Summary

Collider’s Steve Weintraub chats with Logic (Sir Robert Bryson Hall II)for his first-ever interview as a filmmaker for Paradise Records.

Written and directed by, and starring Logic, Paradise Records is a comedy with an ensemble cast that celebrated its World Premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.

In this interview, Logic goes in-depth about his move from music to moviemaking, how J.J. Abrams, Kevin Smith, and Seth MacFarlane were important collaborators in him fully funding his directorial debut, and what his next moves are in movies and music.

Grammy-nominated rapper, producer, and New York Times bestselling author Logic is branching into filmmaking. Logic steps behind the camera with his directorial debut, Paradise Records, a film that blends his passion for music with narrative world-building, further exploring the cinematic influences he’s showcased throughout his career in a new media format. Paradise Records tells the story of a struggling record store owner (Logic) fighting to keep his doors open before the bank takes control. As we watch his struggle play out, we’re introduced to a number of entertaining characters that work at the store. Like Clerks and other one-location movies, the reason to watch is the crazy situations that arise at the store and the dialogue between the long-time friends. If you’re a fan of hangout movies, this is for you. In addition to Logic portraying the central role of Cooper, the ensemble cast for Paradise Records features Tramayne Hudson, Reed Northrup, and Mary Elizabeth Kelly. The movie also features cameo appearances from several notable stars, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ron Perlman, Martin Starr, David Krumholtz, Tony Revolori, Kevin Corrigan, Juicy J, Bobby Lee, and Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes as Jay and Silent Bob. Before the world premiere of Paradise Records at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down to chat with Logic, who gets candid about his directorial debut in-depth, diving into why he’s making the move into filmmaking and how J.J. Abrams, Seth MacFarlane, and Smith were essential in beginning the process for him. Logic also discusses funding the project himself independently, as well as writing, directing, producing, and starring in the project, and explains how closely he worked with Smith, who also serves as editor on the film. Plus, he also shares his plans for both more filmmaking and music and they discuss music, video games, and so much more. Watch the conversation above, or you can read it below.
Why Logic Is Making the Leap From Music to Movies

“I was so terrified to do it.”

Image by Brandon Barrett and Fabian Pacheco

COLLIDER: I’m obsessed with getting more people to see movies in movie theaters, and I’m just curious if you have a favorite movie theater. LOGIC: Oh, wow, that’s crazy. That’s a great question. I think my favorite movie theater was the Regal in Rockville, Maryland, when I was a kid. It’s where I would go to see movies. I was super poor, like understatement, as a child, so I would only get to see a movie maybe once a year if I was lucky, and whenever I did go, it was very fond. I did get to go a little more once I left my house, because I had to leave at 17. It’s a whole thing. My mom was, like, not really that sane of a person, and my dad was on drugs. It’s whole thing. Anyway. I moved in with this family that are now like my godparents, actually — Mary Jo and Bernie — and every once in a while, Mary Jo would let me tag along on a date night, and I’m like 17 years old, and go watch a movie. So, it was very, very fond in Rockville, Maryland. You have produced, you’ve done a lot of music. If someone is not familiar with your musical resumé, what’s the song or the album you want them starting with? LOGIC: That’s a great question. Thank you. I would probably say my debut album Under Pressure because it really talks about a lot of the things that I went through in my life and just making it out of a Section 8 household and food stamps and drug dealers and killers in the household and cooking drugs as a child, and all these things and making it out. I think it’s the album I’ve been waiting to make my whole life. Obviously all the experiences that I had, I got to just kind of relinquish on that first album, Under Pressure. Is there a song on the album that you really want people starting with or just track one and go? LOGIC: Man, that’s a hard one. If you were to listen to the title track “Under Pressure,” it’s nine minutes, there are all these musical switch-ups. It’s pretty fun. But it’s also like you build up to get there. So, I would say start from beginning to end if you truly want to know my story and where I came from. It’s just so funny because I hadn’t listened to that album in over 10 years, and I listened to it recently. All the feelings and the hunger and the emotion that I had at 24 years old, I was like, “That’s why I make movies now,” because music hasn’t made me feel that way. Even this, being nervous and excited to do this interview with you, I’d lost that in music because it’s just like, “How many times can you perform at Madison Square Garden? How much money can you make? How much of being on a constant hamster wheel, ignoring your mental health for accolades and number ones?” It’s just like, “Well, how much is enough before it’s just greedy?” So, at the height of my career, I stepped away from music to focus on being the best father and husband that I could possibly be, and that was in 2020. For the last five years, or at least for three of those years, I was kind of lost, trying to figure out what I wanted to do. It always kept coming back to film, like, “Make film, make film,” because I was so terrified to do it. So being able to talk to you gives me this feeling that I had when I was younger — not like I’m trying to chase like a crack pipe or anything, but it’s a fun feeling is what I’m saying. I can’t believe I can say this, but I asked Bono this question two weeks ago, and I’ll ask you. It seems to me like a lot of people who rap are very willing to collaborate with one another, and the rap game is just filled with everyone guest spotting on each other’s albums, but rock bands do not do this. There’s so many other artists that just don’t do this in the music game, and I’m just curious why. Why is it that Green Day or Pearl Jam or whoever, these big bands, won’t really collaborate, but rappers will? LOGIC: That’s an incredible question. When I think about [Bob] Dylan and Johnny Cash, and them being familiar or cool with each other, things like that back in the ‘60s, there’s been so many incredible relationships amongst 1,000,001 musicians. I think the reason why you don’t necessarily see guest spots is because pop is more of a village and a community, but it’s also extremely territorial. The thing about hip hop is… Well, wow, I mean, musicians, everybody wants the spotlight. Everybody wants to be number one in the mainstream aspect of it. So, it’s funny where I think rappers will work with people they like, and then they will also work with people that can help them get to a different level. Then, if this person helps this person and they’re here, then this person could have catapulted this other person to be even bigger than them, but they’ll remember that, so then they’ll work with them again. It’s a whole game. But I think outside of the business aspect of it, it’s just a family, man. You get inspired by somebody, you call them on the phone, you say, “Hey, I think you’re great. I think we could make something really cool.” It’s different because, also, it’s poetry. Not to say that any any other form of lyricism isn’t. That’s not what I mean. That’s just what it was, you know? I mean, hip hop was birthed in the late 1970s, right? When you think about what that really means, it started with DJs. So, the DJs, the disc jockeys, would spin on the block parties, but they needed some form of representation. Then we bring in the emcee, or the master of ceremonies, and it would start with the guy being like, “My DJ’s cool. My DJ’s fly. He’s cooler than every single other guy.” And then there’d be another person on the other side of the block being like, “No, my DJ’s the best. My DJ’s the coolest. Ain’t no way I let that MC fool us.” That’s how it started. And then the emcee started to go, “Man, fuck my DJ, man. I’m the shit.” So, I think it’s really also that the evolution of where this particular genre of music came from. That’s actually a very good point that I hadn’t really thought of.
Logic Says Quentin Tarantino Changed His Life

“It all started with bloody mayhem and a badass woman with a samurai sword.”

