Logan Reich started jumping into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Now, he’s making waves — sound waves.

For 25 days in a row, Reich plunged into the water in an attempt to promote his April-released song “Get Rich or Die Trying.” The 22-year-old said the promotional tactic “forced the city to put their eyes on him.”

“I became recognized on the regular,” Reich said. “I would go to the gas station and people would be like, ‘You the boy that jumped in the harbor, I like your music,’ and that makes me feel really good about myself.”

Reich was born in Pennsylvania but moved to the Parkville area around age 6. You may have assumed he always had a charismatic personality, but that wasn’t the case for the rapper. He described himself as a “ducked off person who wasn’t very outgoing” until his 11th grade year at Eastern Technical High School.

“Junior year was like my breakout year when I really stopped caring about what people think,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I became popular, but people started knowing me because I started doing social media and just got comfortable with myself.”

Reich’s first song, “Pretty Boy,” has garnered 6.4 million views on YouTube since its release in 2022. Many would be satisfied with those numbers, but Reich has higher aspirations for his rap career. Instead of waiting for his latest single, titled “Get Rich or Die Trying,” to slowly get notice, he wanted it to “blow up” in Baltimore.

“I was doing really well for myself at the time, but I ain’t have no reach in Baltimore,” he said. “So I was thinking, ‘What’s one thing in Baltimore, that everybody can agree on?’ It definitely was don’t swim in the harbor.”

Reich’s social media antics caught the eye of renowned entrepreneur Stokey Cannady, who is the father of prominent Baltimore rapper YBS Skola. According to Reich, Cannady is his soon-to-be manager and his help has already majorly impacted the artist’s journey.

Risk is worth the reward

On an Instagram post from May 24, Logan told the camera “I’m jumping in the harbor every day until my song goes viral.” The caption read, “y’all please make this a short challenge and stream my song so i don’t never have to do this again.”

This challenge was anything but short. He jumped in the water for almost an entire month. Reich thinks taking a swim downtown gave his musical career a boost.

“It translated to more streams, but I will say what really made it successful was the reach I get in Baltimore,” he said.

Reich has racked up over 16 thousand monthly listeners on Spotify. Though “Get Rich” didn’t reach Reich’s goal of one million streams before the 25-day challenge ended, he feels his social strategy helped push his first single, “Pretty Boy,” even higher, reaching 1.8 million streams on Spotify.

Reich did more than simply jump in the harbor’s water, he dressed in costumes and pulled pranks to get more attention. For one Instagram video, he spread glue on his body and acted as if his skin was peeling off in large chunks due to the repeated plunges. It was not.

Though the city and nonprofit groups are working to make the harbor swimmable, officials advise against people jumping into the water of their own accord like Reich.

“We do not recommend that people swim in the Harbor outside of organized and professionally supervised events like Harbor Splash or Katie Pumphrey’s swim,” said Adam Lindquist, vice president of Baltimore’s Waterfront Partnership, in a statement.

While water quality in the harbor often now meets Maryland’s standard for swimming, Lindquist explained it can vary due to weather and there are potential hazards beneath the surface, like old pilings. The harbor also has a lot of boat traffic — everything from recreational boats to industrial shipping vessels — that could pose a danger to swimmers, he said.

Reich feels the risk was well worth the reward after Cannady supplied the young artist with recording space at a studio for free. Reich has no problem admitting he isn’t the wealthiest person, so solely focusing on music and not worrying about paying for studio time helps his creative freedom.

That resulted in Reich crafting a project which was supposed to release on July 5. Unfortunately, the project has been pushed back to an unknown date due to “technical difficulties.” But the rapper said he knows this is all a part of the process. With no release date, Reich is just enjoying the journey as he works on music.

“Honestly, what I do don’t feel like work to me. If I’m not making a song, I ask myself, ‘What am I doing?’” he said.