How to CRUSH Excuses: Logic's Recipe for Success

And hip-hop is like, "Yo, he's gay as fuck, dawg. Like, fuck that dude." The people who fail in life at the things that they want to do, they always give a reason or excuse— an excuse to why they can't do it. Sure, you could wake up and just paint every day, but like, you gotta pay your bills.

A lot of hip-hop is like, really, it just— it's like real terrible, like the consumer.

I do my best to treat everybody with the same respect. I treat you like I would treat my garbage man or the president.

He's an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His debut studio album, "Under Pressure," was released in October of 2016. 2014 to critical success. Under Pressure debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard 200 chart. He's Logic, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 6 is my personal favorite, and make sure to stick around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips.

And hip-hop is like, "Yo, he's gay as fuck, dawg. Like, fuck that dude." Like, you know what I mean? Like, I just—

"Why don't you like him?" "You know what?

He can rap. He got a good story.

His flows are cool, fo' sho'.

I just don't like him, though." Like, and it's, like, so ignorant.

It's crazy. So, like, yeah, years ago, you know what I'm saying, when I first got on blogs and I'd be excited, I'd read comments. But now it's just like, there's no point to read comments. Yeah, don't read the comments. Don't read the comments. Yeah, it's either too positive, which can lead you to, like, be dickheaded. Where it's too negative, which could make you try to create music to get them to stop hating on you. It's like somebody being like, "Yeah, he should rap like this, he should rap like that. I don't like the way he raps." And then the person changes up how they rap to try to, you know, make that person like them. And then they're like, "Man, he ain't even being himself." Like, after you change— So it's like, you can't win, man. You can't win no matter what you do. So for me, I don't listen to the hate. I don't listen to the love too much. I just, you know, take it all in stride. Like, I love what I do. And as long as I can wake up every day and feel that, I feel like I'm doing the right thing. The law of attraction, to me, is a very real thing. You speak it into existence, you say it, and then you do it. It's like the secret to success or whatever the case may be. I think truly and utterly, the people who fail in life at the things that they want to do, they always give a reason or an excuse to why they can't do it. You know, "I would, but," or "I want to, but I can't because," you know, and there's always this, like, at the end of the day, you just, you have to do it. I came from nothing. I came from Section 8 household, welfare, food stamps, you know, drug-addicted parents, nothing. And I'm here today talking to you, and I have so much more to go and so much more to do, but I can like look in the mirror and say like, I've made it, whatever the hell that means, you know what I mean? And I did it because I said I was gonna do it, and I'm gonna continue to do it. I'm gonna act, I'm gonna write novels and books and movies, and you know, I'm gonna do my best to be the best husband and father I can be. And, you know, so there's so much more, but I'm gonna do it. And I think that's what it really comes down to. Don't ever do anything just for the money, because if you do it just for the money, um, you won't— you'll never be happy. Do what you love, because if you do what you love and you wake up every day doing that, it doesn't matter because you'll be happy. Um, which I think is— I, I think it's 100% true to an extent. Sure, you could wake up and just paint every day, but you got to pay your bills. Do you know what I mean? There's a way you got to do it. So sure, waking up and painting every day, but if painting isn't paying your bills— so it's just like, yo, make a way for painting to pay your bills. You see what I'm saying? Maybe you paint for ad companies or this or that on the side, so then you can paint whatever the hell you want during that. You know what I mean? So just whatever it is, do what you love. And that's the biggest thing I've— that's my whole thing, do what you love.