Image via Miramax Films

Jumping into a little bit of movie stuff. I don’t know much about, and I’m sure a lot of people don’t know much about the movies you love. Do you have a favorite movie? Do you have a favorite genre? What’s your movie? LOGIC: Man, wow. That’s a hard one. I’m looking at a giant [Quentin] Tarantino poster. It’s almost cliché to say it, but I fell in love with cinema. I’ve been watching it since I was a little boy, but the thing that really changed my life was Kill Bill: Vol. 1, which came out in 2003, and RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan did the soundtrack. I remember watching the movie and being so enthralled and truly just being able to escape my negative household through television and cinema. I watched this movie and was like, “Yo, this music, though, is crazy.” I’d always kind of heard of Wu-Tang Clan, but I’d never really dived in and knew it was nine different guys and it was this whole thing. So, that changed my life. I fell in love with Wu-Tang Clan, and then wanted to make music ever since then. So, I would say that Kill Bill just did something to me as a kid. I was so wide-eyed, and all the action and the dialogue, and all this, that, and the third. I love Sofia Coppola. I love Lost in Translation. I love [David] Fincher and [Steven] Soderbergh. Especially just that ‘90s golden era of independent film. I couldn’t experience it. I was, like, five years old, you know what I mean? But I love it. I’ve done so much research on it. But I would say, all in all, Kill Bill. It’s my entryway to truly loving cinema. Then, since then, it’s like the [Richard] Linklaters and the Kevin Smith’s, and even when it comes to foreign film, whether it’s [Jean-Luc] Godard, I’m just a student and a sponge. But it all started with bloody mayhem and a badass woman with a samurai sword. My favorite film from Cannes this year was Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, which is the making of Breathless, and it is fantastic. Netflix bought it, and it’ll be out later this year. LOGIC: Wow, I can’t wait. Dude, it’s so good.
Can We Expect a Logic Cameo in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’?

He explains how he got his role in The Last of Us 2 video game.

Image via HBO

You’re also a little bit of a gamer. What systems do you have? In an emergency, what’s the one you grab? LOGIC: Wow. Well, luckily in an emergency, I have this system that’s hooked up on the cloud. So I use European PCs through this cloud gaming system where I can basically have a PC anywhere I go, whether it’s on my phone, and then I just attach a wireless controller on my laptop, my Mac. But I would say my favorite console is PlayStation. Literally, I have it tattooed on my hand. I love PlayStation. I’m a nerd. I also have all the safe codes from The Last of Us video game tattooed on my hand. I did it over 30 times, but I just got sick of googling it. I was off book for my whole film that I did, Paradise, you’d think I could remember a couple numbers. But, yeah, I would say the PlayStation. I’m throwing the baby and I’m grabbing the PlayStation. No, I’m just kidding! [Laughs] Your wife is like, “What did you just say?” I know you’re a super fan of The Last of Us. I read that you were in part two. Have you asked about being on the show? LOGIC: No. You know what’s funny about me? And I’m sure we’ll talk about this a little later. I never asked anybody for anything until I made this movie. So, me and Neil Druckmann are good homies. He’s a really genius writer and developer and all that, so I was lucky enough to be a part of that game, but once again, I didn’t even ask. You know what I mean? I remember we had lunch years ago, probably in 2015 or something like that, and me making a joke, saying, “Hey, I’ll play a trash can in any video game. I’ll just be there like Oscar the Grouch or something.” I guess he must have remembered that, and then I got a call. I auditioned for a part that actually went to another actor for the role of Jesse in The Last of Us 2, Dina’s love affair triangle situation with Ellie. I didn’t get it, and I was really distraught that I didn’t get it. I was just like, “Fuck, I thought I did such a good job.” I remember Becky Dodd, who was head of casting and the sweetest woman in the whole world, was like, “Oh, no, you were fantastic. It just wasn’t right for the role because we actually ended up changing a lot of things.” And I was like, “Oh, wow.” Then you start to realize it’s never personal. It’s about what’s best for the project. So, I learned a very valuable lesson when they called me back, like, “See? We told you.” That was cool.
So, J.J. Abrams, Seth MacFarlane, and Kevin Smith Walk Into a Bar…

On making his movie, Logic says, “Those three men and an even more badass woman pushed me to do it.”

Image by Brandon Barrett and Fabian Pacheco

Jumping into your film, Paradise Records, I think the most important thing that I need to ask you is, for people out there that are wondering, is it a sequel to Empire Records? LOGIC: No, it’s not. [Laughs] I just had to do that. So the trailer’s out there and the premiere’s at Tribeca later this week. What do you want to tell people about the movie? Because there’s going to be a lot of people watching this that have not seen the trailer. LOGIC: It’s almost a giant McGuffin. The entire thing is just so that I could make a movie. I was terrified to make a movie. But the film itself, it is dialogue-driven, it’s a comedy. It’s funny, depending, right? If you like things like Clerks and Friday and Atlanta and stuff like that, I think you’ll genuinely enjoy this. I made it myself. I spent my own money on it, and it’s not a vanity project at all. That was just after years and years of Hollywood saying no. Because imagine, whoever’s watching this right now, you’re a studio head or an executive, and I walk in after a career of music and go, “Hey, so I got this idea for a script, even though I’ve never written one before, and I’ll write it. And then also I want to direct the whole movie, even though I never directed anything. And I want to star in it, even though I’ve never really acted in anything. Oh, by the way, I want my best friend to play the role. He’s never acted in anything before. And I want you to give me millions and millions of dollars, and I want full creative control and final cut or fuck off.” They’re going to be like, “Get the hell out of here.” So, when I made this, it was not about money. I’ve been blessed and lucky enough to make it out of where I came from, and I’m financially good. This is about the art, and this is about making people laugh and bringing us all together, and blood and bullets, as well. I just love film from the bottom of my heart. What you can expect is, if you like the films I’ve been referencing, a really fun, good time, something that doesn’t take itself too seriously. For me, I think it’s probably, as Kevin Smith put it — and we’ll get there — the best entry point that I could have possibly done regarding a specific genre of film and going into this new space. Seth MacFarlane and Kevin Smith are key people to making this thing happen. Talk a little bit about your relationship with both and how they were integral in pushing you forward. LOGIC: Wow. Love that. It’s funny, there’s another one. So my three signatures to be a part of the DGA as a director are J.J. Abrams, Seth MacFarlane, and Kevin Smith. It actually starts 10 years ago with J.J. Abrams. This story in and of itself can be so fucking long. So, me and J.J. are homies. We just always connected on music. I don’t think a lot of people know just how much of an incredible musician J.J. is, from playing keys and synths — he’s a huge nerd in that regard — to vocals and singing. He’s dope, man. He’s super cool. We just kind of bonded over music and then my love and nerdom for cinema, and before I knew it, I was like, “Hey, man, I have this script that I’ve been working on.” And he was like, “Oh, really?” And I was like, “Yeah. I just want some advice. What do you think I should do?” Because once again, this goes back to how we started the interview, I’d never asked anybody for anything. I was very terrified. But I was like, “Can you give me advice?” He goes, “I advise you give me the script.” I said, “No. Can you just give me some advice?” And he goes, “I advise you give me the fucking script.” I just go, “Okay, alright. You don’t got to put a phaser to my head there. Calm down.” So, I gave him the script and he said he would have his head of film look at it. This is a decade ago, and she read it. Incredible, awesome businesswoman. The next thing I know, a week later, I’m being sat down and they’re basically telling me how they’re going to make the movie, and I can’t believe it. I’m like, “Oh my god.” What I learned very quickly was musical chairs. J.J. did not have to go out of his way and do that, and it was so sweet, but as soon as he connected me with these people, he was out of there. He was just making a connection, which was fantastic, and then we could just continue our personal relationship as friends. Over the next year or two years, like I said, the person who loved it leaves and then nobody’s there for that position. Then other people are like, “Oh, you should change this and change that and change this about it.” Then I do that, and then another person in power will come in, and then it’s not that they don’t like it, but they’re like, “I think you should change XYZ,” and I’m like, “Well, that sounds like the original version that I had.” And they’re like, “Yeah. That is.” Before you know it, everything falls apart. Now, once again, this isn’t the production company. This isn’t J.J. That’s just fucking Hollywood. It happens all the time. I’m not here complaining about it, I’m just saying. I was like, “Well, damn.” So, I wasn’t sure what to do. By that time, I had been sitting on a few different scripts, trying to make them, trying to figure it out. Everywhere I’d go, it’s just Hollywood, it’s just hurry up and wait, and “no.” Every corner, every this, every that, it’s just, “No, no, no, no.” I’m watching others and I’m seeing other people that I wouldn’t say I’m envious of, but I was very like, “Man, well, how come they got a deal and how couldn’t? Like, who’s dick do I got to suck? What’s going on?” I just kind of accepted one day that it just wasn’t going to happen for me. This was also around the time of me stepping back from music to focus on being a father and husband, and in that time, a lot of soul searching, a lot of Scotch, a lot of just being unsure of what my future was going to hold. Then, me and Seth MacFarlane randomly become friends. Trust me, it’s a good story. I’m going to be telling this story the rest of my life. Me and Seth are friends because I’m a giant nerd and love Star Trek and shit, and he did The Orville, and I was a huge fan. I even titled a song “The Orville” and shout out characters from it. I’m just really a nerd. So, he finds out about this, and before I know it, we become friendly. Before I know it, he’s on a song of mine because he has an incredible voice, very classic crooner, [Frank] Sinatra vibes. And before I know it, now we’re doing a whole album. So we’re doing an album currently right now where he sings 17 classic Sinatra and songs of the time, and then I chop them up on my MPC, my beat machine. It’s this half-crooning, half-hip hop, explorative, fun album.

