Meeting my favorite artist, Logic part 1.

Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, Logic, Bobby, these are the many names that the VMA award winner for Best Fight Against the System goes by. I discovered the underground rapper while scrolling through Facebook and coming across the music video for his song "All I Do". As a young and impressionable middle school preteen I was taken back by the sound and style of this so called "logic". His 90's flow along with the distinct sounding voice lead me to discover more of this tracks. The thing I was most shocked by was his message. Peace, love, and positivity. Most of the rappers I listened to at the time only cared about Females and Acquiring currency. OK come on you know what I mean. Robert wasn't going along with this mainstream sound and wanted to make his own path with detailing his story of connecting with his listeners and giving them hope. He is just like me, I realized. He just wants to follow his passion, his dream, and give his listeners something to relate to and to believe in themselves as he did himself. Logic was not new to the game at the time of me finding him, his 3rd mixtape with the title "Young Sinatra" was recently released and gaining traction and buzz across the internet with new listeners coming to find out about this mixtape's just like me. Bob followed it up with a sequel, Young Sinatra: Undeniable. The follow up to Young Sinatra was streamed over 800,000 times on DatPiff, and is still to this date renowned one of the best projects that the rapper has made. Along with his promotion of the tape, the famous youtube group Faze used one of his songs on a gaming montage, giving Logic many new listeners. Over a year later with listeners, including me, waiting day and night for another project were finally given what they have been waiting for. The ending to the trilogy, Young Sinatra: Welcome to Forever. The 4th mixtape in Logics career was download over 100,000 times on DatPiff in less then a day, and gave the up and coming artist a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings. Welcome to forever received rave reviews with HipHopDX's consensus determining the project as a “free album,” their highest possible praise for a mixtape on the site. This was only a mixtape, not even a full album and many were excited, including me, to see what he could do with an actual recording studio and professional equipment. With Logic becoming a big name in the online rap community it lead to him being included on XXL 2013 Freshman's class. XXL is an American hip hop magazine, published by Townsquare Media, founded in 1997, where they display the up and coming rappers of each year since 2007 ( skipping 2008 ). With the added publicity and a professional recording studio at his use he recorded and debuted his first studio album: Under Pressure. The album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, selling 72,000 album-equivalent units in its first week. The blunt story telling, and lyricism was a popular sight to see, In His 90s like sound with a toned down production compared to his previous projects. The trend of dropping his masterful projects continued with me enjoying every single second of it. The Incredible True Story was the next installment of his music career, a experimental project entailing a story within the album. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, earning 135,000 album-equivalent units, selling 118,000 copies in the first week. Logic was finally known now. He has come from the very bottom, making beats in his basement and dropping out of high school to pursue his dream. It was great to see him flourishing in his element and giving his fans something to be proud of. I would constantly try and show my friends and family members his music to no avail. "Lets listen to *insert mainstream rapper here *, we will listen to logic later." I was told. At this time when the album came out I was a few months into treatment. Treatment for stage IV rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue and bone marrow. During what felt like endless amount of treatments, I would listen to my favorite artist to drown out the sounds of the machine pump force feeding me poison throughout my veins. The poison in which was supposed to "cure me". The songs would drown out this sound and keep me in another place, almost as if it was bliss where I was. A place with no such thing as cancer, a place with no diseases and peace and quiet. In this world my sub conscious made I could live my life freely as the real world had me chained and shackled to the pump. Metaphorically of course. I could get up, say no to this anytime, and live for as long as I could until I could not live any longer. Until the last breath in my body was gone. But my doctors and family weren't so accepting of the idea. I also came to realize that it would be the worst idea possible and was also pretty stupid. Chemo was a normalcy later in the first journey battling with cancer and at this point I was used to it. Get poison in my veins, hope it works, and listen to logic to take me to another place. One day while continuing the everlasting fight against the immoral and heinous enemy known as Cancer, I decided to tweet at my favorite artist. Not thinking anything of it I decided to let my followers know who I listen to during chemotherapy, tagging logic in said tweet. Now logic has over a million followers at the time. After I post the tweet I go back to my subconscious and listen to one of his many projects. Experiencing every sound with the Bass blasting in my eardrums, and melody used to tell a story and create a feeling while listening. With my eyes closed and worries no longer in existence I was rudely disturbed by the glare and notification on my phone. Annoyed I quickly swipe my finger across, type in the passcode and unlock the phone. Clicking on the notification and opening the twitter app, Irked not being in my own little world, until I see who the notification is from. @Logic301, the username tweeting at me. No it can't be my mind told me, He has so many other things to focus on and too many people tweeting at him for him to see my tweet. I clicked on the username and quickly realized, this was no fallacy. The hairs on my freckled covered body stood up, I was in a state of shock, Not even processing the actual tweet he sent yet. Finally I calmed myself down and read the tweet at hand.

