Logic

A prolific force in hip-hop and beyond, Logic has flourished across mixtapes, beat tapes, studio albums and hit singles—just for starters. Born Sir Robert Bryson Hall II in 1990 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, he picked up rapping as a teen after hearing RZA’s soundtrack for Kill Bill: Vol. 1. He built an audience through a series of grassroots mixtapes, helming a storytelling-heavy style whose sound ranged from classic boom-bap and backpacker rap to contemporary pop and trap. Logic’s 2014 studio debut, Under Pressure, saw him join the roster of hallowed rap label Def Jam. His 2015 follow-up The Incredible True Story manifested as an ambitious sci-fi concept album, and soon he was juggling the writing of his best-selling 2019 novel Supermarket—complete with an alt-rock soundtrack he made himself—with finishing off his Young Sinatra mixtape series. Since then, he has published the 2021 memoir This Bright Future, completed his Bobby Tarantino mixtape trilogy and dabbled in both acting and screenwriting. Hall even announced his retirement in 2020, only to return with the crate-digging classicism of 2022’s Vinyl Days to complete his Def Jam contract before continuing on as an independent artist and new father. “I just wanted to rap, have fun, not overthink it and do my thing,” he told Apple Music about the comeback LP. “And I feel like I did. And I’m happy that I’m able to do that, especially at this place in my career.” Whether tapping guest spots from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane and his early inspiration RZA on 2023’s College Park or returning to sci-fi grandeur on 2024’s Ultra 85, Hall remains creatively unbound.