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‘The Orville’ and ‘Naked Gun’ Reboot Aren’t Dead, Says Seth MacFarlane

“It is not officially over yet.”

I’m at Seth’s house one night getting lit, and we’re just talking about cinema and everything. We’re talking about Lawrence of Arabia and fucking Ben-Hur and Citizen Kane and Orson Welles and what he did with War of the Worlds. He’s just like, “How the hell do you know about all that, kid?” And I’m just like, “Because I love this shit!” You know what I mean? He’s like, “Yeah, but you’re too young to know about that.” I’m like, “No. Not if you’re a sponge. Not if you’re a student. Not if you want to learn.” And all night, I’m just making references, bing, bang, boom. I mean, you name the movie, we talked about it. It’s like The Fifth Element comes up and I’m like, “I don’t want one position. I want all positions!” I’m just telling him about how much I love cinema, and he goes, “Have you ever thought about making a movie?” I’m like, “Yeah. All the time.” And he’s like, “Well, why don’t you do it?” Then I tell him what I told you and he goes, “Well, fuck that. You’re rich. Just use your own money.” And I’m like, “Damn, Seth MacFarlane! That’s crazy.” I’m like, “You know what? You’re right.” He goes, “How much you got?” I said, “X amount. He goes, “Okay, cool. Well, take a few million bucks, put it in, go make a movie.” And I’m like, “Hell yeah, man. If Seth is telling me this, this has got to happen.” So, I wake up the next day hung over, like, “Fuck no. That’s not happening. I’m not making a movie. That is ridiculous.” I let it go. I leave it. I leave it be because I’m terrified deep down. And not even a week later, Kevin Smith calls me. Long story short, me and Kevin became homies. We vibed over mental health and just being regular dudes who love film and media and art, and he calls me and he goes, “Hey, kid, I got a part for you in my next movie.” And I go, “Why do you sound like that?” No, I’m just kidding. [Laughs] I go, “Are you joking?” I can’t believe it. It’s like, “What? I’m going to be in a Kevin Smith movie?” The next thing I know, a couple weeks go by, I’m in a blue spandex leotard on a spaceship opposite Diedrich Bader, the first time I was ever in a film, and Kevin’s kind of taken aback by it. It was his last film, The 4:30 Movie. He’s like, “You take direction well. You can act well.” He’s like, “I want to see you later tonight.” I was like, “Okay.” He’s like, “Yeah. Come over to my house. I want to talk to you.” I was like, “Cool, as long as there’s no weird robe situation going on, I’ll be there.” So, I show up, and he’s just smoking joints and we’re just talking, and he’s like, “You’re pretty fucking good at this, kid. What are you doing about that?” And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” He goes, “Acting. Do you want to act?” I tell him the whole story. Same thing I told you. He goes, “Well, fuck that.” I say, “I mean, I’m sitting on eight scripts by this point.” He’s like, “Really?” I’m like, “Yeah, I got one about a homeless comedian who sells jokes for a dollar. I got this, I got that.” And then I go, “I got one that takes place in a record store.” He goes, “A record store? One location?” I said, “Pretty much.” He goes, “It’s a comedy?” I said, “Yeah.” He goes, “That’s the fucking one. Go make that movie.” I’m like, “Wait a second. What are you talking about?” He goes, “How much money do you have?” I say, “X amount.” He says, “Just take a couple fucking million dollars and go make a movie.” I’m like, “But who would I call? What would I do?” He goes, “I got producers. They’re super honest. They’re either going to like it or they’re not, but that’s the best I could do.” He goes, “Put me in your movie. Call people. Don’t be afraid.” Well, two things happened. His producers loved it — my producers now, which is really crazy — Lez Destro and Jordan Monsanto, who really believed in me and believed in the script. He goes, “Call your friends.” And I’m like, “No. I can’t do that. This is very important. I can never use anybody.” He goes, “Fuck that. Use them.” And I’m like, “But I want people to know my heart.” And he’s like, “Bob, anybody who shakes your hand in five minutes knows your heart. You’re talking about friends you’ve known forever. Joseph Gordon-Levitt or this person or whatever.” He’s like, “Just call them. They’re called players for a reason. They want to play. The worst case, they say no.” When he said it, it just hit me in a crazy way. I left his house that night, immediately called my wife in the car, and I’m crying, and she’s like, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” I’m like, “I’m going to make a fucking movie. Oh my god.” She goes, “Well, why do you sound all terrified about it?” I go, “Because I’m going to spend millions and millions of our dollars. What if I lose it?” She goes, “We’ll be fine. What are you talking about?” And I’m like, “Yeah, but what if I do it six times in pursuit of this dream?” And she says the most epic shit ever. She goes, “Even if you did it six times and we lost all our money and had to sell our home and our cars and Louis Vuitton and diamonds and all the shit that doesn’t matter,” she said this, “We move into a humble home, live the rest of our lives with our two kids who will never need for anything, and you’re still Logic. You could jerk off and make $1 million a year for the rest of your life.” So, this perception was like, “Whoa, number one, I love you. Thank you for being my rock and believing in me that much.” And that’s why I made a movie. I would say those three men and an even more badass woman pushed me to do it. That’s a fucking great story.
Logic Studied the Greats to Prepare for ‘Paradise Records’

“I would go back on the first day of set and go, ‘You did your fucking homework, man.’”

