treated like a new music artist who would  be forgotten about after a few years. He gradually became more known when his album, Under Pressure, was released in 2014 with the most popular song called Gang Related reaching 140,001,718 listeners as of today. Though after the album was released, Logic still didn’t get the attention span that he has as of now. 

Moving onto the year 2017, Logic released an album called Everybody where the majority of the songs raises awareness of the inequality black people endure and how society is doing a bad job of raising awareness to that topic. Logic also rapped about personal situations he’s been through in that album and the racism he had experienced growing up as a bi-racial person. The most known song of his entire career is “1-800-273-8255” which raises awareness of suicide and how that should never be the answer to a person’s struggles in life. 

After that song had released, studies had shown that 1-800 contributed to a 50% increase of calls made to the suicide hotline. More lives were saved due to that song in the year of 2017 according to NPR news. Along with that, Logic had admitted on an interview that he received a letter from Congress thanking him for releasing that song and spreading awareness of suicide. “1-800-273-8255” has gotten a total of 1,225,355,573 listeners on Spotify as of today. 

Logic is now more widely known as the “1-800 guy” who just makes “corny music” and isn’t the same anymore after the Everybody album was released. I disagree with the majority of hate that Logic gets because he’s one of the very few music artists who talks and raps about real world problems that other rappers do not want to bring up in their songs. Nowadays, most rappers rap about drugs, sex, and violence while Logic still strives to rap about personal situations he has been in. He releases albums for fans who still stand with him for who he is as a person and music artist. 

I was introduced to Logic by his album Bobby Tarantino that was released in 2016. I am glad that I still listen to him as my favorite music artist, regardless of the hate he has received and still gets. His saying of “Peace, love, positivity, and equality for all” may be seen as cringey for others, but I see it as him being real with his fans and wanting them to spread the message as well. 

Logic also discusses racism and structural inequalities in his music. For example, in his song called Killing Spree, he brings up the topic of mass shootings and how social media tries putting the main focus on the shooter’s race which leads to people thinking every person of that race is a threat. He uses his large fame and platform to speak out against many forms of social inequality like a certain group of people having the better advantage of opportunities in life as compared to other groups of people.  

One song of his that impacted me is called Anziety where he raps about his anxiety and his experience with it. I personally find that song relatable because I used to deal with a handful of anxiety back then as a kid and seeing Logic rap about it makes me feel that I’m not the only one who had to endure this feeling.

In one of the lyrics of the song Logic said, “This anxiety is nothing, I have anxiety. Just like you, the person I wrote this for and together, we will overcome this feeling.” That lyric to me is a prime example of how Logic delivers a message to us that we’re all humans despite our struggles.

In another part of the song he said, “We will accept ourselves as we are and we will be happy with the person we see in the mirror. We will accept ourselves and live with anxiety.” Those lyrics showed me who Logic really is as a person and how real he is with his fans discussing his vulnerability instead of hiding it to act hard. 

What I truly love about Logic is how he’s a living proof that you can make it big regardless of your situations. He is a representative for the people who have been through pain that is hard for others to grasp.