By Julio Carrasco and Carlos Rodriguez

The Incredible True Story is the second studio album by American rapper Logic. It was released on November 13, 2015, by Def Jam Recordings and Visionary Music Group. Logic’s album is described as a motion picture sci-fi epic; taking place 100 years into the future, Earth has become unable to sustain life, with the remaining 5 million people living in a space station. Steven Blum who plays as Thomas and Kevin Randolph who plays as Kai, come from the future trying to travel to the Earth-like planet Paradise along with Anna Palchikoff as Thalia, the computer program. The album includes features from Big Lenbo, Lucy Rose, Dria, and Jesse Boykins III.

One track in the album called “City of Stars” is presented as a story sort of how Logic did with “Nikki” in his Under Pressure album. On Twitter, Logic released a statement about “City of Stars”:

“ City of Stars is a break up song with Hip Hop, written to be perceived as a person (so the listener can embrace it however they want) and finally not giving a sh*t about what that person thinks or allowing their opinion to drag down my artistic integrity or how I create.”

This is one of my favorite songs because of the style Logic uses to present. Making a song and putting it as a story where the listener can perceive it how they want is a very difficult task, but I feel Logic did an incredible job doing so. The track also reminds me of Kanye West because of the way his vocals are heavily auto-tuned, but still keeps his unique style and vibe throughout the song.

We can see Logic’s play on words on the word “intermission” by calling his song “Innermission” where he confesses his thoughts and his journey on trying to find the meaning to his life.

Another great song in this album is “Fade Away.” Being the first actual song on the album (“Contact” is more of a scene), “Fade Away” delivers a nice beat and some of Logic’s finest lines and flows. One of my favorite lines on this album is precisely on this song in which Logic raps:

“Never regretted, the second I said it I feel like I’m smarter, I read it on Reddit
You’re f***ing pathetic, my etiquette murder ya predicate, b***h I’m ahead of it, yeah”

By rapping in a fast way and putting his own style, Logic makes the line fit perfectly with the beat and makes the listener move their head up and down. Logic also shows his word play by using “read it” and “Reddit” (pronounced the same way) in the same line. To make it even better, the scene at the end of “Fade Away” gets a few laughs out of the listener with Big Sean featuring as Thalia.

Aside from these songs, other really good songs include the aggressive “I Am The Greatest” and “Run It”, the energetic “Like Whoah” and “Young Jesus”, and the calm “Paradise” and “Lord Willin’” .

Regarding scenes, Logic successfully creates a deep story about the preservation of nature, while also providing some comedy to keep the listener entertained. One line I took away from the scenes is the statement by Thomas:

“I guess my fear isn’t that we won’t find Paradise, it’s that we’ll create Purgatory”

Overall, Logic’s scenes are well articulated, from the comedic “The Cube” to the serious “Babel” and “Lucidity”.

Miguel Sandoval, US History teacher and J. Cole fan, listened to The Incredible True Story and found it very enjoyable. “It’s a fun listen, I like the themes,” Sandoval said. “I like Logic’s flow, he’s quick and has an extensive vocabulary,” he added.

Being his first time listening to Logic, Sandoval had generally good thoughts on the album, pointing to “Young Jesus”, “Fade Away”, and “City of Stars” as his favorite tracks. In addition, the history teacher also enjoyed the scenes saying they were deep and interesting statements.

The album art was illustrated and painted by artist Sam Spratt, as a 3 panel panoramic album cover. The cover includes 12 main contributors to the album’s creation, including Logic, 6ix, Steve Blum, Kevin Randolph, DJ Rhetorik, and a hidden Sam Spratt, among others.

The album sold over 135,000 copies in its first week, almost double of what Under Pressure sold, and debuted at number 3 on the billboard 200.