Obviously, this is an indie. You’re paying for it yourself, and you’re mostly at one location, but how long did you have to shoot? How many days did you allow yourself? Because again, you’re paying for it yourself. LOGIC: 1,000%. I wanted to do it right, and I didn’t want to cut corners, but obviously, for the budget that we had, we had to be concise. So, 20 days. Four weeks, not including a month of pre-production and getting everything ready. I made sure that by day one of pre-production, I was completely off book. And I’m in every scene in the movie, you know? So I needed to know that I didn’t need to worry about that at all whatsoever. But yeah, 20 days. And they were the hardest and best days of my life. If you could go back in time to the first day of the shoot, because I’m sure during the shoot you learned a lot, what would you actually tell yourself about the lessons you learned? Because this would be stuff that you now learned to apply to the next film. LOGIC: It’s such a great question, and I don’t mean to sound like an asshole with this answer I’m about to give you. I would just go to that dude a year ago and say, “You did your homework.” That’s what I would say because I called everybody and their baby mama’s cousin’s auntie’s sister to get information. I read David Mamet and Sidney Lumet and John Badham. I even emailed John Badham. I hit up Ron Howard. I called J.J. and said, “Please give me advice,” and literally created The Book of J.J., the book of, like, every director. I asked for everything. J.J.’s number one advice, he goes, “This is the most important thing, so we’ll start here: have fun.” It’s just these little things. Another thing he said to me that was really incredible was, he goes, “As the director, let alone the producer and the star of this film, you’re going to have everybody coming at you every two seconds for an answer that they need right then to put out a fire.” He goes, “Never forget that you have the power as a human being to say, ‘Give me five minutes,’ and walk around your set and think about the best way to approach and deal with that situation, because filmmaking truly is just all problem-solving.” That’s all it is. I remember I talked to my producers — and this is important to answer your question — before we started, even before pre-production, and I was like, “What if somebody gets sick? What if an actor’s extra has ego? What if we can’t afford this? What if this gets canceled or this location gets shut down? What if I get sick?” They were like, “Whoa, whoa, Bobby, Bobby.” They’re like, “Look, some of those things might happen. You’re going to get at least one of those, but not all of those things are going to happen.” And by the end of the shoot, they went, “Bob, they all happened.” They went, “All those things happened. Every single thing. And you did it. You did it!” So, once again, it’s not like I’m sitting here just jerking myself off, but I am very proud of myself. I think sometimes we can mistake confidence as arrogance, or this, that, and the third. I really don’t give a shit if somebody doesn’t have enough self-esteem to see me with such a thing and think I’m an asshole. That’s their problem. I would go back on the first day of set and go, “You did your fucking homework, man.” I know a lot of directors, and they’ve all told me after a shoot, because it’s so much work and it’s so much stress, right after they wrap, so many people get sick for a week or two because they’ve just been riding the adrenaline train, especially if you’re shooting for like 80 days or 60 days. It’s an intense amount of work, especially if you’re also acting in every scene and you’re producing and all of it. LOGIC: I definitely used to get sick a lot after tours when I would go on tour. With this specifically, it was different. I made sure I didn’t drink a lot, barely anything. Honestly, I made sure I was eating right and getting the sleep that I needed. I knew I had to be the best me that I could possibly be. And surprisingly, I did not get sick. It was so weird. I was expecting it. I was like, “It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen.” And I didn’t get sick. I didn’t get sick after. It was just really weird.
Is ‘Paradise Records’ a Part of Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse?

Logic discusses how Smith was an essential collaborator on the film.

Image by Brian Brose

What’s really cool is you’re obviously very influenced by Kevin Smith. You clearly love his work. You’re friends with the dude, and then you had him edit this movie. Talk a little bit about what it’s like to have a mentor, a friend, and someone who co-starred in the movie as your editor. LOGIC: Man, that was really special. What’s the worst thing you could say about him? He talks a lot. He’s a really good human being. To just see some dude with a dream and go, “No, you can do it. You literally have the tools and however I can be there to help you, I will.” This dude took two months of his life to help me with my dream and I will forever be grateful. He asked me, “Hey, you want me to edit the film?” I was like, “What? Really?” He never edited any other person’s film in his career, and I’m just like, “Why?” He goes, “Cuz it’s funny and you’re cool. It’s not that deep.” You know what I mean? I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” I was telling my wife this the other day, I just watched him, and I guess I forgot I had seen it before, but him doing the Criterion closet and all his picks. Also, whoever edited that and got it down to five minutes, because I’m sure his director’s cut is like four hours of him just talking until everybody in the audience leaves… I love Kevin, but I’ve interviewed him before, and the joke is you’ll ask him a question, and then 20 minutes later, he’s still going. LOGIC: You know what’s funny? I went to go to the Dogma premiere for the rerelease, and at the end he did this Q&A. The first person comes up and they introduce themself, and Kevin just goes on — and I’m not joking — 40 minutes. But it was a great 40 minutes. You hear stories you’ve never heard before. It was great. Then he goes, “So, I hope that answers your question.” And the first person says, “Oh, no, I didn’t ask him my question yet.” [Laughs] Which I just thought is classic Kevin Smith. So, suffice to say, he did not have to edit my movie, but he believed in me. I had a lot of those people on my set. I had a lot of those people help me make this movie what it is. I’m just very lucky and honored, and I don’t take it for granted. Every instance I get to shout out my producers or actors or my first AD, Kevin Brown. For me, I think it’s a joke where it’s kind of like the first AD’s the real director in every movie ever. They keep everybody on their shit. I just love screaming everybody else’s name from the mountaintop, because why not? We’re family. And, yeah, Kevin edited the movie, and I can’t believe it. I’m curious if you could talk a little bit about the collaboration in the editing room. The movie’s like 90 minutes. I forget it. LOGIC: It’s just over. It’s like an hour and 40. Did you have a much longer cut in the edit? Did you have one that was two-something and you guys had to bring it down? Or because of Kevin’s experience editing his own movies, he knew where to cut early on? LOGIC: 1,000%. The original cut was almost two hours and 50 minutes. We had that much stuff that we did, and that’s where I definitely learned a lot. I learned a lot as far as now working on my next film and the script and what needs to be there and what doesn’t, and, “Oh, you don’t need to say the same thing twice.” Even just allowing yourself, once you have the art, to just begin the edit before you’re even there, trimming as much fat as you can. But him being there was incredible. He was editing the film the first day we were shooting. So, we would be doing a scene, and there’s actually a moment, you could see it in the trailer, too, where it shows Paradise Records on the wall, and if you look in the bottom left corner, you can see Kevin Smith’s head because he’s sitting on the couch editing on his laptop. I was like, “Oh my god, I have to leave that in the movie.” So, it’s like a millisecond, but it’s there as an Easter egg. He was there editing every day.

Image by Brandon Barrett and Fabian Pacheco

Then, the real edit came when we were done shooting. So, I’d say about a week and a half later, I flew to LA and we just edited it at his house, just at his crib, and I trusted him for so much. But the thing that I love about Kevin, too, is he goes, “This is your fucking movie.” You know what I mean? Don’t get me wrong, it’s our movie. That’s how I feel. I mean, ours. It’s the crew’s, it’s the actors. It is our film. But he’s like, “You paid for it. It’s your fucking movie. You directed it. So, if you don’t like something, don’t be scared to tell me that.” And I really appreciated that. There were a couple times I wouldn’t even say we butted heads, but where I’m like, “No, I really want it this way. Let’s do it.” He goes, “No fucking problem.” That was very rare, though, because we were always very on the same page where I would also defer to him. That’s my thing. It’s like, I’m the director, he’s the editor. That’s how I feel about my first AD, about a camera operator, about my cinematographer. I’m not here to tell them how to do their job. As a director, I don’t tell an actor how to act. I give them actions to do. There’s a big difference. I think that was also another thing going into this and understanding I’m blessed enough to have incredible people in every department. Why would I micromanage them? I’ve already told them what I want. I told them my vision. I’ve told them how I see it in my head. I already did that. So, it’s like even when I would give Kevin examples of how I wanted it edited, also I’m referencing, like, “You know in Zack and Miri [Make a Porno],” and I’m actually like, “Yo, these edits of timing are really great.” One thing in particular, there’s a scene with Phil Lamarr, it’s also in the trailer, incredible actor, voice actor, he played Marvin in Pulp Fiction and the UPS Guy on Mad TV. I actually brought him back, which is really funny. The scene now ends with, there’s this joke about me being mixed race, right? It’s because I’m Black and white. It’s a whole thing. It’s a meme on the internet. It’s funny. So, I kind of played into that in the film. My character accidentally says the N-word without realizing that there’s another Black person in the store for him to explain to him, like, “Wait, no, no, no. You don’t understand. I’m Black.” Which is so funny because look at me. Then once he’s like, “Oh, that’s all you had to say. Your dad’s Black. Who gives a shit?” Whatever, right? And then the way he ends it is Phil’s character goes, “Alright, y’all, stay Black.” And my character Cooper goes, “I’ll try.” And then Phil goes, “Yeah, keep trying.” And then it just ends. Originally, it was that, and then he goes to leave and Cooper goes, “Hey, I had a question. Where’s Marvin, who usually does this route?” And he goes, “Oh, his head blew up.” And Cooper goes, “What? What do you mean?” He goes, “He got a promotion. Now he thinks he’s better than everybody.” So that was me just trying to pay homage to his original character in Pulp Fiction. To me, it was fun and cool, but Kevin was like, “No. Fuck that. You got to end on ‘keep trying.’” He goes, “Because that’s the laugh. That’s the button. Yeah, you’re being cute and paying homage, and, oh, you’re a fucking cinephile.” He’s like, “But this is about what’s best for the film.” And he did that a couple of times, but besides that, we were just in sync the whole time.