Like, you are a very friendly person who's from a relatively tough circumstance. What made you that way? I think, like, I truly believe that you're a product of your environment, you know what I'm saying? So we had it really bad, and, you know, my sisters got pregnant, and my brothers were selling drugs and doing drugs, and these are the things that they saw, and they went that route, you know? I actually have a song on the album where I took— because I've talked about my dad's drug abuse for many years. Years now, and I really delve into it on the album. And one of the things that I, you know, he called me and was like, you know, I really wish you would stop talking about that. And I was like, well, I wish you had been a father and been there, and I would wish that you would understand that by me writing this is 10 times better than me using those same drugs and inflicting them upon myself to get over it. So maybe you should like not be so selfish and realize it. Right, and be happy that my way of dealing with it's positive. Exactly. So, but what I'm saying as far as, you know, being a product of your environment is where they may have chosen a, you know, the wrong path per se, you know, I saw it and it made me kind of go in the right direction. I guess it's just up to God, not to sound like cliché again, but that's what that is. But it's also up to you. I mean, you were a kid who made that decision. You're like, "Ah, I'm not gonna do that." But I just believe in honor and valor, man. Like, we live in, you know, this demographic, like, I'm not talking about the purists, I'm not talking about people like yourself, but like a lot of hip-hop is like really, it just, it's like real terrible, like the consumer, 'cause all they care about is like, it's like, it's almost, I'd be more, you know, legitimately acceptable if I was, you know, 6'2", Black with dreads, in towed guns, and then people would be like, "Oh, he's a real rapper," as opposed to, like, carrying myself with grace and speaking how I speak and not trying to throw the accent on everything. And, like, you know, I'm just me, man. And I think, if anything, that's gonna be more authentic in the long run, um, rather than trying to pretend to be someone I'm not. I've gone through those same experiences. You know, I was taught and cooked crack in my kitchen from 12 to, you know, like, in my teenage years to learn and see what these things were about and understand, 'cause they were going on in my household. But I don't glorify it. I'm not like, "Yeah, we cooking crack. We got this." I'm like, "Damn." Why was I 12 years old and my sister's baby daddy was showing me how to cook crack? Like, where were my parents? You know what I mean? And explaining that side of it.

All the negative experiences that I might have gone through, or whatever the case may be, built a much more positive person, you know what I mean? 'Cause that's why I'm so positive all the time. I like to tell people, like, you know, I'll go on Twitter and I'll say, you know, my whole motto, which is peace, love, and positivity. Follow your dreams. Do what you love in life, whatever that might be. And, you know, I've been saying it for years, and it started with me telling myself, 'cause nobody else was telling me. Nobody was telling me to follow my dreams or that I could do it or that I could be somebody. And then it ended up me telling myself this in songs. I ended up telling millions of people that listen to it, which is really crazy. And just always doing my best to be a good person. 'Cause when I first started, like, imagine going somewhere and meeting somebody in the industry, and they're like, walk past you and don't even look you in the face or talk to you or say hello. And then you start to get a buzz, but people still aren't sure who you are. And then it's like, oh, this is, Logic, he's got so-and-so such amount of views on YouTube and they're like, "Oh, what's up?" But it's like, nah, yo. So me, I do my best to treat everybody with the same respect. I treat you like I would treat my garbage man or the president. It's just the same, it doesn't matter. Do you feel underrated as a rapper? Not as of lately, which is crazy. For a long time, man, for years I was pissed. So a song on the album called "Buried Alive" is about that exact thing. It's about me kind of going, "How come he gets the so-and-so cosign? Or how come he gets that? Or how come they get that? I can tour the world. I can sell out shows. I got fans. I got this. What the fuck, man?" Like being angry. I had a friend tell me, she basically said, "Those same people who have the cosigns and have the this and have the looks are the same people who are going, 'How come I ain't got fans like this then? How come I can't tour on my own? How come I can't this? Like, what the fuck?'" So it kind of put things in perspective for me and let me go, "Okay, I don't have it yet, But if I keep fighting and I keep working hard and I keep staying on this path, it's gonna happen. And as of late, within the last few months, man, just from releasing the singles and the music videos and this solid body of work, I've truly began to get what I deserve. So since my motto, my whole motto is peace, love, and positivity.

Peace, love, and positivity.

That's it.

That's my whole motto. And some people hate me. They're like, "Fuck you. War, hate, negativity." They'll say disgusting things, horrible things. But that's just the internet. —And I used to always wonder—

It's not just the internet, it's just people. And listen, if they're broken inside— Oh yeah. —they're trying to drag people down with them.

