Search - Louis Logic :: Misery Loves Comedy

Comedy loves company?

Pablo | 12/10/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've only recently been exposed to Louis Logic. I'd remember seeing his name listed as a guest on DOOM's classic Vaudeville Villain, released under his alias of Viktor Vaughn, but the track(Open Mic Nite, Pt. 1) was more of a skit than an actual song. I didn't think much of Louis from this short interlude, until a friend has recommended this release to me. Upon further investegation of Louis Logic, he was once a member of the Demigodz collective, and has ties to likes of Apathy and Celf-Titled. However, his style is far removed from Apathy's visceral battle rhymes.



If you've never heard Louis before, his flow is actually quite reminiscient of early-Eminem, despite the fact that Logic is a brother. His steez could be attributed to his upbringing, but personally, no matter how awkward his voice maybe, his flow is refined, and his timing is usually correct. Good breath control, and decent swagger add up to an above-average emcee; however, where Louis Logic really succeeds is lyrically, and conceptually.



Louis makes a lot of 'love-songs,' but they neither border the misogony line of G-Unit, nor follow the watered-down, overly sweet LL Cool J formula. Louis keeps things real with his stories, and while some people may be initially put off by an album that relates to real-life stories(face it, most of today's hip-hop listeners want surreal coke and trigger tales), Louis manages to keep reality on wax exactly what it's intended to be; interesting.



His producer, JJ Brown, also supplies over a dozen hot beats on this album. In fact, while Louis is talented, Brown maybe a better producer than Louis is an emcee, and I'd like to see him expand in the underground, offering his work to other emcees while still keeping his close connection to Louis Logic. His soul-sampled records are just as intriguing as the likes of 9th Wonder and Kanye West's, and upon listening to this album, you realize how underrated Brown is in the hip-hop game.



Louis Logic is a nice emcee, and JJ Brown is a phenomenal producer. Together, they release a concept album definitely work checking out. Whether you've followed either cat before or not is unimportant; you should feel Misery Loves Comedy."

An older, wiser Lou?

E. Ahn | Atlanta, GA | 06/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When Louis Logic's last LP, Sin-A-Matic, hit our ears, we were treated to the kind of sensationalistic and politically incorrect masterpiece that still holds up well today. Lou became the kind of emcee you could count on to never take himself too seriously, so you usually felt like you were laughing along with him when he struck those perfect chords of misogyny and sex-crazed pervertedness. Call it a guilty pleasure, but most people just called it good hip hop.



While Misery Loves Comedy had virtually no hope of ever eclipsing his last effort, it manages to strike an interesting balance between the crazed hedonism and emotional intelligence that Lou clearly possesses. For what it's worth, Misery seems to have sacrificed the fun of Sin-A-Matic, for some more somber moments, most of which involve the end of love. So much so, that you start to wonder if this wasn't a bit personal and topical when Lou was writing the album, especially in the two-for-one shot of "All Girls Cheat" followed by the superb depiction of love's lighthearted despair in "The Withdrawal Method". Sure, he shows signs of his old self on tracks like "Captain Lou El Wino" and a whole third verse dedicated to doing the nastiest of the nasty on "Beginner's Lust", but songs like "The Great Divide" and "Misery Loves Comedy" start to show that maybe Louis Logic is growing up and ready to talk about more than sex jokes and killing people. Whether that's a good thing or not depends on how you like your Logic. I always enjoyed him for his flow and lyricism, but it's understandable that some people would miss his sense of humor from songs like "Coochie Coo" or the arrogant braggart style of "Street Smarts..." One listen to the acoustic guitar of the bonus track remix of the single "The Great Divide" is enough to see that this is definitely a different kind of album.



If there's a complaint to be had, it may be that JJ Brown's production at times, though never sub par, may not round out the song as much as Lou wanted them to. Songs like "A Perfect Circle" or the titular track could have benefited from more of the spirit that was placed in the album's better efforts, but overall it doesn't detract from an album that some Logic fans may not dig, and undoubtedly many hip hop fans will never fully get a chance to listen to. I'm just happy to be somewhere in the middle, and getting to enjoy an album by one of hip hop's most underrated emcees."

Album So Dope They Ship It In Bags

Kalie A. Gipson | 04/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I became an instant fan of Louis Logic when I first heard "Freak Show" on an underground rap internet station. His wit, wordplay, and flow nearly blew me away. I knew I had to check out "Sin-A-Matic", his debut album. I came to find that the 20 bucks I spent on his first album was money well spent. Needless to say I didn't hesitate at all to check out his sophomore album, "Misery Loves Comedy", which dropped mid 2006. If I was to be perfectly honest, I didn't dig this one as much as I dug the first album. It's actually been sitting in my CD case untouched for the past 4-5 months now. Just a couple of weeks ago I was looking for something fresh to listen to and ended up pulling "Misery Loves Comedy" out to give it a spin. Now that I've listened to it in its entirety about 3 times now, I have a new appreciation for the record.



Now I can't even remember why I wasn't so impressed with it. His flow is unbeatable, I'm telling you this cat can rap. The beats by JJ Brown are top-notch and compliment Lou's flow well. The samples this guy uses are crazy. Louis's flow on every track is almost mezmerizing; he doesn't sound like he's running out of breath and he never gets off beat. He shows his ability to rhyme and rhyme well on tracks like "Classy McNasty", "New Leaf", "Rule By a Fool", and "Caption Lou El Wino". There are a lot of tracks dealing with women, sex, and relationships, both serious and comical. "The Line" is a cut about how friends check out each others' girlfriends and get jealous over it. "Beginner's Lust" has Lou giving "lessons on lust for beginners". "The Withdrawal Method" is about friends who try to be more but keep messing things up. "The Great Divide" is a cut almost anyone can relate to, about trying to get her to notice you but you're too cowardly to make the first move. There's a bonus cut, which is kind of a different version of this song, with a guitar as Lou's instrument. It's just as good as the rap original. "Morning After Pill" is a funny track that has Lou wishing there was a cure for his hangover whenever he spent nights getting wasted. "All Girls Cheat" is about exactly what the title says.



There's one song on the album that doesn't entirely fit with the rest, but that's not a bad thing at all, in this case. "A Perfect Circle" blew me away from the very first listen. It's a concept track (a story) that can play with your emotions. Lou tells a tale from the eyes of a 32 year old man who has been a loner of sorts his whole life. Needless to say, he's not very good with women. Dialing old random numbers, he dials the number of a woman who is kind of in the same boat that he's in. She stuns him from the first call, leavng him speechless (literally). He keeps calling back, disguising his voice to get to know her better. Then, he decides talking on the phone isn't enough, so he watches her house. The story turns tragic, but all the pieces come together at the end. The beat, amazing all by itself, really brings out the emotion of the track. The song is so good it deserved it's own paragraph, so that should tell you something.



If you were a fan of his first album, then you should have no doubts about picking this up. It may have to grow on you, but you'll be glad, like me, that you did in the long run. Logic is destined to be an underground legend, if he keeps dropping albums of this caliber. And if JJ Brown stays behind the boards for him, I only see good things happening in the future. The album is rather hard to find but do what you have to do to get it because it's well worth it. 5 Stars.



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