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I don’t want to do spoilers, but you show it in the trailer. Jay and Silent Bob are in the movie. There’s a part of Paradise Records that goes black and white, and I’m watching it, and I’m like, “Wait. What’s happening here? What’s about to happen?” Obviously, it leads to Jay and Silent Bob. I was wondering, how much is this your script and how much when you’re playing with those characters are you bouncing off Kevin and being like, “These are your characters?” LOGIC: I love that you asked this question because I was going to say I wrote all of it. Kevin goes, “You’re the only person ever who has written Jay and Silent Bob dialogue ever.” He goes “The only reason why is because you understand it.” He was like, “Every beat is what I would say or how I would write these characters.” And it’s just because I’m such a fan. I think there was only one thing he changed, and it was just a joke. It was a preference of words. He was just like, “I’d feel more comfortable just having Jay say this one line like this instead.” It wasn’t a really big deal. But I love that you also noted the transition, because for me, it’s not just like, “Oh yeah, it’s just a bunch of Black and white guy jokes.” Before this scene begins, we do a true one-take where it ends with Cooper and his cousin Tramayne. After having had an argument, they’re making up. While they’re making up, like a lot of men, they’re making fun of each other. So, his cousin’s like, “Boy, your hairline look cursive.” And then my character says, “Your credit score is a single digit.” And it’s just these kind of Black and white jokes, which then lead into me walking down a hallway with a song playing with an intro about my mixed race that I had released. Then, as all this is happening, we transition into black and white. So, it’s just levels of a biracial meme, which is just funny. So many incredible writers, but Charlie Kaufman is just like, “Write you, man. If you write yourself, there’ll be nothing like it before.” We all steal, we all borrow. It’s art. It is what it is. You get inspired by something, you want to do your version of it. But for me, it’s like, yeah, sure, there’s been a million films, comedies about race. There’s that. But there’s never been one about a white-passing Black dude. That’s funny to me. And for me, it could have been scary, but it wasn’t. It’s like, if somebody has an issue with me talking about my race, that’s their fucking problem. I’m very confident with who I am. And I made myself the butt of the joke. It’s not like I’m like, “Mulattos are going to take over the world and create olive people one day.” I do believe that. [Laughs] I have to ask with, Jay and Silent Bob being in the movie, does it mean that Paradise Records takes place in the View Askewniverse? LOGIC: It’s so funny that you say that, because I think it takes place in the Bobby Boy View Askewniverse. Something happened with the time space continuum that just linked it all together. So, I guess it’s like interconnecting.

Image via Miramax

Obviously, you and Kevin edit and you finished the movie. Are you then showing it to friends and family? Are you showing it to certain people for feedback? What did you learn showing it to people that maybe impacted the finished film? LOGIC: Wow. Thank you for being prepared. I’ve done a lot of music interviews, and they’re like, “Yeah, so what’s up with the album?” And I’m like, “Yo, calm down.” [Laughs] It’s a different thing when you’re talking to people that cover movies. LOGIC: Exactly. I love it. I love the attention to detail. It’s about the art. That’s what I love. So I went to Kevin’s house, because once again, he was editing on set, so we just had the whole movie basically there. Then it was time to just cut the fat, make it exactly as we wanted it. I would say probably two days after the official edit began in post, we did a screening for our friends and family, and there were like 45 people there. When you show it in that version, the music’s probably not there. It’s probably in much rougher shape, so it’s like a real test screening. LOGIC: Yeah. We had a lot of music, though, because I did the music. So, another side note, I originally wanted to use a song, a classic ‘90s, awesome, fun song that Cooper dances to in the beginning, kind of showing you that he’s living in his record store because he is not making a lot of money. So, I had this song. It was going to be, like, $250,000 for one song, and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s crazy, because this is all my money.” I’m like, “I want this money on the screen. I don’t want it there.” Then I just got the idea where I was like, “Well, shit, why don’t I just use all this music that I have that’s unreleased?” Because I have indie music. I just released a single called “Bad Motherfucker,” showing the behind-the-scenes of the filming process of all of this. Anyway, so a lot of the music was there. The color was pretty solid. There was no sound yet. We hadn’t gone to Skywalker Ranch — flex. Oh my god, that was crazy. Skywalker Ranch has a gift store, so what did you buy when you were there? LOGIC: A lot of shit. I bought the store, dude. I bought pens and notepads and hats. I was like, “Oh, I’m going to be wearing this. I’m gonna be old at a retirement home, like, ‘I remember when…’” I was buying shit for my friends. It was a whole thing. Sorry, I had to ask. LOGIC: Oh, no, 1,000%. So, they saw a really solid version. I would say quality-wise, we were already at about 60%, just of like, “This is what it’s going to be.” To the point where in the edit, Kevin was even adding his own sound effects. So it was really cool. Like if a door shut or a nail rips or XYZ. He’s so into it, man. So, we played it for these people. The cool thing about this is I think it was just shot so well and the crew did such an incredible job, and then with Kevin’s edit, you would still get lost, with the exception of maybe a bullet in someone’s face that wasn’t there because of VFX or XYZ. So, we showed it to this crew, and here’s the thing: I love notes. A lot of people hate notes; I love notes. I remember sitting down with my producers after they had read their first pass of Paradise Records, and they were like, “Bob, we have notes.” And I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” They were like, “You want notes?” I was like, “Hell yeah, I want notes.” They were like, “Bob, nobody wants notes.” I was like, “I want notes.” Because at the end of the day, I don’t have to use whatever I don’t want, you know what I mean? I’m in charge. This is my thing.

Image by Brian Brose

Exactly. LOGIC: And here’s the other thing, once again, I love to share the spotlight, I love to talk about others, but it’s like, if your notes are good, they’re only going to make me look like more of a genius anyway, and then we all win. But I think some artists are like, “No, it’s all me. This is everything me.” I’m like, “Bro, that’s why I wrote a book.” It’s a novel. Even me sitting down and writing this whole book called Supermarket, you still have an editor. You still have people that need to be a part of a part of this. So we’re like, “Give us all the fucking notes.” And you had, like, 45 people. This person says something that blows your mind. This person says something where you’re like, “Did we watch the same movie? Did you not understand where that money came from?” And then some people agreeing, some people disagreeing. You’re just sitting back like Celebrity Deathmatch, just watching them go, and it’s so fun. But everybody’s there to help you because everybody in the room you trust, whether they’re a seasoned vet… I mean, I had Oscar winners in the fucking room watching this movie. You know what I mean? And that was just the first time. Then, me and Kevin, we went three, four days, five days after that of edits. Then we went back, and by then it was over 60 people because everybody was like, “We got to see this, we got to see this.” And we did the same thing. We opened it up and we took notes, and I just literally took notes on what people were saying. Then, we went back and we made a version of the film that we were both very happy with, but most importantly, I was happy with after spending all that time and money and effort on it. Then I knew. I said, “Alright, this is it.” Some people might have had a couple of notes, just a few people, like, “Oh, I don’t know about this…” And I was just like, “Nope, this is it.” Because that’s what Kevin said. Kevin stressed, “Don’t make decisions that you’re going to regret.” He was like, “Don’t do something because you think somebody might be right, but in your heart, as a creative, you don’t want to do it. No, fuck that shit.” So, there were some notes that I just completely didn’t take from people who, when they gave the note, gave me a reason of why maybe somebody wouldn’t laugh or it wouldn’t work. Then we would play the final, and it worked. So, I had to trust my gut.
Logic Allowed for Authenticity Through Improv and Surprising Casting

He discusses casting his real-life best friend and father, and surprise improv that changes the film for the better.

