Logic, the rapper who has been talking about retiring for at least three years, appears ready to make good on that threat now, tweeting Friday that an imminent new album will mark his retreat from the music business.
“Officially announcing my retirement with the release of ‘No Pressure” executive produced by No I.D. July 24th,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s been a great decade. Now it’s time to be a great father.”
A press release from Def Jam Recordings announcing the new album, also issued Friday, did not make any mention of the artist retiring, although a subsequent “week in review” release from the label included press reports about his Twitter announcement. Logic’s rep did not immediately return a request for comment.
Logic has been talking about a looming retirement since 2017, although his messages on that front have been mixed, since in 2018 he signed a new deal with Def Jam that at the time he claimed was worth $30 million.
In 2017, upon the release of his “Everybody” album, Logic said that he would be releasing one more album before retiring. Of the successor to “Everybody,” the rapper said in a May 2017 interview with Genius, “That’s going to be the last one…. I just want to end everything with a really big bang and get the f— out of here. Better to go out on top like Jerry Seinfeld, nine seasons, No. 1 f—ing show in the world, over a billion dollars. I’d rather do that. … I’m just done with albums and it’s going to be the last one so you motherf—ers better buy that s— and tune in and see what it’s going to be about cause it’s going to be very special. … And then I’m going to go f—ing act and get this money. I’m going to be a husband and take care of my little puppies and have some f—ing kids and just enjoy life. F— that.”
Since making that declaration that “Everybody” would be his penultimate album, Logic has released three official studio albums (2018’s “YSIV,” 2019’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and the forthcoming “No Pressure”), a soundtrack to his novel (2019’s “Supermarket”) and a mixtape (“Bobby Tarantino” in 2019).
Two years ago, Logic boasted about the terms of a new contract with Def Jam. “Going from Section 8 and food stamps and welfare to 200 grand was life-changing, but the life change I’m talking about is the $30 million deal I just signed,” the rapper told Zane Lowe on his “Beats 1” show. Sources at the time responding to the Zane interview told TMZ the deal was not in that range. In an interview with Hard Knock TV around the same time, though, Logic also cited a $30 million renegotiation with Def Jem.
Logic’s reignited interest in retiring may well have been sparked by becoming a father. In a song he dropped in August 2019, also called “No Pressure,” he announced he and his newlywed wife, Brittney Noell, had a child on the way. “And I’m having a little baby!” he rapped in the song. “Surprise! It’s a little baby boy, f— TMZ, they can’t get the scoop on that s—!” He confirmed the birth of a son, “little Bobby boy,” in a social media post in April of this year.
In that April post, though, Logic didn’t seem to have retirement on his mind again yet, as he wrote then, “You know me, I’m five projects and two movies ahead at all times.”
If few fans fully expect Logic to keep to his word and never release another album, there’s precedent for skepticism. The list of hip-hop artists who’ve said they were retiring from making music and then reneged is a long one that includes Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and Juvenile, although it’s hardly genre-specific, with everyone from Frank Sinatra to David Bowie to Cher having taken back public retirement announcements.
Logic has had three No. 1 albums (“Everybody,” “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and “Bobby Tarantino II”), and has been in the pop top 10 with two songs, the anti-suicide anthem “1-800-273-8255” (with Alessia Cara and Khalid) and last year’s Eminem collaboration “Homicide.”