Finally No Pressure
As alluded to in the title, this post was inspired by one of my favorite hip hop rappers of all time, Logic, and his retirement album, No Pressure. By the time this post is published, it will have been over three and a half weeks since the album has come out, and the messages will probably still be sinking in for me on another level.
Logic has been one of the most intriguing rappers in the game given his upbringing/background and raw authenticity in his lyrics. I gravitated towards the punch his lines delivered in his debut album, Under Pressure. From then onward, it was all about his message of Peace, Love, and Positivity that made him so likable.
This album brings it back full circle from the young, early days of Logic writing music in his friend’s basement while also merging that vibe with a sense of maturity and development that is oh so soothing on the ear. While some of his “fans” and critics alike have played up how Logic hasn’t lived up to the billing with his albums following Under Pressure, there is a relaxed, no pressure aura that surrounds Logic to finally close off his rapping career, which is something we can all take from and learn.
No matter how much you pour your heart and soul into a certain craft, the fact remains the same:
You will always have critics telling you you’re not good enough.
Logic had the exact same experience and shed light on how performing in arenas for thousands of fans with the thought of that on mind really messes with your psyche. You’re left in limbo land between working hard towards perfecting and advancing your craft and constantly having that work negated through critiques.
Through this album, Logic brings to light two fundamental and simple truths that we all should, and in fact will have to, follow:
Just do you
Set your priorities from the get-go
Letting go is a concept I’ve discussed in past posts, and it’s the simplest mantra to follow but not the easiest to implement. Fortunately, this is where the second truth of setting your priorities helps tremendously. As Logic alludes to numerous times throughout the album, family and doing what makes him truly happy have taken over his life. Prior to this moment, Logic, like many of us, was chasing the dream of becoming the go-to person in the industry as a way to claim that he’s made it.
Funny enough, that isn’t how it works for him, you, or me when the dust settles. No matter what happens, people can forget you as quickly as they can cling to you - never forget that. Logic has a sample play from Alan Watts at the end of the 11th song on the album, Dark Place, that states:
And people say, “Well you’re just out for money”
I say, “That’s none of your business”
You see, a lot of people don’t feel happy unless they have another thing beyond money, which is called status
And status, to a very large extent in our economy consists in
In having this thing and that thing and the other thing, and having a swimming pool
A, uh, Ferrari, uh, certain kind of clothes and uh, certain kind of house
And so on, and so on, and so on
And we think, uh, we need all that
Because we haven’t asked ourselves whether that was what we really wanted
They all think they gotta have this, they gotta have that
And uh, they don’t really want it
If they sat back and considered, “Do I need all that? Is this trip really necessary?”
They would come to the conclusion that it wasn’t, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
The main message from this outro on the track is the fact that we as humans don’t practice self-awareness early on enough. I don’t blame us given how our brains are wired to always be searching for problems. However, it does become an issue when we complain about not having the issue fixed without confronting it head on.
Confrontation with the self is a scary thing.
For some, ego gets in the way towards clarity and awareness. For others, it becomes too scary and daunting of a thought to make the necessary strides towards fixing your own weaknesses. Logic’s done just that with his approach to his retirement album, and there’s a certain inexplicable element to those that have achieved that “no pressure'“, no pun intended, sort of aura and mentality.
I think that’s the universal element we’d all like: the ability to finally have no pressure on ourselves and call it a day with retirement. Unlike Logic though, we have to still think practically since we don’t all live, breath, and earn the kind of lifestyle and career that Logic does to heftily provide for himself and his family. But, just maybe that’s where we can take even greater truth from the Logic experience.
Adapting and changing course after years of soul-searching and beating on a particular industry and craft is something truly liberating that all of us can only wish to experience. We can, however, make that decision to pivot into another direction and not feel daunted or shy about it. In fact, we all started somewhere to get to where we are currently, so why can’t we do it again and again? That’s because there are all these additional pressures we put on ourselves to achieve and obtain certain things that are stated in the Alan Watts outro mentioned earlier.
And that’s where it all circles back to the first of two fundamental truths in you just having to do you. No matter if you look at it from the optimistic / dreamer point of view or from the pragmatic / realistic point of view, the answer will always come back to you and only you. Now that simplifies a lot of things, especially when you consider how we all have to Wake Up to life anyways. I guess the Logical answer is that since it’s all on you alone, there is really No Pressure…
"It ain't about the money and notoriety. It's about the people and making a difference in society." - Logic
