Last Updated on Sunday, 9 May 2010 10:55
Written by Brandy Smith
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
If you haven’t heard of B.O.B., you must have been under a rock for the last couple of months. B.O.B. aka Bobby Ray is hands down one of the hottest artist out right now. The 21year old, Atlanta native’s debut album B.O.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray opened at the top of the charts this week, making his album #1 in the country. I’m sure that this doesn’t come as a surprise to his fans. As soon as his song “Nothing On You” featuring Bruno Mars hit airways it was like a breath of fresh air and those infectious lyrics could be heard everywhere. I think it’s safe to say that he is definitely not a “one hit wonder,” his most recent song to hit airways “Airplanes” featuring Paramore’s Haley Williams is receiving just as much love and has me convinced that B.O.B. is here to stay.
After 3 and a half years waiting for the release of his album, B.O.B. is living proof that hard work pays off. Shortly after graduating from Atlanta’ Columbia High School in 2006 he signed a deal with Altlantic Record in partnership with Jim Jonsin’s Rebel Rock. However, success did not happen overnight for Bobby Ray. In between time he made a name for himself with his mixtapes, that created a reaction big enough to land him on the cover of two of the leading urban magazines, XXL and VIBE in 2008.
B.O.B. attributes his skill to listening to fellow ATLiens OutKast, and Goodie Mob. He also says that he credits his rap writing skills to writing the lyrics to DMX on It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, B.o.B told MTV. “I listened to it religiously. I was in the third grade at the time.”
B.O.B regularly gets advice from another heavy hitter in the hip hop community, T.I. One piece of advice that T.I. has given to him about making sure that he doesn’t stray to far from his hip hop roots is “‘You got to bring it back to the hood some Bobby, you got to come back down to the earth and land,’” B.o.B laughs, quoting advice from T.I. in an interview with Urban News Network.
It’s apparent that B.O.B. has taken taking every bit of good advice and turned it into something great. Hard work and persistence has definitely paid off for him and taken B.O.B. straight to No. 1.
