Back in 2005, Illogic was set to release an album on Rhymesayers. The Columbus artist had worked with Blueprint on 2004’s Celestial Clockwork, and had toured with other Rhymesayers artists, so it seemed like a logical expansion of their roster. Illogic went straight to work on a followup to Clockwork, which is an album fairly downtempo and dark in tone. To move away from this sound, Illogic enlisted Walter Rocktight, a fellow Columbus artist and deejay, most well known for his production work on S.A. Smash’s Smashy Trashy. The two decided on the name Year 8076 based on the years of their birth (Illogic was born in 1980 and Rocktight in 1976), and set off to make their version of a party rap record. However, for personal reasons Illogic decided not to release the album and instead took a five year hiatus. After all that time, the album is finally seeing the light of day.

While having a smart emcee like Illogic making a party album sounds like it should in theory mean funky songs with challenging lyrics, Year 8076 instead contains some of the weakest rhymes he’s recorded in his career. Which is a shame, because there’s a lot of great lyrical work as well, but it gets overshadowed. A song like “Morals” features a beat that sounds a Blueprint-inspired, a midtempo groove with a slightly menacing instrumentation, mostly coming through a simple keyboard line. The instrumentation is minimal, though, leaving plenty of room for Illogic’s verbal gymnastics, and he is more than up to the task, coming up with all sorts of clever lines while switching up his flow several times. This is contrasted by songs like “I Know You Wanna Dance,” a song full of tired lines about how it sucks to go to the club, from the music to the people. This happens several times across the album. One song, it will be smart and challenging, the next will really fail to come together. What really surprised and disappointed me, though, was that he drops some transphobic and homophobic lines. I always considered Illogic a better emcee and person than to drop a line like “I’m iller than a transexual on her menstrual cycle,” or “These f—–s can’t hack it, I got them coming out the closet.” For someone as obviously bright and talented as he is to fall back on the harmful and weak rhymes is beyond disappointing. I can only hope there wasn’t any ill will behind these lines. As it is, I have a hard time supporting this record.

Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is good if it opens you up to new experiences and points of view. However, experimenting with your music and coming out with a successful record are two different things. Illogic’s attempt at a party record isn’t a complete failure, but there are enough misses on this album that I think it would have been stronger to lose several tracks and release it as an EP. Throw in two of the most ignorant lines in Illogic’s career on top of this, and I can only call Year 8076 a disappointment.