Under Pressure (album)

Under Pressure
Studio album by Logic
Released	October 21, 2014 (2014-10-21)[1]
Recorded	2014
Genre	Hip hop
Length	56:23
Label	Def Jam Visionary Music Group
Producer	No I.D. (exec.) 6ix (exec.) Logic DJ Dahi S1 M-Phazes Kevin Randolph DJ Khalil Dun Deal Jake One Alkebulan Arthur McArthur Tae Beast Terrace Martin Skhye Hutch Rob Knox Swiff D
Logic chronology
Young Sinatra: Welcome to Forever (2013) Under Pressure (2014) The Incredible True Story (2015) Deluxe edition cover Singles from Under Pressure "Under Pressure" Released: September 16, 2014 "Buried Alive" Released: October 14, 2014

Under Pressure is the debut studio album by American rapper Logic. It was released on October 21, 2014, by Def Jam and Visionary Music Group. The production and songwriting were primarily carried out by Logic, along with Visionary's record producer 6ix, while Def Jam's No I.D. served as executive producer. The album was recorded over roughly two weeks from Logic's home to No I.D.'s studio, both in Los Angeles, and in hotel rooms where Logic had been staying while he was on tour.

Under Pressure received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the production and Logic's lyricism in his storytelling. The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 and sold 72,000 copies in its first week of release, supported by two singles: "Under Pressure" and "Buried Alive".

Background

Between 2010 and 2013, Logic released four free mixtapes online and funded his own tours, through which he built his fanbase and reputation.^[2][3] According to Logic, the largest factor of his rise was that he "hit the road and actually saw [the fans] face to face and shook their hands."^[4] He signed with Def Jam five months after the release of his Young Sinatra mixtape in 2011, a deal kept secret until 2013 because he "didn't want the fans to be like, ‘Oh, he’s going to change!'"^[5] Logic has characterized Def Jam as his "bank", which does not interfere with his creative control or deal much with his publicity.^[6] Visionary Music Group, an independent label run by Logic,^[7] managed and funded his audio mixing, mastering, tours and album art.^[3]

In 2013, Logic moved to Los Angeles to work on his debut album with Def Jam's No I.D.,^[3] a mentor he later compared to Yoda.^[8] Several people told Logic to make the album more personal than his mixtapes, and so he decided to write about his difficult upbringing in Gaithersburg, Maryland.^[2] On the advice of Don Cannon, he chose to maintain the album's personal theme by omitting guest appearances.^[9] Its title Under Pressure reflects the challenges of Logic's private life and rap career, and his belief that the album is "his diamond", as diamonds are created by pressure.^[9] His mixtapes had dealt heavily with his biracial heritage, but he changed his focus from race to culture on the album.^[10] Rather than go "the radio route" with Under Pressure, Logic wanted to create a classic hip hop album in the style of Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Big Daddy Kane, Kanye West and Big L. To help new listeners understand that his roots lie in this music, Logic tried to make Under Pressure more consistent and more quintessentially hip hop than his mixtapes, which he found incohesive.^[9][11] Although he admitted to emulating other rappers on his earlier releases, he believed that the album would finally crystallize "the sound of Logic".^[8]

The album artwork was painted by Sam Spratt, an artist based in New York City. He was asked to recreate the basement of Logic's friend Big Lenbo, where Logic had lived and recorded early in his career. Using photographs taken at that time, Spratt painted a detailed reproduction of the space. The artwork's "half dark[,] half bright and beautiful look" symbolizes the two sides of Logic's life.^[11] Spratt wrote that he collaborated heavily with Logic to make the album's narrative "sync up on the art side."^[12] The title and tracklist on the album art were hand-written by Big Lenbo.^[13]

Composition and recording

For Under Pressure, Logic took inspiration from sources such as Quentin Tarantino's films and the music of OutKast, A Tribe Called Quest and Kanye West.

