Grammy-Nominated Rapper Logic Talks New Cowboy Bebop Collab, The Last of Us, and Top 5 Anime

Grammy-nominated artist and anime super-fan, Logic is fresh off the debut of his new Crunchyroll-exclusive streetwear collection with legendarily groovy anime classic, Cowboy Bebop . Launching at Anime Expo this past 4th of July weekend, the rapper teamed up with Cowboy Bebop 's original character designer, Toshihiro Kawamoto, on the 11-piece limited edition collab . Crunchyroll News had a chance to sit down with Logic to debrief about his time at AX24, including the full house at his dedicated fan panel. The songwriter wasn’t afraid to get deep about the essential role Cowboy Bebop played in his journey as an artist and how the culture of animation and gaming continues to influence his style and lyrics. We’re here chatting about your new merch collab with Crunchyroll and Cowboy Bebop . For those coming at this from the anime side of things and may not have heard your music yet, how would you describe yourself and your style? Logic: Wow, that's a cool question. Well, first I would say hi, welcome. That's the first thing I would say. Quote me, hi, welcome. I am a human being who represents peace, love and positivity and my entire blanket statement for everything I believe in, in all of my art, writing and music is — I love saying this — the fight for the equality of every man, woman and child, regardless of race religion, color creed and/or sexual orientation or pronoun — however you identify. I'm here to spread a good, positive message for all humans and aliens in the galaxy to be whoever they are. Number one, that's who I am. I think my music stylistically is very much so, like my race: mixed. I love all kinds of styles. A giant fan of storytelling and just overall good grooves. I think that's definitely a great way to describe it. And I think a lot of fans felt that welcoming atmosphere at your panel at Anime Expo. That leads me into my next question: Since we last saw each other,you hosted your panel at Anime Expo with Jacki Jing and CurtRichy. What was that experience like for you? Logic: It was really wonderful, you know, those two were fantastic and so well versed in anime (…) I almost felt like a rookie up there. I was like, man, they were great. I was taking notes. I just love a really wonderful, positive experience. You know, coming from the world of hip hop – let me really state that hip hop is such a beautiful, all encompassing genre of music – but primarily mainstream hip hop for many years, has, you know, been focused on, I guess, a bit of acting tough and hard and maybe focusing on material possessions (…) So you gotta understand, I don't do interviews at all. You know what I mean? Like it's very rare that I'll, that I'll do an interview – maybe once or twice a year, depending if I'm going on a really cool press run or something. The thing I loved about [the panel] and the thing I love about talking with you right now is that I feel like I'm engaging in a mutual conversation, you know, and in mainstream/hip hop media, everybody's just like, ‘what do you think of this fight?’ and ‘this beef’ and ‘who are you?’. So, to answer your question: It was one of the warmest welcomes I've ever had in my career. You know, to go up there, be myself–whoever that is–and have fun and just talk about things that I love. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I'm serious.To just be me. And f*ck it, quote me on that. RELATED: Logic and Crunchyroll Team Up for Logic x Cowboy Bebop Streetwear You’ve been quoted as saying: “Without Cowboy Bebop , there is no Logic.” It’s sort of been the central frame around this collab. What does that phrase mean to you? Logic: Oh man, almost made me want to cry. Well, you know, speaking of central frame, look at the piece of me surrounded by this incredible crew, you know? I'm at the center with some of my earliest idols cheering me on and, you know, as an artist and as a creative coming from where I came from – which is a very vicious household full of guns and drugs and violence and murders and all this stuff – to make it out of that (…) Cowboy Bebop was the first shining light in my life to let me know that there is so much more out there than just the violence that I was essentially born into and expected to follow – these traits of drugs and violence. Logic: When I first discovered Cowboy Bebop , it was an escape (…) It was an escape and all these years later, it's an enhancement. Now, I don't have to escape from anything. I have a beautiful wife and children. I'm very lucky and blessed to wake up every day and do what I love and spread a positive peaceful message. I've–in a way–beaten the game. I have nothing to run away from these days. And because I'm not running, I'm flying in this spaceship with these people–and I've seen [ Cowboy Bebop ] a million times. For me, that child is who I see when I look at this collection (…) Without Bebop , there is no Logic because without Bebop , there was no way for little Bobby to escape the treacherous nature of his upbringing. Again, you're setting me up perfectly for my next question. What do you think it is specifically about Cowboy Bebop that resonated so strongly with you at that young age? Logic: I think first and foremost, the thing that comes to mind is the strong representation of you know, a female lead, which was fantastic. I also love that Julia in and of herself – aside from Faye – was never exactly a damsel in distress, you know. But I love that Faye was just this bad ass woman and human (...) And as a young man raised by women and unfortunately, seeing all kinds of domestic violence and this and that, I've always felt a real bond with women. Human beings in general, but, you know, with women. To see such an incredible representation to this character of a really smart, awesome person who could kick some ass, that's one thing that I really love. And then for Jet, you know, this like this old b*stard just like fed up with the whole world to have these moments of sincerity and sweetness and, you know, essentially in a world built on toxic masculinity, to see a softer spot when he goes and, you know, to see his old, old flame that, that he once had (...) Logic: And then of course, there's Spike. As much as I absolutely love Spike, the biggest takeaway that I got from him was his thirst for vengeance. And feeding his own ego and fighting, just feeling the need to fight when a million times–I mean, any single episode that we watch, all he has to do is leave this life. But he can't because he's addicted to it like a drug (...) It's beautiful because it's all also about love, you know? He