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The critically acclaimed rapper, with a prodigious following responded to me. Offering encouragement to me to keep fighting and to think positive. My favorite artist giving me encouragement?! With this response came many of his following, offering me well wishes and even tickets to his upcoming concert in Charlotte. The Endless Summer Tour was the name of it, Logic touring with G eazy at the time were coming to Charlotte in two weeks from this day and I have been thinking about going to this concert for a while. The only (kinda big) problem was, funny enough, me. Not being able to be in the sun for long periods of time and getting tired easily would only allow me to be up close and having an actual seat to sit in. No lawn seats for me. The tickets were way too expensive and me being the only person in my family at the time listening to logic, I wouldn't have many options to go with. Leaving me stuck with no way of seeing my Idol. This wasn't such a bad thing, I understood my limits and my health comes first, but in the back of my head I couldn't stop thinking about this missed opportunity. Scrolling through the many tweets to me, not wanting to take peoples tickets, I saw one man who said he knew the artists manager and could get us in contact with a possibility of tickets. I was ecstatic with the offer, getting my hopes up oh so high one thought popped in my head instantly. Maybe I will get to meet him. One thing about me, If something could happen, I believe it will. This goes for anything, from Cancer to Tennessee and the Carolina Panthers football teams occasionally letting me down. My mom took over the communications with the man and eventually got in touch with the manager for bob, Christian. My mom and Christian communicated over a span of a few days and getting a plan together, with 3 tickets up close and personal to the concert. At the time I did not know of this, with my mom keeping it a secret, I was waiting tooth and nail for any update on the situation. A day came along with no chemotherapy and my mom hailing me downstairs from my room, I knew this was it. I rushed down the stairs skipping with joy and glee knowing what was about to be said. Gina (my mom), seeing how animated I was, finally spilled the beans and gave the news. It was a moment of pure bliss, a moment I have been waiting for since I saw him scrolling through Facebook. I brought my sisters to the concert due to my mom and step dads lack of knowledge of logics music. My sisters Kayla and Zoe began to listen to Logic and get accompanied with his music. On the day of the concert I woke up with joy and a smile on my face and continued to throughout the day. I blared his music throughout the house and counted down the hours till we left to go to the concert. With the thought of possibly meeting Logic being in my head all day I decided I needed to sleep before my brain would combust. When I woke up it was almost time to go so I got ready and waited to be picked up by Kayla and Zoe. They arrived and I got in the car with my hopes up and my smile from ear to ear. In the car I could not control my excitement and was very eager to get to the venue. If you asked Kayla, I was way too annoying and being too much of a backseat driver. It wasn't personal, I just wanted to get there on time and didn't want to not be on time for Christian. Until I got there I would not be able to control my thoughts. What if we didn't make it? What if the car broke down? What if there was to much traffic? Finally we arrived in the parking lot of PNC and a weight was lifted off my shoulders. All the negative thoughts ceased from my mind and the happy subconscious came back out. I was here. I am finally going to be seeing him. When we walked into the gates of the pavilion we picked up our tickets from will call and received VIP passes. At this point I knew. I knew we would see logic and it wasn't me being arrogant, I could just feel the night would be one to remember in a very special way. Me, Kayla, and Zoe were met by Christian when we went to the seats. After our introductions were through Christian explained to us to stay in our seats after the concert ended and he would come and get us to meet Bobby. Apparently Bob wanted to see me and have some time to talk after the show according to his manager. I was thrilled, electrified, and every other synonym for excited you can think of. The hairs on my arms went up once again and my 11 and 1/2 