Maryland rapper, singer/songwriter, producer, author & Twitch streamer Logic preluding Phonkadelic with a new EP. Emerging just over a decade ago off the strength of the first 3 installments of the Young Sinatra mixtape series. His potential would continually be shown on his first 2 albums Under Pressure & The Incredible True Story. However, it’s no secret that the quality of his music took a nosedive from Bobby Tarantino to Supermarket or the unlikeable bitterness of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. No Pressure however was a mature sequel to his full-length debut & I also thought the Doc D concept mixtape Planetory Destruction was decent too, but Bobby Tarantino III was pretty underwhelming. His final offering for Def Jam Recordings that dropped couple summers ago Vinyl Days happened to be his most artistically definitive yet. College Park & Ultra 85 was his strongest since Vinyl Days, but is compiling leftovers from that recent LP onto Aquarius III.
“This is the Way” samples ”Sittin’ Sidewayz” by Paul Wall thanks to Bobby Boy Records in-house producer 6 talking about rappin’ until he’s dead & gone whereas the self-produced “French Dispatch” takes a groovier route instrumentally explaining that music, family & movies are his 3 favorite things. “Not a Game” playfully suggests a change in the rap game while “Universe” nocturnally talks getting paper courtesy of Soundtrakk & the weight off his shoulders. “A Message From My Younger Self” rounds out the EP with a spoken word piece that was recorded in the summer of 2011.
Phonkadelic is said to be a huge stylistic departure for Logic since Juicy J will be executive producing it & the overall sound will be influenced by the phonk subgenre of trap artists like the $uicideboy$ & more recently Ouija Macc have become known for, so for Bobby to drop off an EP’s worth of Ultra 85 outtakes will do fine until then. The production continues to be more interesting now that he’s been off a major label for a few years at this point & the themes of these tracks would’ve fit in with the rest of his previous album without any objection.
Score: 3.5/5
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