A respectable retirement.
No one killed Logic's last album more than me.
I counted how many times he made me cringe(33). I compared him to a 2018-19 Dirk Nowitzki. I literally begged him to stop making music.
One year later, Logic is doing just that and retiring but not before one last album.
No Pressure isn't so good that you'll beg Logic to stay. It has its highs and lows and lies somewhere between the classifications of above average and good.
But after one of the worst albums of 2019 and three straight bad albums, a borderline good album is a great way for Logic to cap off his career.
The biggest critique against Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was that the only topic on Logic's mind seemed to be what other people thought of him, and he addressed it in the worst ways possible.
He played into it. He joked about it. He whined about it. He obsessed over it.
A bunch of internet trolls caused Logic to spiral into an identity crisis and question his own talent throughout the album. That doesn't happen on No Pressure.
"Used to people pulling me down, it ain't shit to me now, don't let it get to me now, threw out my phone, they can't get to me now," raps Logic on "Celebration".
Whether it be due to the confidence of being a father or knowing this is his last album, Logic doesn't spend this album trying to impress trolls. He raps freely.
With that freedom comes revealing tracks like "Open Mic\\Aquarius III" where Logic raps about being a crack baby and choosing to stay in an abusive household rather than live in a group home.
And when Logic does decide to address his past criticisms, his reborn freedom allows him to do on one track what he spent an entire album trying to accomplish. "Dark Place" tackles Logic's anxiety, identity issues and self-esteem in one verse better than all 16 tracks of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
Another reason Logic is able to shine on his farewell album is production.
Logic, No I.D, and 6ix provided some of the best production of 2020, making it nearly impossible for anyone with rapping ability to turn No Pressure into a bad album.
The album's samples are the greatest parting gift a retiring rapper could ask for.
"IGOR's THEME" by Tyler the Creator gets sampled for "Hit My Line". "Elevator" by Outkast gets sampled for "GP4". Erykah Badu's "Didn't Cha Know"(technically, Tarika Blue's "Dreamflower") is sampled for "Man I Is". "Grown Up Calls" by Toro y Moi is sampled for "5 Hooks". Juicy J's sampled vocals bring life to the album's best-produced track, "Perfect".
These aren't even half of the iconic samples or interpolations used throughout No Pressure, but you get the picture. Logic could have easily ridden this production into retirement.
And ride the production he did.
Outside of a third of the album, Logic doesn't have much to say for a guy retiring.
He spends much of the album shouting out inspirations. Actually, he spends most of the album shouting out inspirations. In fact, Logic shouts out another musician at least once on 10 of the 14 tracks, and that's excluding No I.D. shoutouts.
"He don't rap about his everyday life, he ain't the same, goddamn, already had a hard life once
Am I supposed to recreate it every album for you cunts," raps Logic on "Dadbod".
Aside for Logic's punchline ability, the lyrical highlights of the album come when he raps about his past hard life, but clearly, he doesn't want to do that for us c*nts. Instead, we get tracks like the aforementioned "Dadbod" where Logic playfully details his now simple fatherly life.
Just like saying "no offense" before saying the meanest thing possible doesn't erase offense, playfully rapping about a terrible subject doesn't make the subject less terrible. It sounds like Logic knows this, as he associated this song with Chance the Rappers The Big Day with the line, "and I love my wife like I'm Chance".
Logic not having much to say is even more evident when the album's production is drawing in the listener's full attention. At times, Logic refuses to give the album's production the bars it deserves, and listeners are left with the waste.
Imagine a plate full of some of the best wings you've ever seen goes to the table directly in front of you, and you watch as the person casually leaves meat on multiple bones like the plate was undercooked.
That terrible wing eater is Logic, and those wasted wings were the production of No Pressure.
He spends his second verse on "Soul Food" essentially describing a sci-fi script, which isn't out of place with his total catalog but sounds random in the context of this album. Then on "Man I Is", a track he deemed so special he referenced its background tracks earlier on the album, he sounds like he freestyles his last verse while getting kicked out of the studio.
It's confusing that an artist on the verge of retirement would waste so many of his final verses, which brings us to the last slight critique of No Pressure.
It's not Logic's last album and he's not retiring.
On what is supposedly his final album he hints at a mixtape called Ultra 85, and says things like "that's a story for another rhyme" on "Soul Food".
Logic could have announced his retirement to ensure his fans' support and ease album criticism, or the bars and Twitch tease could have been just that— a tease. Only time will tell, but for now, Logic is officially retired and No Pressure is his slightly above above-average swan song.
Final Score: 6.5/10
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