wants to be with his person and ride off into the sunset. But in order to do that, he and she both feel as though they have to kill Vince (Vincent Vicious) because he'll never stop. He'll never stop, but Spike will never stop it. It's very Batman and Joker and that's why I love it. I love it because of all the individual characters and I love it because this dysfunctional family reminded me so much of mine. You spoke a little bit about this at your panel: You have a friendship and creative partnership with the English voice of Spike Spiegel, Steve Blum, who has been featured on your albums. How did that relationship come to be? Logic: So, I watched a documentary called I Know That Voice . It was done by John Dimaggio, who voices Bender ( Futurama ) and some of the other incredible [voices] on Adventure Time and all that. And it was the first time I saw so many faces to voices I had only heard growing up. And one of them was Steve, who I'd seen before, but not like this. It was so intimate and beautiful and, and during all this, you know, one of the actors says, “Well, you know, it's a job anybody can hire us.” And when they said that – ‘anybody can hire us’– I was like word for real?! So I had my folks reach out to his folks. The business was all squared away and, you know, they knew it wasn't BS on my end. And then the next thing I know he's driving over to my house (...) And we just start talking about life, addiction, past family, friends, future… And I kind of pitch him on the idea, show him a few pages that I have for The Incredible True Story , my second album (...) and lo and behold, not only were we working together in a professional capacity, but he's become truly family and a big brother of mine (...) He's the best person in the world, by the way, like the coolest guy, sweet, funny, like all the things you would hope and think or whatever. Steve isn't your only connection to the world of Cowboy Bebop . Tell us a bit about what it was like to partner with Cowboy Bebop 's original character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto on this current project? Logic: So, on this current project, it was really great. We haven't [physically] connected because everything is through email and stuff. So I'm really excited to truly connect personally. Hopefully, you know. I don't know why we wouldn't be able to make that happen, especially because I plan to go to Tokyo soon (...) I'm gonna go out there and just kind of like work on one of my next scripts and tighten it up and just find inspiration. Maybe I'll be able to, you know, shake [Kawamoto’s] hand and give him a very respectful [bow]. But that was incredible. A lot of the people in the world may not know how much reverence and respect that I have for this art and this craft and this way of life. So the fact that he has some inkling, it makes me very, very, very, very, very happy. What was your reaction the first time you saw the designs? Logic: When I saw it, it was very emotional and I almost didn't believe it. Because when I saw it, it was like, ‘Oh. It's go time.’ (...) It was really wonderful to hold it for the first time and to see that child grow into an adult, literally living his dream on a spaceship while making beats. In just a few words, describe for us the vibe of this collab. What was the goal with the design? Logic: Here's my few words, quote me on this: It's the hottest kind of cool. (...) I think the goal was a true meeting of both worlds, but I wanted to meet my world in their world. You know, I didn't want to just do a bunch of stuff, you'd already seen and I don't think that they wanted to just slap stuff on a shirt, you know. I wanted it to feel– if I'm being completely honest, like what I wanted from it was something where like just any Bebop fan who may be completely unaware of Logic's existence is like, ‘Damn, this is tight.’ Like, ‘This is awesome.This is really cool.’ (...) So, that was a big thing for me. I just wanted to create something true to the fans that somebody would see and go wow, I've never seen Cowboy Bebop merch like this. It almost feels like it's been taken from the anime from screenshots and grabs if you could go inside of that world and put that shit on a shirt. That's how it feels to me. So it was wonderful to be able to actually achieve that. What I think the fans at home are gonna wanna know are, what are your top five anime of all time? Logic: Cowboy Bebop , Trigun , Lupin the Third , Dragon Ball Z , Samurai Champloo , Sailor Moon . You recently put out Deja Vu with DJ Darma and the title track you reference Ellie from The Last of Us . What are your thoughts on the game and what are some of the other games you’ve played recently? Diablo IV recently. I just started, Octopath Traveler , which I have not really dived into much. My guilty pleasure is Call of Duty because you just sit there and have fun. I've been rerunning the Uncharted series – which I love Nathan Drake. I actually had my buddy Nolan North who voices Nathan Drake – he's a co-star in the film that I just finished – I have this tattoo, his signature, here that says ‘Sic Parvis Magna’, which means greatness from small beginnings, which is on Nathan Drake's ring. I'm a nerd. Image via Naughty Dog Logic: I'm waiting on Metal Gear Solid Delta , which is the Sneak Eater remake, which I'm excited for (...) So there's a few of those. The Last of Us is probably my favorite game of all time aside from Super Mario World , the classic. What does it mean to me? I really enjoy it. I love it. I love that you picked up on that lyric. What is it ‘Stealth mode like Ellie in Hillcrest?’ Yeah, the Seattle portion of the game. Logic: Yeah (...) And I was so obsessed with the Last of Us that I somehow befriended all the voice actors and MoCap actors and Neil Druckman. I got a picture of me and Neil. I was wondering if you were going to mention [that]. Logic: Oh yeah, he's become a wonderful friend and homie and then he put me in the second game and you get the best gun in the game off my character when you kill me as Ellie. So what does it mean to me? It means it's a true representation of the pursuit of one's dreams and not having to try to fit in. I think if I wanted to be the biggest coolest rapper, I would probably have to engage in a bunch of bullsh*t that I don't really care about and ignore my family and be on the road 365 out of the year. And I think to be the best Bobby and Logic, all I have to do is be myself here. That's what the game, that's what the collab means to me. Check out the Crunchyroll x Logic x Cowboy Bebop collection on the Crunchyroll Store!

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