Logic Reveals Why He’s Retiring From Hip-Hop and Shares Plans to Give Away Free Beats to Aspiring MCs

HIP-HOP

On July 16, Logic announced that his seventh album, No Pressure, would be his last. There were no long-winded goodbye speeches, or moments of levity to downplay his decision to chuck the peace sign, just simple acknowledgement of his rap journey and his newfound devotion to fatherhood.

“It’s been a great decade, now it’s to be a great father,” he wrote on Instagram when releasing his album cover. Today (July 24), Logic’s swan song is here — and judging by the 15-track effort, retirement was something he had already planned way before 2020 came into the picture.

“I just wanted to retire because I’m over it man,” he tells Billboard hours before the release of his final album. “Not even in a negative way, I’m just over it.” Studded with soul-stirring samples produced by hip-hop savant No ID, Logic and more, No Pressure finds the DMV rhymer embracing parenthood and his exhaustion with the rap game. On “DadBod,” he spills about his superior knowledge for changing diapers versus his understanding of today’s rappers, saying: “I can tell you more about diapers than modern rappers and ciphers.”

“I love music and I’m gonna continue to make music on my own. I can’t not just make music. It’s a journal for me. It’s how I express myself. It’s how I heal, but with Logic, I’m stepping away,” he explains. “And the thing is too, I’m not trying to make it this big show like, ‘Oh my God’ because it’s not that deep. You either believe me or you don’t man. I don’t give a s–t. I’m over here doing my thing.” 

Logic also reassuringly tells fans that even though they won’t be able to interact anymore via his tours and concerts, that they will still have access to him through Twitch. On Monday (July 20) he exclusively announced his seven-figure deal with the gaming streaming service and unveiled his plans to stay in constant communication with fans there. “It’s going to connect me and my fans now more than ever because I’m not painstakingly in the studio,” he says of his deal with Twitch. “Now I can just be on Twitch, stream with my fans, have conversations with my fans, play video games with my fans, [and] make beats for my fans.” 

Logic even hopes to give away his beats for free to aspiring MCs: “There’s some people on Twitch that like to do giveaways. I wanna make beats for up and coming rappers on the spot and give it to them for free and if they take it, don’t charge them and don’t even take publishing.”

Along with Logic bowing out from the hip-hop game, the lyrical technician will no longer have to worry about the fierce claws of social media. On his song “Dark Place,” Logic candidly speaks on his past struggles with criticism and how he even used to google his name to see what was being said about him on the blogs. According to him, he’s now in a more comfortable place and is no longer worried about what journalists have to say about his standing in the rap game. 

“Those are the people that made me feel bad about myself,” he relays. “Those are the people that made me wanna kill myself at times. Those are the people who made me depressed and told me I’m not good enough, I’ll never be good enough, you don’t belong because I’m a white passing corny [rapper] because I like Sci-Fi and all this other kind of s–t, but that’s who I am.”

He adds: “I’d rather be perceived as corny or whatever the f–k case may be than peddling and actually being  ‘authentic’ to the life I grew up in: selling drugs, cooking crack, shooting guns, being around motherf–kers — that’s not what I represented. So those same f–k boys who say s–t like that, they won’t even know that they’re talking about when you have people like the RZA singing my praise, Killer Mike, [and] I got Wu-Tang on a track. I sit back and I go, ‘Those are the people if anybody tries to say what they’re saying, it doesn’t make any sense.’

“To be able to have a queen like Erykah Badu on speed dial and she shows me love is like I can’t f–king believe that. I can’t fathom that. She’s just the epitome of music, soul and hip-hop. When you people like that, like real spitters and real MCs showing you love, it don’t matter what the writer or what the editor says because that writer wishes they can f–king rap. But I understand that and I know that. That’s why I just shut the f–k up,” he says.

You can watch Logic’s interview with Billboard about his final album No Pressure above, as he also talks about his favorite verse on the project, teaching his son about his Black roots and where he stands with God today.