Improv Logic

I was born in the summer of 1988 in Portland and grew up in southeast right next to Hawthorne. I started making music when my dad taught me a few chords on guitar. From there I went through a few phases of dying my hair and being a punk kid, playing in a shitty band, as well as bashing rap and hip hop to no end. Eventually I was introduced to artists and groups like Atmosphere, Sage Francis, Blackalicous, Eyedea and Abilities, as well as all of the weird shit from Anticon (I have my older brother to thank for this). My entire view of hip hop changed, it went from being something I blindly despised to a whole new world I had to explore. I began freestyle rapping in high school and started writing my own stuff shortly after. The writing became an essential part of my life and the best form of release I could find, it’s still something I could never do without. Me and three of my good friends formed a very unorganized group called “Erratic Assassins” my sophomore year. This involved the four of us flowing over cheesy beats made on fruity loops, and making more recordings of freestyles than actual songs. It sounds bad but at the time it was amazing, and I fell in love with the genre. Eventually the four of us went on our own paths, but I was too addicted to writing poetry at that point to stop. From the frustrations of being an adolescent there grew a large pile of writing that I was doing nothing with. I made some very cheap beats, I invested in some recording equipment and amateur recording program for my pc, and I recorded my first underground cd called Improv Logic, which is my chosen emcee name. I started doing shows my senior year in high school, my first few were at the Loveland, which doesn’t exist anymore. After feeling what it was like to rock a set I became fully devoted to this whole “being a rapper” thing. After high school I started college at Portland State University, I found that the frustrations of life still never ceased to be an inspiration to me, and I made another underground cd called Sunrise. My friend Dustin (Dusty Beats) who made beats for our group back in 10th grade was still making beats, but his talent had become astonishing. Many of the better songs on Sunrise were produced by him. Dusty Beats now does all the production, my current underground cd called The Weather is filled with his work.

All over Portland, all age venues and house shows. Many great memories, I will often play while backed by local bands I know...good times.

4 Non Blondes, 10000 Maniacs, A'ha, ACDC, Aerosmith, Aesoprock, Aimee Mann, Al Greene, Alanis Morissette, Alias, Alice in Chains, Aphex Twin, Aretha Franklin, Atmosphere, Audioslave, B.B King, Barenaked Ladies, Beastie Boys, Beck, Beethoven, Benefit, Bill Monroe, Blackalicous, Blackstreet, Blind Melon, Blue Oyster Cult, Blue Print, Blumentopf, Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bobby Mcferrin, Bone Thugs, Boston, Brahms, Brotha Lynch, Brother Ali, Bruce Springsteen, Buck 65, Buena Vista Social Club, Building Better Bombs, Busdriver, Butthole Surfers, Cage, Cannibal Ox, Cecil Otter, Chef Raekwon, Chet Atkins, Clit Ripper, Coldplay, Coolio, Credence Clearwater Revival, Cunninlynguists, Cypress Hill, DJ Shadow, Dave Mathews Band, David Bowie, David Crosby, De La Soul, Dead Prez, Del The Funky Homosapian, Depeche Mode, Dessa, Die Fantastischen Vier, Dire Straits, Doobie Brothers, Dose-One, Dr. Dre, Dr Seuss, Duane Eddy, Dynospectrum, Earl Scruggs, Edan, El-P, Elliot Smith, Elvis, Eminem, Enigma, Enya, Even in Paradise, Eyedea and Abilities, Fairfield Four, Faith No More, Fat Lip, Fettes Brot, Fiona Apple, Fleetwood Mac, Frank Sinatra, Freestyle Fellowship, Fuel, Garbage, George Carlin, Geto Boys, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Graham Nash, Greenday, Groove B Chill, Grouch and Eligh, Gruf The Druid, Harry McClintock, Harry Nilsson, Heiroglyphics, Hendrix, Herbie Hancock, Huey Newton, I Self Devine, Iggy Pop, J-live, Jackson Browne, Jaco Pastorius, Jane's Addiction, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jerry Reed, Jewel, Joan Baez, John Couger Mellencamp, John Denver, Justin Warfield, KRS-ONE, Kenna, Kiss, Korn, LA Symphony, Ladies Love Cool J, Lateef, Led Zeppelin, Lester Flatt, Life, Live, Living Legends, Lou Reed, Love, Lynard Skynard, Lyrics Born, MF Doom, Mai Yamane, Marijuana, Mark Mothersbaugh, Marshall Tucker Band, Martika, Marvin Gaye, Mata Hari, May May, Michelle Branch, Mictlan, Mozart, Mr. Skurge, Muddy Waters, Murs, NWA, Necro, Neil Young, Nelly Furtado, Nico, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, No Doubt, Nobuo Uematsu, Non-Phixion, OMC, Oliver Hart, One Be Lo, Pearl Jam, Philosophy, Pigeon John, Pink Floyd, Pip Skid, Primus, Proclaimers, Procussions, Public Enemy, Quasimoto, Queen, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Randy Newman, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Restiform Bodies, Rick James, Robbie Williams, Roberta Flack, Roger Miller, Rooftop Singers, Sage Francis, Sammy Deluxe, Sarah Mclaughlin, Saul Williams, Savage Garden, Scarface, Schooly D, Schubert, Seatbelts, Semisonic, Shel Silverstein, Sheryl Crowe, Shuggie Otis, Shumann, Sido, Simon & Garfunkel, Sims, Skies Cloud's Despair, Sly and the Family Stone, Smashing Pumpkins, Snoop Dogg, Sole, Song of Zarathustra, Soul Brothers, Soul Position, Soundgarden, Sounds of Nature, Spacehog, Staind, Stephen Stills, Styx, Sublime, Sugarhill Gang, System of a Down, TLC, Talib Kweli, Tatu, Tchaikovsky, Tears for Fears, Texta, The 5th Dimension, The B-52's, The Beatles, The Bluegrass Boys, The Byrds, The Cranberries, The Doors, The Eagles, The Five Stairsteps, The Four Tops, The New Radicals, The Offspring, The Pharcyde, The Pillows, The Pixies, The Plastic Constelations, The Police, The Shins, The Smiths, The Supremes, The Velvet Underground, The Who, The Youngbloods, Them, Third Eye Blind, Three Dog Night, Tom Petty, Tool, Tracy Chapman, Tupac, Ugly Duckling, U2, Verve Pipe, Wang Chung, Warren G, Ween, Weezer, Willie Nelson, Wilson Pickett, Wu-Tang Clan, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Zion I, Zombies.