Image by Brian Brose

So, I’m not sure, but it is possible that your film has the most use of the N-word in movie history. It might be. I’m sort of joking, but maybe not. LOGIC: I think it is. I think it’s, like, 360 of them in there. Did anyone say to you, “This is a lot,” or are you like, “This is the way people talk and it’s going to be in the movie?” LOGIC: It’s funny. Let’s put it this way, the only people who said that were white. And I don’t mean that, like, “Oh, let’s make it a race thing.” It’s just like, the only people who were like, “It’s kind of a lot of N-words,” were white people. So I’m like, “How are you even a part of this conversation?” By the way, I was debating asking it. LOGIC: No, it’s a great question. Here’s the thing, it’s a lot, but it’s people talking the way they talk. LOGIC: Let’s be very clear here, I probably only wrote, in the whole movie, max, like, 12 N-words. This is what happens when you cast someone. So I cast Tramayne Hudson, my best friend, who destroys it. Now you have to ask yourself, why does somebody who’s never acted before do such a great job and pretty much steal the show in this movie? How is that possible? Because I wrote him. You know what I mean? Obviously, it’s a complete dramatization of who he is, but that’s who he is. When he was on set, there were times where I was like, “Can you not say “nigga,” like 80,000 times in this scene, please?” And he was like, “Yeah, okay, okay.” And then he’d be like, “So anyway…” [Laughs] It’s so authentic. It’s so him. And it’s to the point where you almost become desensitized to the shit. There’s a whole back and forth, obviously. There’s race warriors and who can say what, and a large percentage of the Black community who thinks it’s completely off-limits and nobody should say it, to which I get. At the end of the day, this is how this dude talks, so I just let him cook. To me, it feels extremely authentic, even though probably for the first 10 minutes of the film it’s a bit distracting. But then you just get used to it and understand that it’s just how this guy and a lot of people out there speak. It’s that simple. And I didn’t want to step on his toes. Somebody could try to argue, like, “Well, if he’s a good actor, then he wouldn’t have to say it.” I’m like, “Bro, watch the fucking movie. That’s who he is. This is the character.” Now, in my next movie where he’s going to co-star, I ain’t got time for that shit. I was like, “This is a different character, okay?” He’s like, “Okay, I got it. I got it. Don’t worry.”

Image by Brian Brose

How much is improv in the movie? How much is scripted? Did you do what a lot of people do, which is, “Let’s do a take with the script and then you can do a take with whatever the hell you want?” LOGIC: It’s a really wonderful question, because that’s exactly what we did. For the most part, we did every take, and there was a lot of the film that what I wrote was sufficient and it worked. It was fun. Then there were some where, on the second take, when I’m happy, I’m like, “Okay, now just do whatever you want,” and they beat me every time. I love it because these actors got it, or I beat myself — that sounds a little weird [laughs] — and improvised a line or something that wasn’t supposed to happen at all. Like the scene with the kid trying to buy drugs, and he just keeps naming off every single drug imaginable. That wasn’t in the script, and it was really great. Another thing, too, is, for example, my father. This is what’s really crazy. In the film, there’s a character named Uncle Tony, and in the trailer you can see that it’s me in Eddie Murphy, old makeup guy stuff. This guy is a piece of shit, right? He’s just one of the worst human beings ever. Originally, I modeled him after my father. There was a time when he was a piece of shit, and sometimes, honestly, can still be, but whatever. So, in this movie, I was just going to swap it and make Cooper’s mother Black so that I could play Cooper’s dad and then have that moment. Then, a buddy of mine, Juicy J, who’s a musician, was like, “Yo, you should have your dad play your dad.” I’m like, “Why?” He goes, “For two reasons. The most important reason is your dad is fucking hilarious. He’s a character. He’s wild. He should be in your movie. I think you’ll look back and really be happy that you did that.” Me and my dad, we’re always on the outs. My dad just recently asked me for $1 million so he could build a house for his band and make a studio, and he was never there for me growing up. But you know what? This isn’t Maury, so I’ll save that for another time. Anyway. That is pretty crazy, though. LOGIC: Oh, you don’t even know. He’s like, “I need a car. I need a car.” So I buy him a new truck, and then he crashes the truck and it completely totals the truck, and somehow it’s my fault. He’s like, “I need another car. Let’s go.” That’s my dad. So I created this white version of my father, and Juicy’s like, “Number one: he’s a character. Number two: any kind of stigma that you had to deal with regarding your race, in music or people not understanding, bro, your dad being in the movie, it’s like, what can anybody say? What can anybody try to say that you can or can’t say as a writer being mixed race? His dad’s right there! Shut up!” There are other things to talk about in life right now. So, when Juicy J was like, “You should do that,” on 48 hours notice, I had to ditch an entire prepared scene between Uncle Tony — old me — and young Cooper that was completely memorized. I was off book, and I had both sides, which is already a difficult thing to play for timing, especially comedically, and then just wing it. Pretty much everything you see Uncle Tony saying and Cooper saying, for the most part, a lot of it is just improv. I was in make up for fucking four hours, and then I filmed eight hours, and then I had to get out of that makeup and then go have to be this guy, look at the dailies and everything, and then sit in my spot and remember full-on conversations that were all improv, including the timing. I would be writing seconds down, and while I’m in makeup, going over exactly how I’m going to do this, and then my dad comes in for real to play Cooper’s father. Absolutely no script. I fly my dad in, and he’s like, “How much am I getting paid?” This is my dad’s question. What can I say? I’m a kid with trauma. It is what it is. So, it was the only day that I brought in two cameras. The whole film we did on one camera, and I brought in two because he’s 70 years old and he’s not going to remember shit. So not only was I acting, I’m directing him at the same time and giving him lines to say at the same time, intercut between two.

Image by Brian Brose

So, suffice it to say, there was a lot of improv. Not to mention, this other person got sick. They flew in and were supposed to be there. So let’s put it this way, Bobby Lee, his original character was supposed to be Ming Wang, who was Mike Hawk. Mike Hawk is a rival retailer in the town of Bend in the movie, but that character didn’t exist. That was supposed to be played by Bobby Lee. It was just going to be funny and completely different, but Bobby Lee was sick in the hotel. He flew because he was so determined, and I was like, “There’s no fucking way I’m letting you on my set sick.” I loved his determination, but I was like, “I’ve got to keep everybody safe. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Once again, what did Kevin say? Ask your friends. Just ask. So I call Martin Starr, and I’m like, “Hey, can you get to Portland in eight hours? Also, I’m gonna completely rewrite a whole new thing and you’re going to have to memorize it on the spot on the flight.” He was like, “Yeah, sure. Okay. I guess.” [Laughs] That’s fucking Martin. So, he comes and he crushes it. Not to mention there was this whole other day that got completely fucked up just due to scheduling and timing and people not being able to make it, so we had a whole three days of nothing, and I’m like, “What the fuck are we going to shoot?” Then a buddy of mine introduces me to David Krumholtz and Kevin Corrigan, who are homies, and they know Martin. I say, “Hey, I got this outline about two mobsters talking about how much one of them hates The Godfather. Go. Can you do it?” And then they just crushed it. So, there was a lot of improv, for sure, but it was constructed and it was there, but it was a team, and it was a unit, and it was a village, and I think that’s why it went so well.
How Logic Got Joseph Gordon-Levitt In His First Movie

“He’s always supported me.”

