Aug 10, 2021
Bobby Tarantino III (The Forgettable One)
Gaithersburg, Maryland native, Sir Bryson Hall II, better known as “Logic” dropped his seventh studio album “Bobby Tarantino III” (or “BT3”) July 30th. The release comes after a much publicized retirement that Logic announced with last studio album “No Pressure” that he at the time said would be his last as it was time for him to “be a great father” (You can check out my album review on that one here). But of course, the pull of the rap game (and money) always makes people come back to drop more. The name of the album Bobby Tarantino is a shoutout to one of Logic’s favorite film producers Quentin Tarantino and has been used by Logic as a title to two other mixtapes that Logic has dropped starting with “Bobby Tarantino” in 2016 which was released to much critical acclaim.
“Retirement” Life
While Logic was in “retirement”, he dropped an entire album under the alias “Doctor Destruction” (though if you ask him he'll tell you Doctor Destruction is clearly not him rapping with heavy voice alteration), signed a massive lucrative deal with video game streaming giant Twitch, and is set to have his autobiography hit bookshelves soon. For a man who was in retirement, Logic has certainly been a very busy man.
The Breakdown
On the first track “introll” a play on the words interlude and trolling, Logic starts off with, “Hey, I didn't see you there, I’m back,” poking fun and acknowledging his short retirement (but seriously in the time that Logic has dropped an album and retired and un-retired and dropped another album we STILL don’t have Certified Lover Boy or DONDA). That first track then leads into “Vaccine” the second single to be released from the album where under a booming boom-trap bass Logic raps about his return to rap and how and why he could care less about those talking down him and his gang. Other rap songs on the mixtape include “Get Up”, the ode to his wife and family “Flawless”, the progressive minded “Theme for the People”, “See You Space Cowboy…” and “untitled”. In truth overall the album has less rapping than the casual Logic fan would expect.
Where as “Bobby Tarantino II” had multiple featured artist such as Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean, Logic decided for BT3, to keep it simple as the song “Inside”, boasts the lone feature in the mixtape in award winning British singer and actress, Cynthia Erivo. It is a super lo-fi track that even samples one of Logic’s older tracks “Soul Food” from Logic’s debut album “Under Pressure”. In the song Logic sings about the anxiety and pressure he feels that comes with the notoriety his career has brought him with the support of heavenly vocals from Erivo. For some comparisons as well, “God Might Judge” sounds a bit like a Logic version of Drake’s, hit song “In My Feelings” from Drake’s 2018 album “Scorpion” and “Get Up” sounds like Everyday Part 2.
Synopsis
In the song “See You Space Cowboy…” Logic explains why he dropped Bobby Tarantino III explaining, “I just woke up one day and decided, you know what I kind of feel like rapping again, and so I did”. He then goes on to say that Bobby Tarantino III is his last album with Def Jam and that the album was created “off-the-cuff” or spontaneously with not much clear direction. Don’t get me wrong, “BT3" is an okay album but that’s it, it’s just okay. The album indeed feels like it was made with unbridled spontaneous-ness that was simply allowed to reign freely which is fine, but spontaneous-ness has to be crafted with a disciplined artistic edge to produce truly amazing albums.
“I just woke up one day and decided, you know what I kind of feel like rapping again, and so I did” — Logic
Logic has already proven in the past to be able to do just that, and as evidenced in the track “See You Space Cowboy…” he was simply just having fun with this album and as he often says, made this one for the fans. Listening to the album you can tell fun was had in the production process of the album even more so with the inclusion of the unserious “Stupid Skit” track. For this reason, knowing how GOOD Logic is at his best, the offering given to audiences in “BT3” is rather disappointing and seriously needs to be followed up sooner rather than later with true lyrical genius from the Gaithersburg, Maryland rapper. Lucky for Logic, his fans might be too busy being glad that he’s officially back in the rap game than to critically break down the lackluster album “BT3"is.
Christian’s Album Score: 3.0/5.0
Christian’s Top 3 songs:
- Vaccine
- untitled
- Flawless
