Logic Explains Retirement, Def Jam Departure, ‘Vinyl Days’ and What’s Next: ‘I Can Make Music on My Terms’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

A.D. Amorosi When Sir Bryson Robert Hall II – aka Bobby Hall, aka rapper-producer-mental health activist Logic – talks about the self-titled “fuck-it-have-fun” moment when his gleeful, new, return-to-rap’s-old-school album, “Vinyl Days,” was conceived, he doesn’t mince words about its motivation: leaving Def Jam for BMG.Signed to Def Jam since 2014, Logic made a splash at the label in 2017 when he dropped his “Everybody” album and its five-times platinum single, “1-800-273-8255” (National Suicide Prevention Hotline), featuring Khalid and Alessia Cara.

The emotive track not only rocketed Logic to fame and fortune (including the authorship of 2019’s New York Times Bestseller, “Supermarket”), “1-800-273-8255” made him an early advocate for mental health issues.

Since the time of his first hit, however, Logic has grown tired of the music industry, and even announced his retirement in July 2020.

While that hiatus didn’t last long (his “YS Collection Vol. 1” was released less than a year later), the end of his contract with Def Jam – fulfilled by “Vinyl Days,” a record containing his most committed, furious freestyles – comes with contradictions, a love of those at the label who helped him get ahead (listed on the 10-minute-long “Sayonara”), and a feeling of discontent for what he feels should have been.Signed to BMG in a licensing deal with marketing and distribution (technically the new deal starts in nine months, with management working to shorten that length of time), Logic will have ownership of his masters.“Vinyl Days” is more about your love for hip-hop than the more issue-oriented tracks you’ve recorded.