Image by Brian Brose

Speaking of the guest stars, there’s a lot of cool people in the movie, but getting Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I mean, it’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt. So talk a little bit. He plays The Negotiator, and I don’t want say anything, but let’s just say it’s a very good role. It’s a very good character. LOGIC: That’s one idea that I had because, like I said, 10 years ago, I had basically a version of this script. I’m 25, so I wasn’t fucking Paul Thomas Anderson making Magnolia at 26 or anything, so I don’t think this version was that great, but that is one thing that stayed in it. I don’t want to give it away, why it’s so funny, but it’s so funny because of the limited time, and the fact that you get this big A-lister. It’s so funny. He absolutely crushed it. He gave me my first real acting gig on a show called Mr. Corman that came out during COVID in 2020. He believed in me, and basically had me play this character in this specific episode that was all revolving around this guy that he let me play. He’s always supported me. Joe has just always been so kind and nice to me and supportive, and so I was like, “Hey, man, you want to do this thing?” He’s like, “Yeah. Sure. No problem.” And I’m like, “Oh my god!” It’s crazy. With a lot of these cameos, it’s all good when Joseph says, “Yeah, I want to do it,” but then you still have to negotiate with people to get him in the movie. What is that like behind the scenes, or was it actually really simple because everyone’s like, “I want to do this?” LOGIC: Honestly, it was pretty simple because everybody’s getting paid scale, just straight-up. It doesn’t matter how big, you’re getting paid scale because all the money’s going on the fucking screen. If one day some studio wants to give me $20-plus million dollars to direct a feature that maybe I didn’t even write, and it’s just really cool, I’ll remember that, and I’ll call you and I’ll make sure you get a nice little bag, and get you cast somewhere else. So, that was the thing. It really wasn’t that hard because it’s called favored nations, where basically everybody’s equal. Are you in or out? So it was really cool. But what’s funny is, I will say this, not about anybody in particular, and especially not JGL, just other people, you’d be surprised — agents suck. Agents would be like, “Nah, I need this or that, or my client’s not doing it.” And then I’d call their client, who’s one of my best friends, like we just had a couple drinks the other night, and we’re talking about this, and they’re like, “I’m in! Look, I’m booking my flight myself. I’ll be there in fucking two months.” And they’re like, “Nope. They’re not going to do it.” Then I call my friend, and I’m like, “Hey, I get it if not…” And they’re like, “What are you talking about?” I’m like, “Your people said you’re not going to do this,” and then they fire their agent. There’s a lot of gnarlyness that goes on behind the scenes for people that aren’t really doing shit. I’m not saying agents don’t do shit, but I’m saying some of them don’t do shit. You know what I mean?

I’ve heard horror stories. It’s not the same thing, but I have tried to do certain things, and the personal publicist will be like, “Fuck off.” I’ll be like, “Really? Okay, that’s cool.” Text the person, “So, we’re not going to do this?” And they’re like, “What are you talking about?” There is a gatekeeping. It’s almost like you’re just doing your job, but sometimes it’s just not necessary. LOGIC: See, that’s also why I love how we met, because sitting down and just shaking someone’s hand, I think, is very important. When you share a meal with somebody, I have no ego. I love meeting people. If somebody had pitched the company and was like, “Logic has a movie, blah, blah, blah,” somebody could be like “Logic? The rapper? What? I don’t even know if that’s going to make sense right now, for real.” But then when you sit down with somebody, it’s like, “Holy shit, this guy loves movies.” You’re just like, “This is not what I was expecting at all.” You know what I mean? That shit is so important. So, I love personal relationships and personal connections. That’s why even this, dude, you did, you popped my cherry. This is my first film interview. Whenever I run into you, I’m just gonna be like, “Oh my god!” And then I’ll go to give you, like, a kiss, and be like, “Oh, wait, let me dap you up because we’re both weird about germs.”
Premiering ‘Paradise Records’ at the Tribeca Film Festival Was Logic’s Sally Field Moment

“Bro, we’re about to turn up.”

Image by Kevin Fletcher

I definitely have to touch on your film premiering at Tribeca. As far as I know, all the showings are sold out. What the fuck is that like to be premiering at a film festival where they added more showings because they were sold out? LOGIC: I can’t believe it. The long story short, I wanted to get into Sundance so bad, and that didn’t happen. Then I really wanted to get into South By because it’s like a comedy mecca in Austin, and that didn’t happen. I was distraught. Then I got on the phone with the Chinese Theater and was about to spend over $150,000 for the red carpet to get it out, invite 700 of my fans, do my own premiere. Fuck it. The next day, Tribeca called me and was like, “You’re in. We love the movie.” I cried like a baby. I cried so much, man, because I always have to do everything myself. It’s like I had this great idea for a movie and nobody wants to give me money, so I’ve got to do it myself. It always feels like, “Man, can’t the figurative and literal red carpet just be laid out just one time for ya boy?” And then it happened. I was like, “Oh my gosh.” And it sold out in less than 24 hours. Bro, we’re about to turn up. Tribeca ain’t never seen no shit like this. My fans are going to be out in the streets, not even with tickets! They’re just going to pull up, like, “Rush line?” The funny thing is, fuck that rush line. I’m going to be out there because I buy a couple of extra tickets to everything so I can give some away to fans who maybe couldn’t afford it or whatever. So, what does it feel like, man? It feels like, “They really like me!” Sally Field. That’s how I feel right now. And I’m not trying to flex, but I just texted J.J. Abrams today, and I was like, “It’s Friday! I can’t believe it.” And he’s just like, “You go, girl.” This is a feeling I have not had since I was in my early 20s with music. You only get to make your first film once. You only get to premiere it once. Well, unless it gets bought and then you do a second premiere, but anyway. I’m soaking up every minute. I’m learning. I’m a sponge. I’m a student. I’m having a blast. I’m having fun. I’m just happy, dude. It’s crazy.
What’s Next for Logic the Filmmaker?

“I will have full creative control and final cut, or you can eat my ass.”

