At the Vogue Theatre on Friday, February 6

Close to the end of Logic’s sold-out Friday-night show at the Vogue, the rapper’s main collaborator, DJ Rhetorik, reminisced about a prior Vancouver gig that only had a few-dozen attendees. “Now there’s over one thousand of you motherfuckers,” the beatmaker enthused, prompting roars of approval.

That comment illustrated how much Logic’s stock has risen of late. This show was originally scheduled for the Rio Theatre, but it was moved to the larger Vogue in order to meet demand, and the crowd that filled the all-ages venue showed up ready to cut loose.

The party started early when opener Michael Christmas took the stage at 7 p.m.; the Boston MC immediately had the early birds waving their arms as he greeted them with a scream of “Make some motherfucking noise, Vancouver!” He went on to explain that he was on his inaugural tour, and this was his first time outside the United States. He endeared himself to his Canadian crowd by joking, "What the fuck is poutine? Is poutine good?"

Christmas also gave a shoutout to one of our countrymen with the track "Michael Cera”, and he sang the praises of the 2007 comedy Superbad before dropping some laid-back rhymes about McLovin over an old-school, electric-piano-laced beat. Hopefully, someone rewarded his efforts by introducing him to the world-famous combination of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy.

DJ Rhetorik kept the energy up by spinning some tracks and vigorously hyping up the crowd for the act that was to follow. His set functioned as a history lesson in the last 20 years of hip-hop, as he played hits by legends ranging from Snoop Dogg to Missy Elliott.

Logic fans were thoroughly warmed up by the time the headliner exploded onto the stage at 8:45 and immediately tore into “Soul Food”. The fans hollered along with every word, including the harrowing ones about Logic’s troubled family life, and waved their arms to the booming beats.

The rapper—who was born Sir Robert Bryson Hall II—was curiously dressed in an aviator-style jumpsuit with a Japanese flag on the sleeve. His outfit gave him plenty of freedom to ping-pong around the front of the room as he rolled out cuts from last year’s debut album Under Pressure.

A few songs in, Logic asked, “Do you want to go home?”, and then coached onlookers to raise their middle fingers aloft and respond with a thunderous “fuck you!” 

It was a cute gimmick, although it got a little tedious when Logic repeated the stunt between nearly every track in the entire 75-minute set.

Still, the Maryland–spawned rapper was clearly thrilled with the audience’s enthusiasm, offering many effusive thank-yous. In a classy moment of fan-appreciation, he also brought out a long-time follower named Henry to briefly rap alongside him.

A little later, Logic got the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” to one reveller near the front. The MC then invited a young fan named Nathan on-stage to pose for a picture. It was a well-meaning gesture, but Logic didn’t seem to have much experience talking to kids; he praised the elementary-school student by declaring, “This motherfucker has balls.”

Occasionally, Logic toned down the fun for a moment of seriousness. He explained that the darkly seductive “Nikki” was about his former nicotine addiction, and he instructed partiers to quiet down and pay respect to hip-hop before “Roll Call”, which featured a prominent sample of Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson”.

He also showed off his skills on the mike when Rhetorik cued up a beat and told him, “Surprise, motherfucker, you’re freestyling now.” Logic catered his improvised verse to the local audience by rhyming “Van City” with “ill titties,” and capped it off with some impressive rapid-fire triplets.

As the show neared its 10 p.m. finish time, the headliner brought his crew out on-stage to dance along to the jazzy “Never Enough”. This was followed by the triumphant “Till the End” and Logic gushing about his busy live schedule, announcing, “This is stop number nine of one thousand and 89 million.”

By the time the tour is over, perhaps he will have grown jaded. But on this night, Logic seemed truly thrilled to be on-stage, and his passion was contagious.