And I used to wonder, I would ask myself, I would say, why do people hate? I don't understand it. I don't understand how, why would somebody hate on me? Why would somebody hate? And then it clicked and I said, I will never understand because I'm not a hater. I don't have a hater mentality. I have a winner mentality, a lover's mentality. I get it. So it's just like, you know, with law of attraction or whatever you want to call it. Like, I don't use, you know, a lot of people say, oh, you know, I wish I could travel the world or I wish I could do this with my life, but, and as soon as they say but, but that's it, they destroyed it, it's over. If you say but, that's bullshit. You have to say I'm gonna, I will, you know, or before, you know what I mean? I remember when I was 7 years old before they did the English dub of Akira, I saw it when I was a kid, I didn't know what it was. It was terrifying, disturbing, and very beautiful all at the same time. And then so when kind of digging into this album, I was like, man, that's where I kind of really want to take it. I want to just be fully creative, you know? And it's like, man, you know what, like, who cares what's this, what's that, or if I gotta fit in with this person or that person. Then I realized, like, all my fans, most of them motherfuckers don't fit in with nobody, and that's— and then they fit in with everybody else on my planet, you know what I mean? Like, all the fans, so many people, like, like, I watch these fan submissions because, you know, I'm doing this tour, fan tour, and they're like, your music is amazing, but honestly, dude, it's your message and the people I've met because of your music. And it's like, whoa, that's crazy. That's what matters the most. You know, my whole mentality has been just like, I don't give a shit. Like, I don't give a damn about nothing, man. I used to care so much like what people thought because I love this culture. So I really love this culture, but this culture is also really fucked up. So I was like, you know what, fuck it. Like, I'm just gonna be me, I'm gonna do me. So when I told myself I'm gonna create an album about anime in space and shit, I was like, I'm gonna do it, but I'm gonna do it in a way where if you don't give a damn about this, you can just skip it and enjoy the music.

Okay, so I make beats for smaller rappers. Okay, that's a good start. So I got a good business idea. I'm gonna trick Logic into using one of your beats, and then you're gonna blow up and everything's gonna be set.

Yeah, fam. So wait, is this more like, but is this more like a, like you're trying to set up your personal brand via social media? Is that what you're asking, the best way to go about that?

Yeah. So you're trying to become a big producer. You wanna be Metro Boomin, you wanna go in that route. Yeah. Logic?

My advice here is interaction with your peers and through that, so say there's other producers. So there's a zillion producers out there, right? So find some of your favorites or some people that you would almost see as competitors and collaborate. If you work with somebody else, you guys are always trying to outdo each other, but it's such a friendly competition that their listeners on their YouTube and their Twitter are gonna find out that you guys are working working together, and then they're gonna want to hear what you're doing with this guy or that guy. And then through that, then other rappers are gonna start to hear what you guys are doing together or even individually and then want to mess with you. And then that rapper might have, you know, 2,000 followers or 5,000, whatever the case may be. So to be quite honest, I think it's— especially in this day and age, for personal branding, there's two things. There's one, you should, you know, do little vlogs and talk about who you are and the things that you like and the things you enjoy. How do you Is it FL Studio? Is it Ableton? Do you use an MPC? Do you like the keyboard? All these things. Do tutorials. How to make beats. How to this, how to that. You want people to tune in and go, I like this guy, so for everything I want, I'm gonna come to him. Whether I wanna buy a beat, whether I wanna learn how to make a beat, or whatever the case may be, it should be all about you. You wanna be the shit, you know what I mean? So I would say just have fun and connect with others that, that are even better than you and learn why they're better than you and take their secrets and kick ass.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because life asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I also love to know which of Logic's top 10 rules had the biggest impact on you and why. Which of the clips resonated most with you? Leave it in the comments below and I will join in discussion. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Catherine Pear. Catherine, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. If you guys watching, if you want a chance at a shout out in a future video, make sure to get the book and email in your receipt so we can keep track. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you soon.

But this is what I want you to do. Mix up that Rubik's Cube. Oh, extremely bad. Go ahead, hand it to Iday. Mix it up extremely bad. Now what I want you to do is I'm going to put on an instrumental, okay? And you got to freestyle.