shoes tapped on the ground at the speed of light. I tried to hold any of my excitement that I could in front of Christian to not weird him out. Thankfully it wasn't too much longer before I could finally freak out fully. My sisters had to calm me down and prevent me from breaking any of my brittle bones. Once I ran out of energy from being so Intoxicated with glee the opening act came out and began the show. The show was everything that I expected and more, the only problem was that G-Eazy was the main act but that is just my bias showing. Hearing Bobby spread his own metaphorical wings and doing what he loves and preforming for the people like me who love to see him shine. The quality of his smooth wordplay that I described before was intensified in the moment, me taking in every verse, line, and word. Finally his show ended as did my "high" and I was left sitting in my seat after with achy bones, sweaty hair (whatever hair I had at the time) and overall, a lot of fatigue. All of the pain and exhaustion was worth it after seeing only my 2nd concert in my life, the first coming in St. Louis with the amazing Black Eyed Peas. In the back of my head all I could think about what I would actually say to Bob, I did not want to come off as creepy but I wanted him to know how much he has done for me. A mini dilemma was thrown in my way with how I would approach my favorite rapper and I needed to figure out quick. As fellow concert-goers headed out of the venue we instead waited as we were told until Christian came to see us, when he arrived he told us to follow him to the bus lot. The walk to the busses felt like one of the longest walks of my life, me contemplating any which way I could not embarrass my self and my sisters. "Do not freak out Noah" I told myself, "He is just a regular guy like me". The quick pep talk was a failure as I was inching closer and closer to his bus. We finally walked up the steps, entered the living room of the 'house on wheels', and was face to face with Bob. I stood there shell shocked, being in the same room as the man I look up to and the rapper I love. I didn't know what to say and he could tell, I finally got some words out of my mouth and expressed how much he meant to me. His arms opened and gave me a hug and we embraced. It was a moment I would not forget, embracing with the person who helps me in ways no one could think of. After that moment we started to talk and the dilemma I had earlier went away, it felt like a conversation with the person I exactly described, he was just like me. My sisters and me conversed with Bobby about his show and how great he was as he countered back with questions about my health and asking how my treatment was going. He truly cared about when I would be done and was inspired by my fight. I was inspiring him?! The man who inspired me every single day was telling me how he was a inspiration for him. He even was saddened by not being able to see my mom who did not come to the concert due for the reason that she would explain as "I am too old". We continued to talk in which felt like hours but only lasted about 5 minutes. I could tell he was extremely tired and exhausted like everyone else on the bus so it was time for us to go, but not without a gift. He got a shirt and a hat which he personally signed for me and wished me farewell and safe travels. Before we left he mentioned how he wanted to keep in contact and want to know how I was doing wether it was through updates to Christian or through social media and hoped to see us again in the future, including my mom! After the final message Christian escorted us to the exits and told me he would want to keep in contact, wished me the best with my chemo and also hoped to see each other again (Hint Hint). When we got in our car to leave I called everyone I knew wether it was family or friends to tell them of this stupefying time we had. They could not believe the message delivered from my rambling mouth and vowed to become his newest fans. My family members would begin to listen to the up and coming rapper who I now claimed as "My good friend", but it was not like they would have a choice who they would play. I listened to Logic and Logic only for atleast the next month straight, I was connected with Bob. It was a small connection but it was more than anything I had before. There are not a lot of moments during your time with cancer that you can look back on and be happy but I would be sure to remember this moment for the rest of my life