A Rhetorical Analysis Of Logic Take It Back

Logic, also known as Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, is a twenty-seven year old bi-racial hip-hop artist from Gaithersburg, Maryland. He has been producing music since 2009 with his first unofficial mixtape Psychological Logic: The Mixtape. He later released an official mixtape titled Young, Broke and Infamous a year later. In 2013 Logic released his fourth mixtape, Young Sinatra: Welcome to Forever, which would lead him to get signed with Def Jam Records in April. On July 21, 2017, Logic released a music video for his song “Take it Back” from his third album Everybody. A rhetorical analysis of “Take It Back” reveals Logic’s successful attempts to present his viewers on his perspectives on inequality in America.
The beginning of the video opens “in medias res” with Logic lying on the ground unconscious with smoke looming over her body. In the background a muffled version of “Killing Spree”

plays which ends with a gunshot waking Logic up. After the gunshot the music for “Take it back” comes in and logic gets up begins to rap. Logic lying on the ground this is a representation of someone who is caught in the middle of something that they don’t understand. This likely do him waking up in a neighborhood destroyed by a plane crash. Additional proof of “in medias res” is that before the music for “Take it Back” comes in the muffled version of “Killing Spree” can be heard implying what could be the events that happened prior to the video. Like anyone else Logic gets up after hearing and loud gunshot and starts looking around trying to figure out what happening. This is an experience that other people can relate to when they are exposed to inequality. Feelings of worry, confusion, panic all at once cloud the brain and just completely throws someone off.
The scene that immediately follows Logic walks by a black man getting arrested by two cops as two thugs come up behind the cops and let the man free. During this scene the lyrics “Take it back, take it way back, take it way, way back to the first black man. Long ago before the white man could paint the black man with a gun in his hand. Take it back, take it way back Take it way, way back to the first white man At the very moment when they looked around and said "Fuck it, I’ma steal this land."” These sentences imply a time when racism was just starting. Again drawing back to the emotions one would feel at this. During these times there was fear is people’s eyes, they experienced nightmares as they sleep, and they wondered if they would live to see tomorrow. These are the feelings that are being experienced by the man being arrested as he is trying to fight back, but from that fear can come anger. The two men freeing the man being arrested symbolize who are tired of being mistreated and are willing to do something about it by any means necessary.
During the half way mark a vehicle spots logic and stops, two men get out the car and one of the approaches logic with a gun.

Logic disarms the man and beats him down, dismantling the weapon afterwards. All the while the other man just watches from a distance. The man with the gun represents those who have talked down to Logic personally. This scene can be connected to other songs where Logic has told about his struggles as a youth. People telling him that he would never amount to nothing in life. Hating on him because his mother is white or that his dad is black. The gun represents all the threats that he has heard while trying to make a name for himself, as people have threatened to kill him for who he is and disagreeing with him. Despite beating the man down Logic dismantles the weapon signifying that he would rather take a non violent path to reach his goal as he does not want to spread hatred, but inspire love. The second man in the background is one of the bystanders that never do anything, they just stand and let things happen thinking they have no control over

anything.
Later Logic walks by an ambulance and backdoors bursts open and two paramedics give chase to a patient who has escaped. The video ends with Logic standing on top of a car where his friend Big Lenbo is waiting. Logic shakes hands with Lenbo signifying the end of the video. The paramedics are the groups and organizations that were made to help in situation where people are not being treated fairly and give them a chance to have a better life and the patient symbolizes the people that those organizations cannot reach, but they still try to even though it may feel like a wild chase. As Logic ends the video all the events that have happened prior are still going on. This tells the viewer that even though the camera is no longer rolling, these things are still going on and there are people that deal with similar situations on a daily basis.