Freestyle. And your mind is going to be—

yeah, okay. So I might say some crazy—

I don't know what I'm going to be saying, but you got to freestyle while you're doing that Rubik's Cube.

She is really trying to mix this up.

Take it and throw it up against the wall. We put the pieces back together.

Really trying to make— take out some colors.

And you know what, Logic, it could either be freestyle or you can just give me something from the album, but I want your concentration to be on lyrics as well. Okay. As what's going on with this room. This is a pat the head, rub the tummy kind of style. All righty, you— all right, she's handing it to Louie G now. This is cool. Louie is mixing it up, best believe that. Yeah. All righty. All right, pretty good. That looks pretty much right. There's no two colors.

I didn't even know we was going to do this.

This is like really—

all righty, now let me see, let me see it. Toss it over here real quick.

A lot of colors together.

I'm looking at all these blues here. Oh, this is well oiled too. This is well broken in.

Yo, it's literally lubed.

It's lubed. Alrighty, pause. You know what I'm saying?

Have you ever been in a competition? No, my wife wants to put me in one. I think you should do it. And I talked to Juicy J and Juicy J was like, I'll come and I'll support you. He'll support you? Yeah, he's like, as long as I can get drunk, I'll be there.

Oh yeah, of course.

You know what I'm saying?

Alrighty now. Logic, here we go. All righty, and we— you know what, I don't even— you could time them, but I'm not really going for time. Okay, I'm, I'm going for logic. Breaking this down. All right, now you gotta, you gotta make sure that you kicking lyrics while you're doing this logic. Check, check.

This is what we do. Nah, nah, give me the next one, give me the next one.

Hold up, what about this one?

Yeah, uh, check, check. Oh yeah, see, I like this BPM.

Here we go, you ready? Uh-huh.

Here we go, check it. I'm about to spit the vibe, this is how we do it, whether it's that new or that tribe, we always gotta keep it alive, you know my Vision is hella crazy, the flow is never lazy. See, I don't even know what I'm saying, I'm just vacayin' in Barbados. The second I get it, it's crazy 'cause she Jamaican me crazy. I don't know, I'm just spittin' this rhyme. I gotta spit it on time, the second I do it, it strictly come out my mind. They say they know the deal, I always keep it real, and yes, I get it like that. This is how we do, I got my first cat, that happy wife, happy life. Nah, the flow is never trife, I gotta get it like this. It's hella crazy, nah, the flow is never lazy, and it doesn't even make sense, it doesn't even matter. I'm just spitting that random thought. It can't be taught. This is how we do it. Speaking of thoughts, I can't fade these hoes. Where y'all been? Where y'all going? This is how we do it. I don't even know what I'm saying. I ain't knowing. I'm just keeping this. I got this Rubik's Cube. It's got the lube and pause on that. We all on that. And this is how we do it. When I spit these rhymes, it's kind of crazy. Oh no, when y'all mess this Rubik's Cube up. See, hold up. Hold up. Y'all messed it up. So I got to flip this around, take it out, Put it back in. Now I do the algorithm real slick, real smooth. This is how we do it like a criminal. Flow so medicinal. My stuff is heavily medicated, never eradicated. They evacuated the second I arrived on the scene. I spit it hella clean, spit it hella mean. Thought I had it for a second, but I didn't. Gotta bring it back. This is like— it's really crazy when you spit it like this.

And oh my God, y'all really messed this thing up. Go ahead now.

Y'all messed it up. Y'all messed it up. I got to bring it back. Y'all was flipping it too hard with your fingers. I'm lingering. I'm lingering. I got it. I'm singing. I'm bringing them in. And this is how we do it. Let me begin. I would have solved it fast if y'all ain't mess it up. But it's all good. We got to keep it going. Shout out to Corrupt, that West Coaster, the holy, the one and only, the grail. Spit a second, I get it, and I prevail, he said.

And he prevailed, ladies and gentlemen. There it is right there. Logic Rubik's Cube freestyle. Never done!