Maryland rapper Logic has released his third big project of the year. Following the release of his book Supermarket – which made him the first rapper to become a New York Times’ number one best-selling author – and an album of the same name, Logic dropped his fifth studio album Confessions of a Dangerous Mind a.k.a COADM. The album has been highly anticipated since January when the first single “Keanu Reeves“ was released. So far COADM has received some pretty mixed reviews. Be that as it may, there’s no denying it is accompanied by some gorgeous artwork. Especially the album’s cover.
Created by NYC illustrator Sam Spratt, the cover shows a psychedelic graphic of Logic which may not look like much at a first glance. But longtime fans of the rapper know better by now. See, Logic’s talents go beyond him spitting a few bars while solving a rubiks cube. He has developed this fun habit in recent years of dropping clever little Easter eggs on the the covers of his albums.
COADM is certainly no exception to this and the fandom (affectionately dubbed the “Rattpack”) is going crazy about it. From nods to fellow artists, throwbacks to previous his albums and a wild conspiracy theory that could hint at a part 2 to COADM, let’s take a look at some Easter eggs on Sam Spratt’s illustration.
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The T-Shirt
Again, at first glance, the shirt depicted in the artwork might not seem like much beyond a funky design on in. In actuality there is plenty of interesting things to notice. First things first, the cables in the back of the robot’s head is identical to the cables in the artwork for the “Keanu Reeves” single. There have also been whispers that said robot could be Thalia.
For those unfamiliar with the lore of Logic, Thalia is a character from Logic’s sophomore album/musical experience The Incredible True Story. It follows a crew on a spaceship listening to the music from The Incredible True Story on their journey to a land only known as “paradise”. Thalia is the name given to a computer program that operates the spaceship, the Aquarius III. At one point in the album, Thalia is instructed to hack the system of another space ship. Could this be what Thalia looks like in the form of a robot? Or, in a dramatic turn of events, could someone be hacking into Thalia via the cables? If that’s the case, could this hint at Thalia’s return in a future album?
The answer is most likely yes for one big reason: Thalia’s name is on the shirt. The letter that looks very much like Japanese is actually not a known language but one Logic himself created and fans have mostly deciphered. So, using the semi completed alphabet, one can see that the cluster of symbols spells out Thalia’s name.
The broken heart on the left could have a very deep meaning. COADM touches on a variety of topics, one of them how the internet and social media has negatively effected artist time and time again. Could the broken heart hint at Logic no longer caring about the opinions of those in comment sections? Could he be pulling an Ed Sheeran and decide to go on a social media hiatus, thus literally breaking the hearts of the “likes” on internet? It’s probably a stretch. The most likely answer is that this is a reference nod to Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak album. This is supported by the fact Kayne is referenced a small handful of times throughout COADM.
Look Around Tattoo
Like many musicians, Logic has few tattoos. In interviews he has expressed that tattoos are reminders of important things in his life, for the things that he has accomplished and wishes to accomplish in the future. Despite the jacket he’s wearing, some of the ink pokes out on his right wrist and it says ‘Look around’ and Logic explained the meaning behind it last year on Instagram. “The other day I was in the car driving through a beautiful place I had never been before. And I was staring at my phone on Instagram like you are right now. And I saw a post that made me realize I wasn’t in the moment and appreciating the things around me. So, I put “Look Around” on my wrist just underneath my eye line of where my phone is when holding it in my hand. As a reminder when I’m on it to put it down and enjoy the gift of right now.”
The Jacket
Just like the shirt, Logic’s jacket has a handful of fun references. Starting on the left hand side, the most obvious one being the patch with the three lines. It’s the logo for Logic’s third album Everybody. Below that looks like the Adidas logo only it looks a bit glitchy. Plus it doesn’t say Adidas; based the visible letters it probably says ‘anxiety’.
Right below the ‘anxiety’, the jacket has ‘Ultra 85’ along with more letters from Logic’s alphabet, which is too small to translate. ‘Ultra 85’ is apparently the next album and potentially the final installment in The Incredible True Story saga. This can be confirmed via Logic himself in multiple interviews. But before that there was a bunch of Easter eggs found in his third album Everybody. When it was first released, there was a limited edition booklet for sale that had a letter at the end and a hidden message that says: “To decipher the letter, read every 8th and 5th word.” Said code translated to: “For the real fans reading this hidden message my next album will be called Ultra 85, and it will be the conclusion to his saga.”
