Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex “logikil” Torres

Hi Alex “logikil”, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

It all started on a back block in Hartford, CT named Grandview Terrace. The whole neighborhood was going crazy over this new artist named DMX. Legend had it that MTV and BET banned his music videos and he was known for battle rapping and dissing other rappers. Needless to say, I was ALL IN! All of us would find ways to print out his lyrics to see who knew his songs the best. My personal favorite to recite was “Stop Being Greedy”, I’ll let you figure out the album name. This spawned a culture of rap in the neighborhood and while I was one of the youngest on the block, I wasn’t scared to try my hand at it. It started off corny, “On the block with a glock going pop…yadda yadda yadda.” But as time passed, I ended up moving off the block, to a town over called West Hartford. Looking back as an adult, it was only 5 minutes away, but as a kid it tore my tiny world apart. As the years passed and tears dried, I remained friends with many of the kids from the neighborhood and they were all taking part in online rap forums. My cousin Kahron then introduced to me to Rap Cityz. Ah, the birth place of LogiKIL. To keep things SUPER short, there were many categories you can use to rap/battle. The main 2 being audio and text. I chose text because my voice was trash being that I was only 13. Occasionally I would write text raps the read link songs, basically longer and more structured poems, but the meat and potatoes were the rap battles. These were insane. Imagine battling someone in person and having subtitles in real time where people can dissect your bars. That’s how text battling was. Your bars had to be so fire that they can move people without being spoke. Punchlines, metaphors, similes, double entendres, personal attacks, all of these were our weapons and they HAD TO BE SHARP. They was no cadence or delivery or voice you can lean on. Long story short, this made me REALLY good at writing. Fast forward a year or so, my cousin Kahron was now going by LyriKIL aka the coolest f*cking name I’ve ever heard. My stupid name was Lyrical Assassin LOL. Looking up to LyriKIL, of course I wanted a “KIL” name and we thought of LogiKIL. Only thing was, I wasn’t good enough for a KIL name and someone already claimed it but wasn’t using it. So, you guessed it, I went crazy mastering my craft, studying LyriKIL’s masterful punchlines, Big Pun’s wordplay, Eminem’s shock value. Nas’s story telling, and DMX’s delivery. Eventually, according to LyriKIL, I was good enough now to be a KIL but I needed to battle to jerk that wasn’t using it. So I did. It was a hard battle but in the end I won and that’s how LogiKIL was born. Now, I obviously didn’t stick to only text, audio rapping peeked my interest and I wanted to try my hand at that as well. Turns out I was decent, but definitely needed work. Thus, LogiKIL on the mic was born and things pretty much went from there.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

Struggle is my middle name. If there’s a wet paint sign on the wall, I’m the one who touches the wall to fact check. Give me a cautionary tale, I’m going to do it anyway and see if you’re telling the truth. It’s just how I’m wired, I need to see things for myself. Now, this does come with some strings, the bungie cords of failure dangling you inches above a pitfall. I’ve dealt with friends trying to kill me, building studios, closing studios, people stealing from my studios, friends dying, friends lying, people quitting music, spending too much money on something that ended up failing, etc. You name it, I probably lived it. But through it all, I always charged it to the game and turned my “Losses” into “Lessons”. Experience is life’s meanest teacher, or whatever they say.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

My creative work is a gold coin with 2 heads. On one side I’m the artist who writes his own music and on the other side I’m the engineer who produces, mixes, and masters said music, along with many others. This is what sets me apart. Remember the story about how I started rapping? Yea, well during those times, I also learned that I had an ear for audio engineering. I would notice subtle effects and nuances in songs that others didn’t. So, when I began audio rapping, I learned expeditiously that music studios suck and the industry is trash, even locally. I am not a man of abundant patience, and even as a kid I had an attitude of self reliance. I’ll do this sh** myself! And that I did. From self teaching myself engineering with the help of my internet rap friends (Shout out URLEE!) all the way to getting a Bachelors of Science degree in Audio Engineering Technology. In the back of my mind I knew I needed a plan A.2, not a plan B, but a little safety net that kept me around music and Audio Engineering was just that. So yea, I specialize in creating, producing, mixing, and mastering music for me and other artists as well. That’s what sets me apart baby!

What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?

Don’t take things personal. One of my favorite authors is Robert Greene, and in an interview he once said, and I paraphrase;

“In boxing, when the opponent punches you, you’re not going to cry and ask yourself why they did that. You’re going to attribute it to the sport, learn from your mistakes and try not to get hit again”.

He goes on to say think of business and life in general as a game and everybody is playing it. People WILL do messed up things to get their way, but if you let your emotions blind you, you might lead yourself into an even bigger trap. Now, just because I’ve leanred this lesson, doesn’t mean I don’t struggle. I’m an artist, emotion is my identity. But, when doing business in the tangled web of music, I’ve learned, when people do me wrong, to take a breath, swing at the air a few times and come back later and approach the issue with a bit more clarity. I’m still working at it though, so beware.

Pricing:

• Single Mix/Master – $150
• Album Mix/Master (5-10 songs) – $75/song
• Mastering – $65
• Features – $200

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.logikil.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/logikil860/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LogiKil/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/logikil860
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/logikilofficial
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/logikilmusic