Under Pressure was developed over several years, but it was recorded in roughly two weeks.^[14] Recording locations included No I.D.'s studio and Logic's home, both in Los Angeles, and hotel rooms where Logic stayed while touring.^[15] No I.D. served as executive producer and exercised high-level oversight of the album—a loose management style that Logic compared to that of Quincy Jones. Although Logic found No I.D.'s advice and connections to be critical to Under Pressure's quality, he later clarified that "it was me and [Visionary Music Group producer] 6ix who created this entire album."^[7] During the album's development, Logic regularly watched Quentin Tarantino films and listened to A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast and Red Hot Chili Peppers.^[16] Other influences on the album include Kanye West's Late Registration and Graduation, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Kendrick Lamar's "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst".^[10]

The first track to be composed was the nine-minute "Under Pressure", which Logic wrote and self-produced while on tour with Kid Cudi. After returning to the studio to work on the song in Pro Tools, an error caused a sample of Eazy-E to play over aggressive drums, which Logic decided to use as an opening half to "Under Pressure". Live instruments such as guitars and cellos were then added. The two halves of the track came to represent "the duality of man", as Logic rapped from the perspectives of his hip hop persona and his everyday identity. The resultant song "set the tone for the rest of the album", according to Logic.^[10]

Opening track "Intro" was initially based on a sample from the song "Aeroplane (Reprise)" by Wee, which Logic and 6ix had heard in Kanye West's "Bound 2". However, technical issues forced them to interpolate the sample. Work on track two, "Soul Food", began when Logic found the song's instrumental hosted on SoundCloud by rapper and producer Alkebulan. Logic obtained permission to use the track and polished it with his team. After they were unable to clear or interpolate a key sample, DJ Khalil was recruited to recreate it. The song's second half is made up of production from 6ix recorded a year before the rest of the track. "Intro" and "Soul Food" were placed together at the album's start to create a jolting transition from a "beautiful and musical and melodic" song to "six minutes of raw lyricism".^[10]

For "Buried Alive", Logic selected one of his 20 instrumentals which given to him by Dun Deal, added new drums and backing vocals, the latter recorded by Big Lenbo. DJ Dahi provided several potential instrumentals for "Never Enough", and the "skeleton beat" Logic selected was built up with interpolations of "So Fresh, So Clean" performed by OutKast and "Pursuit of Happiness" performed by Kid Cudi. "Growing Pains III" is the third installment of Logic's Growing Pain trilogy. The song is produced by TDE's Tae Beast and 6ix. In the song, Logic speaks on his life and pain growing up in his household. "Metropolis", a Rob Knox and Logic co-production, features an interpolation of Bill Withers' "Use Me" designed to add "thump" to the original song's drumming. "Nikki" samples Jeff Beck's Love Is Green. Nikki has been a brought up on previous songs and has been personified as a very close female until it's reveal that Nikki is an abbreviation for nicotine.^[17] The title track is the first single for the album and is produced by Logic himself. The song samples Eazy-E's Eazy-Duz-It and Grant Green's My One And Only Love. The song is looked at as the centerpiece of the album by critics and fans alike. The song is a 9 minute, two part song, the first verse Logic speaks on his success and sharing with those who helped him, and the second part is him speaking on losing touch with his family due to his success and finding out how proud they are of him. The album closer, "Till the End", was the last to be composed and recorded. Husband and wife team The Frontrunners and the producers S1 and M-Phazes contributed to the song's instrumental. Upon hearing the mastered version of the album, Logic reportedly cried, as it proved to him that he had succeeded despite his troubled childhood.^[10]

Music and lyrics

Under Pressure details Logic's life story beginning with his childhood in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and he has described its content as "extremely, extremely dark".^[5] Logic conceived "Gang Related" after watching Boyz n the Hood. Logic considered it to be "a gangster record" that subverts the glorification of violence common in hip hop: he wrote about the criminal activities that surrounded him as a child, while showing that he chose a different lifestyle. After completing the first verse, he was blocked on the lyrics for ten days, until he thought to rap from the perspective of his brother who had dealt drugs in Logic's youth. His brother agreed to the idea and provided him with stories from the period.^[10]