That was back in 2017. While Ultra 85 has yet to be released, Logic has mentioned it many times within the context being that it’s coming sometime in the future.
On the right side of the jacket another patch can be seen containing more letters from Logic’s made up language. The translation as of right now is as follows:
DDSS
LRAM
?AMA
??UR
?KST
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Top Left Corner
We are once again met with this lettering in the top right corner. This time it translates to something far less cryptic, simply meaning ‘Logic’ and ‘Studio Album’. The 6 could be a nod to his producer 6ix. Though it most likely stands for the fact this is his 6th studio album.
The Tracklist
If you look at the official tracklist for COADM in the bottom right corner you’ll once again find Logic’s language. It translates to “Adios Persona” which is an anagram for “Paradise Soon”. That could be another throwback to The Incredible True Story as well as another potential Ultra 85 teaser. Another interesting thing to point out is the multicolored box. It’s a bit strange that the tracklist isn’t centered, right? Fans are convinced the box is actually covering up a second tracklist. Which brings up the big conspiracy theory among the Rattpack: There is a part 2 to COADM.
COADM Part 2?
Since the albums debut, the armchair detectives of Reddit and Instagram have used impeccable observation skills to find some pretty interesting things that hints to there being a little more to COADM. They actually make a valid argument. A big discussion centers around a cryptic tweet Logic posted in January. Many thought that this is what they should be expecting with the then upcoming COADM, as it was a combo of two previous albums. But the presentation of the tweet caused a bit of an uproar. Why did he write it with those enter spaces? Why not just write it normally like, Under Pressure meets Bobby Tarantino? What if he released the Bobby Tarantino part first? COADM touches upon the negative effect social media plays in our lives. Despite that, it received bad criticism. And that may have been on purpose.
The very last song on COADM has an outro in Japanese which translates to: Thanks for joining us for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. It was wonderful, wasn’t it? I hope you enjoyed it. However, if you don’t like Logic, please cover your ears or just leave. But actually, you can’t help but love Logic, right? Every day you can’t help but think of him. You’ve become obsessed without noticing. RattPack all over the world, we have made our mark in history together. I will always love you and am grateful for you. From Maryland to Japan, with love. RattPack.
“Every day you can’t help but think of him. You’ve become obsessed without noticing…” What if the entire COADM release was a publicity stunt to make a point? Release an unfinished album, observe people online talk about how bad it is, watch “fans” talk sh**t then come back with the second side and proving his point. The ultimate clickbait. It could be a stretch. But if he pulls this off it would be genius.
Support for this theory comes in the form of a minute long flash animation of the album’s art that Logic posted on May 10th. In the bottom right corner of this animation, next to his hand, is a tiny text that says ‘Fig. 2’. Could this just be a glitch? Or a hint that the music that is available now is the second part to a complete album? Which made a lot of sense when I went to purchase some of the limited COADM merchandise. Because I’m extra, my bundle included the vinyl along with some shirts. In the email confirming my order I noticed something odd regarding the record.
First off, how can the item be pre-order if the album has already dropped? 16-20 weeks?! And why does an album that is 54 minutes long need more than one record? Maybe in 16-20 weeks I’ll be getting the ‘completed’ version and only time can tell.
As usual, Logic plays the game and plays it well. While most of the songs come off as boastful, Logic is never one for slapping songs on an album just for the sake of pushing an album out. His madness always has purpose. COADM is silly, as though he was acting as a parody of himself. Like if he was an over-hyped, main stream mumble rapper. You know the kind, the ones that always seem to rap about women, drugs and how much money they have. Or all three at the same time. Pushing that aside, it does it’s very best to make note of the bright and very dark side of fame, mental health and the social media aspect of social justice and righteousness. It’s good on it’s own. But it’d be really cool if there was a second secret side.
You can stream Logic’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind where ever you get your music.
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