During his first independent endeavour, Logic’s College Park album showcases both the progression in Bobby Tarantino’s mentality as a man with a family, as well as the love the emcee has for his upbringing. Reminding himself, and the audience, of his roots and acknowledging the journey that brought him to the dance; College Park also teases what could be a new sound or direction that Logic may explore further in the future.
College Park starts and ends with acoustic guitar riffs and Logic singing his soul out, something many Hip-Hop artists have been doing lately. It isn’t long before the MPC pads, samples and boom-bap drums start hitting and Bobby goes off into one of his fast-paced verses. Logic catches a lot of flack in the Hip-Hop community, for reasons that I didn’t understand for the longest time, and I do believe he should get his flowers for keeping this genre and style alive in the mainstream in 2023. That being said, the majority of the album feels incomplete. Every song is very short and consists of one verse, and they mostly all come across like freestyles. Instead of fleshing some of these ideas and songs out with hooks and cohesive verses, Bobby just kind of goes-off with no structure. “Red Pill VII” and “Village Slum” have important messages and are two of the best songs on the album. I wish Bobby explored more of the relatable “growing older” and “mental health” topics because it seems like he has a lot to say.
I would never want to come across as someone questioning or denigrating Logic’s work ethic, and although my next statement may sound that way, I stand by it. When Bobby really applies himself, structures himself and focuses on writing a catchy and transcending song, his is exceptionally talented at doing so. The best example of this is the song “Highlife.” The structure, lyrics, and catchiness of the song, as well as the music video directed by Kevin Smith, will have you re-listening and rewatching many times over. We already know Logic can spit, and when he drops music like this, it really shows his growth as a well-rounded artist over the last ten years.
A lot of the songs are filled out with sketches, which always score huge points with me, especially when they’re done well—and these ones definitely are. However, it felt like there was only like 20 minutes worth of music front to back. College Park features a ton of legends and notable artists, such as: the RZA, Bun B, Norah Jones, Redman, Joey Bada$$, Statik Selektah and others. To take things a step further, Logic even did songs and videos with Seth MacFarlane and Jay & Silent Bob for this album. He’s truly a Hip-Hop nerd living out a fantasy and I think that’s awesome.
