Beginning his career in the music industry in 2010, Logic, born Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, didn’t get world-spread recognition until 2015.
Logic created and posted many songs on his Myspace page in the mid 2000s, but these are largely untraceable. The first mixtape he officially released was Young, Broke & Infamous in 2010 with “Stain in The Game” as the first track. “Under Pressure” (2014) was his debut single on the Under Pressure album.
With 36 singles, 5 studio albums, and 7 mixtapes, let’s take a further look into Logic’s early songwriting days and how he became one of the biggest names in the hip-hop industry.
Mixtapes Galore
As a young man in the early to mid 2000s, Hall displayed a fascination for rap and the hip-hop genre in general. His interest emerged after he watched director Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill: Volume 1, where the soundtrack was made by Wu-Tang Clan member RZA.
Coining the stage name “Pyscological”, Hall later shortened it to Logic, the name he performs under today.
“I just love this word because it’s about the mind and the brain and I knew that’s what I wanted my music to consist of, something that really challenges the mind,” Hall describes of his original stage name choice.
He continued, “I realized that I wanted to broaden my horizons, so I then just shortened it for marketing purposes to ‘Logic’, which of course is the science of reasoning.”
The Young, Broke & Infamous mixtape came out on December 15th 2010, and ended up being downloaded more than 300,000 times through DatPiff, and online mixtape platform.
Following this success, Logic released another mixtape called Young Sinatra in 2011. It became part of a trilogy of tapes under the Young Sinatra title.
It wasn’t until 2014 arrived that he came out with his debut album, taking a step away from the mixtapes. He stated that there wouldn’t be any featured artists on any songs, as he wanted it to be more personal to his life.
“Under Pressure” was his first major track as a lead artist, reaching the fourth spot of the Billboard 200 chart in the US and selling 70,000 copies.
Unreleased EP
Even though his first official single is “Under Pressure”, it’s worth noting that Logic was going to release a complimentary EP called While You Wait. He even went on a tour with musician Quest, who was also signed to Logic’s record label Visionary Music Group.
The EP was later replaced by the release of his debut album, in fact it was entirely scrapped.
A Big Hit Without The Big Hits
In 2016, Logic managed to go on a world tour in Canada, the US, the UK, France, Germany, and across several other parts of Europe.
Despite only peaking at the 33rd spot on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for his three albums Under Pressure, The Incredible True Story, and Bobby Tarantino, he was still receiving worldwide recognition.
Speaking to Forbes that year, Logic confirmed how he’s yet to have a hit, but can still perform for major crowds.
“I don’t have a hit but I can do 5,000 people in Chicago or 4,000 people in L.A. and it’s sold out,” he added, “now just wait until that hit comes.”
After persisting with his career, Logic was part of the hugely successful track on Suicide Squad: The Album titled “Sucker for Pain” (2016), as well as “1-800-273-8255” (2017) featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid.
He ended up deleting his social media platforms in 2020, though he came out with an announcement in April that year to confirm to his fans that new music was in the works.
“[I’ve] just been in such a creative zone working on everything to come,” he declared at the beginning of his statement. “I can’t wait for you to hear it when the time is right.”