Logic - YSIV

Logic
YSIV
2018
Spotify

YSIV is Logic's fourth and final installation in his Young Sinatra series. Logic is known for his concept albums, including one about space travel called The Incredible True Story. Two of the characters from that tape actually make an appearance in the skit that opens the record. He seems to think everyone is following all of these convoluted story lines that He has going on, but in reality it's all pretty murky. Since 2015 his output has been relentless, tons of records, mixtapes and other content flooding out of the man. Someone of it works, some of it doesn't but at the heart of it all is a pretty damn talented individual. On this album sits firmly in the boom-bap pocket, classic beats and classic delivery. The first issues of with the record arise early on. Logic is so incredibly concerned with his legacy that it becomes the center of every single song. In most hip hop you expect some braggadocios behavior but not every single line. IN the past Logic has been able to avoid some of these pitfalls and keep his content varied enough to be interesting, but on YSIV it is his entire focus. he goes as far to call himself the new Kanye on track two and three, right in a fucking row. Even if He thinks it's true why do you have to force it down our throats? Why not allow the listener to be the judge? The different personas are also starting to feel childish and dated; Bobby Tarantino, Young Sinatra, ect. ect. all different in Logic's eyes, but all almost exactly the same to anyone actually listening.

"Wu Tang Forever" which features most of the Wu-Tang clan, is another way for Logic to place himself in hip hops history. The song is also eight minutes long and feels like a big ass mess of a freestyle. "100 Miles and Running" is another word soup track where Logic just tries to overwhelm us with how many words He can rhyme in six minutes. The interesting thing about Logic's conceptual albums is they constrain and focus him where when He has free reign He tends to miss the point. The album's title track has one of the most nostalgic beats, but it's one we have heard over and over again. You keep waiting for him to say something even slightly meaningful, or a beat that makes you look up and take notice, but those moments never come. "The Adventures of Stoney Bob" Logic's song about weed sounds like the nerdiest shit I have ever heard. He sounds like a teen who has smoked for the first time and can't wait to tell everyone about it. There is even a point where one of the features goes through the growing process from planting to seed germination. It leaves you with the though: Who fucking cares? The last track "Last Call" is an incredibly long and self indulgent string of consciousness tops out at almost eleven painful minutes. This record is easily forgettable because it relies almost exclusively on nostalgia, something Logic even addresses on the album. The classics are the classics for a reason, trying to recreate them and get the same results is the definition of foolish.

5.0 out of 10