It’s rare to watch someone’s dreams unfold in real time. At his six-bedroom, seven-figure estate in the Tarzana hills, Logic reels from news he received earlier this morning. Projected sales for his sophomore album, The Incredible True Story, are 135,000 units, giving him his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hip-Hop/R&B Albums chart. He did it without radio play, significant promotion, gimmicks, co-signs or a celebrity girlfriend. He’s signed to Def Jam but achieved the unusual distinction of being an underground cult hero and mainstream star at the same time. His fans include Nas, Rick Rubin and RZA, but Logic can still go to the grocery store with-out being mobbed.
“Technology and streaming has changed everything. You can be an underground artist and still very much a real factor in culture,” the Maryland-bred rapper says, reclining on a newly purchased couch. He just moved here a few months ago, upgrading from a starter home in the flats of the Valley. There’s a pool and a balcony opening up to the Santa Monica Mountains, still smoke-green in late autumn. It’s the sort of view that would make you want to scream “We made it!” so loud, the neighbors complain.
“It’s like Jay Z said: Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t,” says Logic, born Sir Robert Hall II. “Would you rather have billboards and still not sell crazy amounts, or people talking about you, who walk past the billboard and don’t even notice who’s on it?” His biography reads like a rap reinterpretation of Slumdog Millionaire. Raised in Section 8 housing by constantly feuding and substance-addicted parents, Logic became obsessed with rap after discovering Wu-Tang Clan via the Kill Bill soundtrack. After dropping out of high school, he worked odd jobs, crashing with the family of a now-incarcerated friend, and on the couch of another friend and collaborator, Big Lenbo.
