Logic - “Soul Food II”
~Zumi Underground
With Logic’s supposed “retirement” (you know how these rapper do…he’ll be back eventually) as of this past Friday with the album “No Pressure”, I gotta talk about my man here real quick. It’s hard being a Logic fan sometimes ONLY because he gets so much hate for seemingly no reason. He’s like the hip hop Nickleback or something with millions of records sold but no one wants to publicly say that they’re fans because they’ll get shit for it. So I’m gonna go out on a limb here and tell y’all I’m a fan and hope I don’t lose all 10 of my readers.
Anyway, the whole album is solid and is a really cool call back to his earlier works, particularly his debut studio album “Under Pressure”. I chose this track for the post though because it’s a continuation of one of my favorite tracks from that album utilizing the same beat and vocal cadence. He comes right out of the gate in the most direct call back possible replacing a few key words from the original “Soul Food” from:
God damn, God damn, conversations with legends
Crazy how one day your idols can turn into your brethren
to:
God damn, God damn, conversations with people
Crazy how one day the legends forget that they equal
This is probably a reference to some of the haters he’s had over the years like Joe Budden losing their ‘idol’ and kin-like ‘brethren’ status in his eyes, especially—I would guess—if they’re gonna be haters.
The first half of the song paints a vivid picture of his journey throughout his rap career to where he currently is in life—wanting more time with his family and enjoying time for himself. The second half brings in a whole new beat like the original “Soul Food” did. This half samples the same section from The Propositions “Do Whatever Turns You On Pt. 2 that I immediately recognized from “Gold Watch” by one of my favorite rappers, Lupe Fiasco.
While the first half of the song was a clear reference to “Under Pressure”, the second half is a nod to his second studio album “The Incredible True Story” where the album was themed around space and time travel, one of Logic’s nerdy passions that I appreciate about him. He mentions the fictional AI Thalia who is present in “Under Pressure”, giving little tidbits about some of the songs throughout the album, but is a more significant part of the story and interludes in “The Incredible True Story”.
If you’re a Logic fan, there’s a lot for you in this final album. And if you’re a fellow nerd, you’ll appreciate him embracing anime (makes a reference to Cowboy Bebop), gaming and sci-fi quite a bit. If you’re a newer fan, I would definitely recommend that you start with some of his older stuff first like “Under Pressure”, “The Incredible True Story” and perhaps my favorite of his, “YSIV” before getting into “No Pressure”. I just think you’ll enjoy it better with more of the background context that makes up this album.
As a fan, thank you for all your music over the last decade, Logic! Best of luck in your next venture as a Twitch streamer!
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