Logic

In 2015, after working through an ambitious sci-fi concept album (The Incredible True Story) and a comedy screenplay (Everything Must Go), the rapper Bobby Hall, better known as Logic, decided to write a novel. Not only did he end up finishing it, but Supermarket became a New York Times bestseller. And not only did it become a bestseller, but also Hall wrote and performed an alt-rock soundtrack for it, echoing the narrative of the book. Such is the multi-hyphenate mind of Logic. Born in 1990 and raised in bleak circumstances around Gaithersburg, Maryland (his parents were addicts; his brothers were dealers), he picked up rapping as a teenager after hearing Wu-Tang figurehead RZA’s soundtrack for the movie Kill Bill: Volume 1. He built an audience through a series of grassroots mixtapes, helming a lyrical, storytelling-heavy style whose sound ranged from classic boom-bap and backpacker rap to contemporary pop and trap (or, as he put it on “Bounce,” “Bumping everything from Project Pat to Dilla”). Interviewed on the occasion of being included in XXL’s Freshman Class of 2013, he said he knew he was going to make the cut; the success of his Def Jam debut, 2014’s Under Pressure, came as a foregone conclusion. Like Kendrick Lamar, early Kanye, and J. Cole, Logic represents rap that splits the difference between narrative ambition and biographical vulnerability, alternating high-concept stories with personal glimpses into addiction (“Nikki”), fame (“Soul Food,” “Everyday”), and mental health (“1-800-273-8255”). In 2018, he released the final installment in his Young Sinatra series (YSIV); Confessions of a Dangerous Mind followed a year later.