For a while now, Logic has been a distinguished and celebrated artist in the rapping genre. Known for his lyrical and technical skills, he also prides himself in spreading messages of equality when it comes to culture or racial identification. Yet, the messages he is spreading has always come under threat by critics based on the cultural appropriation of his art.
-Thought co
Logic has been criticised in the past for the constant repetition of “equality” or the “awkward mimicry of more successful rappers such as J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar”. This in terms of cultural appropriation is a consistent critique of Logic as the rap audience doesn’t buy into some of his “cheesy” messages regarding equality as some believe he is copying other rappers of the black race who have been preaching the same message long before. Yet, a misconception of Logic is that he in fact is biracial, starting a debate to whether he is allowed to repeat messages of equality such as former rappers of the black race.
On a global stage, Logic became world-renowned when he performed his new song at the 2018 Grammy’s, “1-800-273-8255”. Performing with names such as Alessia Cara and Khalid, the message he distributed all around the world definitely breached the gap between his younger targeted fans and himself.
However, he was not the first to include themes of openness and inclusion regarding the mental health topic with other names such as Kid Cudi, Jay Z and Isaiah Rashad preaching the messages before.
In 2016, Kid Cudi shared a post on his facebook page announcing that he had gone into rehab due to suicidal urges. This post was shared 137,000 times as well as receiving 600,000 likes and 55,000 comments.
Critiques of this “touchy subject” can argue that Logic is stealing all the credit for the success of mental health associations such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. However on the contrary, others including myself may argue that he indeed was the catalyst to success of the significant increase in the amount of younger people becoming more open to their mental health.
Stats provided by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline reported that calls surged by over 50%, with visits to the website increasing from 300,000 to 400,000 over the following months.
Logic also localises his music towards America and the issues which surrounds the country at the present time. In his recent song ‘One Day’ with Ryan Tedder, the music video portrays a Mexican family who is separated as they try to cross the Mexican border into America. This is a current and localised issue as the border security strengthens in the hands of Donald Trump and his “build a wall” movement.
To say that Logic has a significant affect on localised and global issues such as mental health and the inequality of races would be an understatement. Whether or not he was the catalyst of the openness of mental health in society, he definitely has increased the awareness of the issue.
REFERENCES
https://www.thoughtco.com/cultural-appropriation-in-music-2834650
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James Muggeridge 