Joyner Lucas vs. Logic – A Timeline & Analysis
The internet has been having fun with this beef, but it seems to be escalating between the two rappers. We’ve seen it escalate from simple discourse, to diss tracks, to now twitter beef. How did it all start? We’ll take you all the way back to a Tech N9ne song, believe it or not.
October 13th, 2016
Sriracha – Tech N9ne (ft. Joyner Lucas and Logic)
Sriracha was one of the lead singles off of Tech N9ne’s seventeenth studio album The Storm. Joyner Lucas gained a lot of publicity for his incredible verse, where he held his own with Tech N9ne’s speedy lyricism. However, Logic’s verse was freestyled and noticeably paled in comparison to the other two emcees. Many people on the internet criticized Logic for “not rapping about anything”.
May 28th, 2017
Mask Off Remix (Mask On) – Joyner Lucas
In the midst of his slew of remixes at the time, Lucas dropped off his Mask Off remix and had some bars about Logic. He raps near the beginning:
“And don’t you compare me to Logic (never)
Go listen to Sriracha
Yeah, that’s Amanda to Ronda
And that’s a Benz to a Honda”
At the time, Lucas seemed to be poking at the fact that he clearly outrapped Logic on Sriracha back in October.
The next day, he commented on a post on Facebook (yes, people still use Facebook) and said the following:
This was the first time we had heard about Tech waiting 6 months for Logic’s verse, as well as their relationship being ruined.
August 29th, 2017
Joyner Lucas’ Billboard Interview
A few months pass and Lucas has an interview with Billboard promoting his album which had dropped in June. The interviewer asks about his reference to Logic in the Mask Off remix, to which Joyner shared some of the story as to what happened with the song Sriracha. According to Joyner, he felt that Logic gave a wack verse because he (Joyner Lucas) was on the song. He says: “I felt he was upset I was on the record and gave a wack verse. I think if that was just a Tech N9ne and Logic record, he would’ve never did that. That definitely rubbed me the wrong way”.
He went on to talk about an interview Logic had done where he was asked if he would prefer a Jay-Z or Eminem feature, to which he replied Eminem because Em would really rap and he’d be up for the challenge. Lucas felt that wasn’t true because if Logic wasn’t willing to do this on Sriracha with him and Tech N9ne, he wouldn’t do that with Eminem.
Lastly, Joyner Lucas mentioned the fact that his album was a phone number and Logic had dropped a song with a phone number as the title.
You can read the interview here: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7948977/joyner-lucas-interview-508-507-2209-album-logic-diss-lyricism
December 8th, 2017
Everyday Struggle – Joyner Lucas Interview
This was the interview that fully brought Joyner Lucas’ beef with Logic into the limelight. Here, he fully broke down the issue with the Sriracha record, saying that Logic made Tech N9ne wait 6 months for the verse and he freestyled it rather than put any effort in. Lucas says, “Finally we get the record back and when I heard it, I could just tell he wasn’t too happy about me being on that record.” He went on to highlighted some of Logic bars on the song to further his claim.
Lucas then divulged another side to the story involving Logic’s manager. In this scenario, Joyner was in a studio in Los Angeles and Logic’s manager came by, since he and Joyner’s manager knew each other. They start playing things from Joyner’s new album and Logic’s manager was fascinated by it all, asking questions about the videos and the fact that he named his album a phone number. Then a few weeks pass and Logic releases the song 1-800-273-8255 and this pissed off Joyner Lucas. He felt that the idea was ripped off by Logic’s manager who had recently seen him.
This interview currently has over a million view and made everyone aware of the situation. It is worth watching, if anything, for Joe Budden’s analysis and advice to Joyner.
March 4th, 2018
Look Alive (Remix) – Joyner Lucas
In Joyner Lucas’ latest effort on his run of remixes, another diss was sent Logic’s way. Fairly early in the song, Joyner says:
44 shots traumatizin’ from the .45, hit 44 more
Carbon copies say you kamikazes
That’s for e’rybody
This is most likely a reference to Logic’s new song 44 more calling it a “Carbon copy” since it very closely resembles Kendrick Lamar’s hit DNA.
This was Lucas’ fifth time mentioning Logic without a single response, until Logic finally responded on his new project.
March 9th, 2018
Yuck – Logic
After close to a year of a one sided beef, Logic has finally responded to Joyner on track 5 of his new album Bobby Tarantino II. While most of the verse was likely directed at him, these are the key bars Logic dished out:
“Cats beef with Logic, yeah, they prayin’ I respond
If I ever did, I dead you in this game with no respawn
Peace, love, and positivity that’s all I want with you
But you push the issue ’cause I give you more press than your publicist could ever get you”
Logic goes on to rap about envy, jealousy, and loving himself
Later that day, Lucas very obviously subtweeted Logic saying:
https://twitter.com/JoynerLucas/status/972306052774469632
March 19th, 2018
Joyner Lucas comments on Logic’s divorce
It was announced recently that Logic and his wife Jessica Andrea of two years have filed for divorce, which caused an uproar online this week. Lucas wasted no time to comment on the situation, tweeting the following:
https://twitter.com/JoynerLucas/status/975808506250039297
(He refers to Logic as Bobby Valentino as a joke since Billboard magazine accidentally called him that recently)
Joyner has also followed Jessica Andrea on Instagram.
Overall, this feud between Joyner Lucas and Logic is a mess. As far as the Sriracha record goes, Lucas is right to be mad at Logic for his poor verse. He should have at the very least respected Tech N9ne enough to provide quality after 6 months of waiting. Also, if the story is true about Logic’s manager copying Lucas’ idea for 1-800-273-8255, Logic should have at least reached out to Joyner about it. However, this whole issue definitely seems dragged out by Lucas. 1-800-273-8255 was released nearly a year ago on April 28th, 2017, but we were still hearing interviews about Joyner’s perspective 4 months later with Billboard, then 8 months later on Everyday Struggle. At the same time though, Logic should have addressed this issue back when Sriracha was released, as well as when his suicide awareness record was released. Finally sending shots back at Joyner Lucas on this project seemed more convenient to do, rather than intentional at this time.
Lucas has the right to be mad, but he should also move on and focus on his next moves as an artist; rather than ‘poking the bear’ with these songs and interviews. Logic, on the other hand, should also openly address these accusations by Joyner Lucas, especially since he has a known history for “biting” other rappers’ flows and even songs.
So who’s side are you on?