When rapper Logic decided to sample an Orson Welles radio show for Intro on his album No Pressure, he did not plan on using the late filmmaker’s voice again to close the collection.
Logic sampled Welles’ introductory remarks from a 1942 broadcast of The Hitch-Hiker to playfully kick-off his hit album.
“On one of the very last days before we turned in the album I was wondering if Orson has a dope outro… ‘thank you for tuning in. It’s been amazing. It’s been incredible. Peace out and that kind of shit’,” Logic recalled in a For the Record interview with Rob Markman.
Instead, he stumbled across a 74-year-old radio show that echoed his own views on racial justice — a 1946 commentary broadcast by Welles after the beating and blinding of Black veteran Isaac Woodard Jr. at the hands of a white police officer.
“How serendipitous is that? It was like 14 minutes. I chopped it up to really address what is going on,” Logic said. “It’s not something I was necessarily going to talk about because I’ve been talking about … injustice my whole fucking career.”
The remarks from Orson Welles Commentaries became the basis for the powerful closing track, Obediently Yours.
“It’s like the universe [said]… ‘You need this and the world needs this. So do the best you can creatively to put this out there.’ And I think we did a really good job,” Logic said.
He said he received a “very beautiful letter” from Beatrice Welles, the director’s youngest daughter, who was pleased with Obediently Yours. He said he was grateful the Estate gave its OK to the sampling.
No Pressure debuted in the No. 2 spot on the Billboard Top 200 with 221,000 copies sold in its first week. It also accumulated a total of 65.16 million on-demand streams of the set’s tracks in the week ending August 8.
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