Anime is having a small moment in hip-hop: Earlier this year, Lupe Fiasco named his latest album Tetsuo & Youth, partly after the teen biker from the massively popular Japanese manga series Akira. Incorporating that influence even deeper into his music is Logic, a 25-year-old rapper from Maryland whose just-released sophomore album intersects the worlds of anime and rap. The Incredible True Story is a concept album set 100 years in the future, during a time when Earth’s remaining 5 million must live aboard a spaceship. Steve Blum, who voiced Spike Spiegel on the anime series Cowboy Bebop, plays Quentin Thomas, the captain of a ship traveling to another planet.
As much as Logic admittedly fanboys out to anime, he’s well aware not everyone shares his passion for “nerd stuff.†(He can solve a Rubik’s cube in one minute and emails with Neil deGrasse Tyson; don’t even try and outnerd him.) Vulture recently caught up with Logic at New York Comic Con, where he gave us a quick primer on anime culture. Thought about reading Trigun, or never even heard of it? Watch Logic compare a few of his favorite anime and cartoon characters (Note: That’s why Deadpool is included) to real-life celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, and Tom Hardy so you’ll know which anime is for you.
The Incredible True Story is out now on Def Jam.