Logic opens up on how nerd culture helped him re-shape hip hop: \u201cAnime saved my life\u201d DexertoAmerican rapper Logic can\u2019t overstate the importance of anime in his life. It\u2019s common knowledge that he was raised in a rough environment, witnessing domestic violence, substance abuse, and growing up living in abject poverty. But, he was saved by an anime series that\u2019s become a staple in the genre as a time-honored classic: Cowboy Bebop. The 2001 anime follows bounty hunter Spike Spiegel and the crew of the spaceship \u2018Bebop\u2019 as they traverse the stars kicking bad-guy butt and growing closer as friends. It\u2019s cemented itself as required viewing among anime fans over the years due to its beautiful animation, jazzy soundtrack, and beloved characters like Faye Valentine and Jet. For Logic, watching Spike and his group of buddies travel the cosmos opened up a whole new world, offering him a much-needed escape from his chaotic upbringing. In fact, Logic credits the show for literally \u201csaving his life,\u201d and told us as much in an exclusive interview at Anime Expo. \u201cCowboy Bebop was the first anime that I was ever introduced to when I was about eleven years old,\u201d Logic said. \u201cIt showed me that there was more out there than what I was born into \u2014 poverty and guns, drugs and violence in the household and parents that were addicted to substances and a father that was never around, yada yada yada, quintessential hip hop. \u201cBut anime \u2014 Cowboy Bebop in particular \u2014 showed me that there was so much more outside of that world, and that there were other worlds to explore. And I did. Anime saved my life, genuinely. Like, I would have nothing if I hadn\u2019t had this beautiful door opened up to allow me to not feel confined to the cards I was dealt, if you will, and it showed me that I could draw my own cards.\u201d Logic is a die-hard anime fan, something he hasn\u2019t been shy of sharing throughout his career as a Grammy-nominated artist. When we asked him to give us his list of top five anime, he was quick to respond, saying \u201cCowboy Bebop, Trigun, Samurai Champloo, FLCL, and Lupin the Third\u201d are his favorites. While Logic is known for his love of all things anime, gaming and sci-fi, it wasn\u2019t always \u201ccool\u201d to be loud and proud about these things. Now, names like Megan Thee Stallion are putting out songs like \u2018Otaku Hot Girl,\u2019 where she directly references Jujutsu Kaisen (and even got one of the show\u2019s voice actors on the track\u2019s intro). Logic credits himself for, in large part, kickstarting this trend in the rap genre. He\u2019s more than excited to see his fellow artists flying their nerd flags high now that the landscape of hip-hop has changed. \u201cI would say I was a pioneer of that, and I\u2019m not even trying to sound any type of way,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIn hip hop, it was not cool in the \u2018mainstream\u2019 to like video games or this or that, and I was like, \u2018F*ck that. I\u2019m gonna always be myself.\u2019 And I got a lot of backlash for it. You know what I mean? People were saying, \u2018You\u2019re super nerdy,\u2019 and it\u2019s already a thing that I look white and not mixed. So then it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s the white boy.\u2019 \u201cNo. I\u2019m half Black, and anime\u2019s awesome. I felt like I had to fight. And now as I\u2019m older, I\u2019ve come to the realization that one does not need to fight for their identity at all. All they must do is just exist. Unapologetically. And so, having gone through that, and now seeing how open it is, and how hip hop and music as a whole is kind of blending all these different worlds and cultures, I think it\u2019s wonderful to see. I think it\u2019s really incredible.\u201d Aside from his love of anime, Logic\u2019s also a pretty avid gamer. In fact, he signed a \u201cseven-figure\u201d deal with Twitch back in 2020, where he played with some of the internet\u2019s biggest personalities and content creators. However, he disappeared from the streaming platform in 2021 \u2014 something we asked him about during our conversation. \u201cIt was fun,\u201d he told us. \u201cYou know what I\u2019m saying? Twitch gave me a million bucks. It\u2019s really great when you can take the art and things that you love and also make money doing it, and properly, too, because I always hate when people are trying to take advantage of a situation. For me, it felt really great. \u201cI love video games, I love playing COD, I love Uncharted, The Last of Us, Diablo. I started doing conventions and a lot of people were like, \u2018What? Like, Logic, isn\u2019t he a rapper?\u2019 For one, I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m so much more than that, but yes, I am, and I\u2019m also a giant nerd, and I wear it proudly. It\u2019s a really wonderful thing.\u201d Logic felt that his time on Twitch was a crucial part of him becoming more accepted in the community, to growing outside of the rapper label many put on him without knowing the man behind the music. \u201cI believe the reason I can do these conventions and be accepted is because so many of these people are already my fans because we speak the same language. I\u2019m here because I want to be here. That time on Twitch in particular was wonderful because it wasn\u2019t about the money, it was about the opportunity to work with and play with so many incredible and influential people in that world.\u201d Logic\u2019s discussion with us comes hot on the heels of his collaboration with Crunchyroll, where the two unveiled a merchandise line in partnership with his favorite anime, Cowboy Bebop. This collab is truly a dream come true for the rapper, who\u2019s still in a \u2018pinch-me-so-I-wake-up\u2019 phase of excitement about the whole thing. \u201cIt was a true partnership,\u201d he said about working with Crunchyroll on the project. \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel like some corporation. I don\u2019t view Crunchyroll like that at all. I feel like they really understand the culture and the people. And so, for me, it was really cool to just feel heard and seen. \u201cAnd they were like, \u2018As a fan, what would you want to do?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018I want to do this and this and this.\u2019 I was like a kid in a candy store. Or the toy store, because I was very poor and I never had money for toys. So, this is like every toy I could have ever wanted as a child,\u201d he explained. \u201cTo be honest, I couldn\u2019t believe that it was real, because I was like, \u2018Oh yeah, okay, sure. Because they hit me, I was like, oh yeah, we\u2019re gonna do this collab, and Kelby and Bebop, we\u2019re gonna draw you, and I was like, \u2018Yeah, sure! Okay. \u201cI just didn\u2019t believe it, because it was like the golden ticket, you know what I mean? And Willy Wonka was like, there\u2019s no way. And they\u2019re like, it\u2019s happening! And I\u2019m like, okay, yeah, you use these designs. And then next thing I know I wake up and I\u2019m here talking to you at this incredible convention. It still doesn\u2019t feel real. I can\u2019t believe we\u2019re having this conversation right now. So I\u2019ll get back to you when I know for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Logic opens up on how nerd culture helped him re-shape hip hop: \u201cAnime saved my life\u201d DexertoAmerican rapper Logic can\u2019t overstate the importance of anime in his life. It\u2019s common knowledge that he was raised in a rough environment, witnessing domestic violence, substance abuse, and growing up living in abject poverty. But, he was saved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}