Image by Brian Brose

You’ve been done for a little while. You mentioned you’re working on other scripts, that you’ve written a bunch of others. What is your plan for the future for the next one? Are you hoping that for this, you show it, it gets bought, and someone wants to invest in the next one? Will you make another one with your own money? What are you thinking about for the future? LOGIC: Thank you for asking that. Nothing will stop me from making films. I’m going to make movies, and I’m going to do it my way. I will have full creative control and final cut, or you can eat my ass. This is my mentality because we, as creatives and artists, are told, “No and no, and this is why, XYZ.” Fuck that shit. Because if you don’t want to give me the money, I’ll just go do it myself and then I will sell it or make money from it. That’s not arrogance. That’s, “Fuck you for telling me no so long that I thought I couldn’t do it,” and then woke up one day after Kevin Smith spit in my face and was like, “Do this.” So, my plan is this: I would love to sell this film. I would love to. The dream would be a giant streamer who overpays, and I have all the eyes in the world. That would be great. That’s what I would like. If somebody wants to try to pay me what I made for it, or just over what I made for it, I’m not going to sell it to them, because my plan is to, if it is not bought at what I want, I’m going to go tour the movie myself. I’m going to partner with theaters and do almost a private tour. Not really, but literally I will go tour, do 20 or 30 cities, one to two showings a day, solid ticket price. So, it’ll be expensive, but not crazy. It’ll also come with VIP packages, Q&A’s for everybody when we’re there — like Kevin Smith, I’ll talk for 40 minutes before somebody even asks their first question — fans being able to walk a red carpet at every spot, taking photographs, having fun merchandise. I’ll do that for 20 or 30 cities before an official theatrical release. If I do that, what I’ll do is I’ll probably partner with somebody who could put money in P&A, for legitimate marketing, and then do a theatrical release, while presales SVOD and VOD, and iTunes and all that shit. My fans will show out. I mean, clearly. If Tribeca sold out in less than 24 hours, imagine this film. Then, after a legitimate theatrical release, do the digital release and sell that, and then after that, do Blu-rays, VHSes, all this crazy shit, and then sell foreign rights. Bro, I’ll make it. I’m going to make millions and millions of fucking dollars. I’ll make more than what I spent on the movie if I don’t sell it to somebody else. So, that’s why whoever’s going to buy it, for me, it’s not arrogance, it’s not about the money. It’s about making sure that the right people see it. The right eyes, the right audience, with a partner that believes in me and what I can also do next… To which I will then say, yeah, my next film, I got people who want to give me money right now, so I’m going to go make another movie, which is great. Wait, so you lined up financing for the next one? LOGIC: Yes.

Related

Crunchyroll and Logic Team Up To Create Out of This World ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Streetwear Collection

“Without ‘Cowboy Bebop,’ there is no Logic.”

First of all, that’s awesome. I’m very happy for you. LOGIC: Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s funny because it’s like next ones. I have my next one that I want to do, and all these are under $10 million. I’m not the guy who’s like, “Oh, I want to go make Planet of the Apes in space.” No, man, I just want to tell dope stories, things I’ve never really seen told from my perspective as an auteur — I sound like a douchebag using that word, but it is what it is — and do dope shit with people who get it and who understand it. So, it’s like, yeah, okay, this person wants to fund this script, but I’m sitting on eight other scripts and talking to somebody about this one, and this one I’m probably just going to fund. There is nothing but God, the universe, whatever, that will stop me from making cinema as my primary form of artistry as long as I want. So many people have said to me that making the first one is the hardest one because you have to show everyone you can actually do it. Once you have something, it is so much easier to be like, “This is the movie I made. I made it for this price. I’d like to make this Are you interested?” LOGIC: You know what I really want to do? It just hit me the other day. I was like, “Why not do Paradise Records as a series?” It’s so funny. It takes place in this one location. I could call all my homies, get new guest stars, get other people to direct. The formula’s already there. So, that’s another thing for me. Fuck a sequel. Why not go do eight to 10 30-minute episodes? That’s another thing. I might say, “Fuck it.” Maybe I pay for it if I need to. It doesn’t matter.

This is all the years of growing up broke and then coming into money, busting my ass, sacrificing my physical and mental health, and falling and spiraling through depression, albeit functional, and then waking up to discover the power of the word “no.” “No, I don’t want to do that,” or to know your value as a human being, and I know what it is. I’m just going to make dope shit and nobody’s going to stop me. I do know that I have a cheat code, which is money, but I worked really hard for that fucking money, and I’m going to use it to reinvest in myself, damn it. It is really nice, though, that all of the stuff you did has led you to having a smile on your face now. You know what I mean? You definitely feel very energized in terms of you know what you want to do and you’re in that unique position where it’s like, “Fuck it. I can spend my own money.” LOGIC: If I have to. But everybody I’m talking to now is like, “You’ll never have to spend another dime,” and that just makes me happy. I feel like people are more confident in me. If you sense anything, like this confidence, it’s like fucking Kanye West on his second album, pre-antisemitism, ready to fuck shit up. That’s me, my energy. That’s a joke, but I’m also dead serious. Kanye believed in himself more than anybody. You know what I mean? Having that is important.
Logic Gives a Rundown of What Music He Has in the Works

“I’m sitting on 10 albums right now.”

Image by Brandon Barrett and Fabian Pacheco

There are a lot of people that are music fans of yours. Do you have a plan for releasing music while you’re a filmmaker, or is it going to be like, “I’m just going to be making movies and music will be maybe just I do soundtracks for my movies?” LOGIC: It’s such a great question. I’m sitting on 10 albums right now, and I’m releasing music weekly. So every week I’m releasing, like, “Oh, here’s this indie song where I’m strumming a guitar,” and “Here’s this super boom-bap, ‘90s golden era song,” and “Here’s this trap turn up.” I’m just constantly churning it out and having fun. I have an entire album with Morgan Freeman, an audio cinematic experience that takes place in 1860, about a runaway slave through emancipation. It’s basically rap Django [Unchained], and all the biggest voice actors from the ‘90s and 2000s, from Cartoon Network to Nickelodeon are all on this thing. It’s straight Orson Welles radio play vibes. The Seth album. I’m doing a Cowboy Bebop album with the original voice actors from Cowboy Bebop, and wrote a thing, and I’m going to call it Session 27, because it’s almost like the fanfiction version. I need to pause you there. With Cowboy Bebop, that’s an IP. Are you doing something that you’re just going to release, or how does that work? LOGIC: Yeah. I’m just going to get these voice actors that are friends of mine to play their characters and fucking put it out. So it’s one of these things where, as fans, you just want to release it and you’re not really looking to monetize? LOGIC: No. It’s not going to be like, “Here’s a Cowboy Bebop album.” It’s like, “Here’s a really cool album with some skits from these voice actors, because I can pay them.” It’s going to be super fun and simple. It’s not going to be like, “Look at the Cowboy Bebop album!” No. It’s not going to be like that at all. It’s just some dope hip hop shit. You know what it’s like? One thing I love about hip hop is sampling. MF DOOM did a lot of sampling of classic cartoons and different shows, and Victor Von Doom, and all this stuff. Imagine if instead of having to go in and sample that and take it, if I could have that same vibe and feel by just picking up the phone and going, “Hey, legends of actors in the voiceover community, would you mind reading this script I wrote?” And they all went, “Yeah.” Then I’m like, “Whoa! That’s so cool.” I’m just here to make dope shit and have fun, you know? I’ve done a collab with Cowboy Bebop before. I had the original artist ink this merchandise, we did a whole collab, so fans are already familiar there.

Image via Crunchyroll 

But I say all this to say, clearly a lot of music is coming, and it’s because I’ve been sitting on it. It’s like breathing for me. I think a lot of artists, when they want to go from one thing to another… My first novel, I’m a number one New York Times bestselling author — flex. I’ve got to say it. It’s an accomplishment. “Come on, man! You did a good job.” I didn’t even graduate high school. [Laughs] Anyway, when releasing that, I did it under Bobby Hall, not Logic, and I regret it because there was a part of me that was like, “That’s different. This is a different side of me.” Or even when I would start to make different genres of music, I was like, “Well, if I’m doing this indie shit, I should call myself something different or go buy a band.” Then one day I just woke up, like, “Bro, there is no fucking spoon. Keanu in the apartment, on the way to see the Oracle. You have a cheat code that is: many people know Logic. So, stop trying to confuse them with all this other shit. Just do what you’re going to do.” That’s why this is written and directed by Logic. So suffice it to say, I love music. I am not in love with it anymore. I am in love with cinema. But I will not allow the part of me that enjoys making music, nor my fan base to go without new music as long as I’m happy and into it. More on Paradise Records as we hear it.

Paradise Records

Release Date

June 6, 2025

Runtime

106 minutes

Director

Logic

Writers

Logic

Producers

Elizabeth Destro, Jordan Monsanto

Mary Elizabeth Kelly

Mélanie

Scott Alan Ward

Officer Holden /Clown