Atlanta has provided the hip-hop community with countless acts that have come through and flipped the music industry, including artists such as T.I., Young Jeezy, Usher and Ludacris.
In 2007, T.I. signed Bobby Ray ‘B.o.B.’ Simmons to his imprint record label, Grand Hustle, seemingly to provide his label with something different that the hip-hop industry hasn’t seen since the legendary duo Outkast blew up the scene.
B.o.B. has had a hard time because he is quite misunderstood as far as being represented by a genre goes. He even has a hard time labeling himself, but feels as though his music breaks down barriers and allows for different types of listeners.
‘I feel like my music is free and liberal because I live that way,’ B.o.B. said. ‘I think it’s safe to say a large part of this new, fresh generation is just anxious and itching to be free. The awareness is really spreading in music and culture.’
B.o.B. is busy in the studio working on his coming album, tentatively titled The Adventures of B.o.B., which is slated for release this summer.
‘I’m really trying to get (the album) to where it’s obvious to me that it’s an album, and it’s not obvious to me yet,’ B.o.B. said. ‘I feel like I have excellent songs, but I want it to be a movie. I want people to put it in and I want their world to become widescreen when they’re listening. I want it to be cinematic.’
B.o.B.’s music is a bit different from what you’d hear on a typical hip-hop record label. His music is an amalgam of various genres, from pop to soul to electro.’ He’s maintained that T.I. and the rest of Grand Hustle have remained supportive of his individuality, and B.o.B. seems like he’s content with the fact that he’s a genre meddler.
‘I’m going to be as experimental as I can possibly be,’ B.o.B. said. ‘It’s not so much I’m just doing it to be different, but I do it because it’s my passion and I’m inspired to see and do as I wish and feel.’
Seeing the acronym B.o.B. so many times insinuates that it stands for something. However, B.o.B. has a self-named ‘rolodex of B.o.B.s’ in which he stores different meanings for the acronym and adds new meanings as he comes across them in his everyday life.
‘For me, B.o.B. stands for me just ‘blasting outta barriers,’ putting ‘brains over bullets’ and ‘battling our brothers,” B.o.B. said. ‘And in the meanwhile, I’m staying in a ‘bubble of bliss,’ because you know, there’s a lot of hate out there.’