While on tour with Kid Cudi, Logic received numerous voicemail messages from his family, which he "transcribed damn near word for word" and converted into rhyming lyrics. As a fan of hip hop braggadocio, Logic was initially uneasy about the results, but he chose to push forward with the idea. "Never Enough" was written as an "ignorant" track with a hidden meaning: it discusses the pleasures of "money, bitches, drugs [and] partying" but declares them insufficient. Logic wrote "Till the End" about his difficulty breaking into the mainstream.^[10]

Singles

On April 8, 2014, Logic released a song titled "Now" which was supposed to be on his EP as a preview for the album. A week later he released another track titled "Alright" which featured Def Jam rapper Big Sean. Logic later announced that he would cancel the EP and use those songs on the deluxe edition of the album.^[18] On August 28, Logic released another song that would appear on the deluxe edition of the album titled "Driving Ms. Daisy" which had a guest verse from Childish Gambino.^[19] On September 16, 2014, the first single from the album was released titled "Under Pressure," with the music video coming out on October 9.^[20][21] On October 14, Logic released the second single titled "Buried Alive".

Promotion

On November 13, 2014, Logic performed "I'm Gone" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with The Roots as his backing band.^[22]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100[23]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[24]
DJBooth	(Favorable)[25]
Exclaim!	9/10[26]
HipHopDX	[27]
RapReviews.com	9/10[28]
Rolling Stone	[29]
Sputnikmusic	1.0/5[30]
XXL	XL (4/5)[31]

Under Pressure received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 8 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".^[23] Sheldon Pearce of HipHopDX found a lot of depth in the album's storytelling saying "There are a great many moments that make Under Pressure feel like a feature film about Logic’s life, and when at its best, it is creating that sort of imagery."^[27] AllMusic praised the production and Logic's storytelling throughout the album saying, "Under Pressure is an autobiographical and odds-beating debut that arrives more fully formed than expected."^[24] Eric Diep of XXL was compelled by the lyricism throughout the album, concluding with "Filled with persistent rhymes about his grind, it’s a final warning that he’s not going anywhere. For Logic, alleviating the pressures of critical acclaim just got easier."^[31]

In a negative review, a staff reviewer from Sputnikmusic said "It’s not a verbatim copy of Kendrick’s work, but it’s every bit the stylistic counterfeit, and while it, along with the other mentions above, could be seen as imitations done in reverence had they been released on a free mixtape, their use on an album is no doubt a calculated effort to profit off of the ideas and work of another who did it first, in an attempt to capitalize on the ignorance of those listeners who may not know better." He did, however, continue by saying, "Outside of these disgusting faults, Logic’s album isn’t a bad effort at all, with few truly dull moments and good production and rapping from front to back."^[30]

Accolades

* denotes an unordered list

Commercial performance

Under Pressure debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200, selling 72,000 copies in the United States.^[35] On November 26, 2014, the album has sold 99,000 copies in the United States.^[36]

Track listing

Sample credits

• "Intro" interpolates "Aeroplane (Reprise)" performed by Wee and "Midnight Marauders Tour Guide" performed by A Tribe Called Quest.
• "Soul Food" samples "The Champ" performed by The Mohawks.
• "I'm Gone" samples "I Want You" performed by Marvin Gaye and "Take A Win" performed by The Physics.
• "Gang Related" samples "Carrot Man" performed by Sepalcure and "Mad Crew" performed by KRS-One.
• "Never Enough" interpolates "Pursuit of Happiness" performed by Kid Cudi and "So Fresh, So Clean" performed by OutKast.
• "Metropolis" samples "Use Me" performed by Bill Withers.
• "Nikki" interpolates "Love Is Green" performed by Jeff Beck.
• "Under Pressure" samples "Eazy-Duz-It" performed by Eazy-E and "My One and Only Love" performed by Grant Green.
• "Driving Ms. Daisy" samples "Spaz" performed by N.E.R.D.
• "Now" samples "Skycell" performed by Nguzunguzu.
• "Alright" samples "Cathart" performed by ISAN.

References