Grammy-nominated rapper B.o.B has had such a busy year, he barely noticed when he hit it big.
“We were just going and moving and moving and moving, feeling like, ‘Damn, this is crazy,’” he said. “When my album came out ... all of a sudden it was like three songs in the top 10 on iTunes. You’re just moving and you don’t realize it; you don’t even realize what’s going on.”
A little more than a year after releasing his debut album, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, B.o.B — born Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. — will perform his biggest pop-rap hits at The Convo tonight.
Simmons, who rhymes on singles such as “Airplanes,” “Nothin’ on You” and “Magic,” wasn’t always a fan of hip-hop, calling it an “acquired taste.” Still, the Atlanta native lists a fellow emcee and former collaborator as one of his greatest influences.
“It’s between Eminem (and) Coldplay,” he said, adding a lengthy pause between each word as if deep in thought. “And ... just Atlanta in general. Just living in Atlanta: it influences you so much musically. You don’t even have to listen to the radio … just drink the water.”
Joining forces with Eminem on “Airplanes” — as well as artists such as Hayley Williams, Rivers Cuomo, Bruno Mars, Lupe Fiasco and Janelle Monáe on his first album alone — is a tactic that does more than just raise the star power of his singles, Simmons said.
“You always learn something from being in the studio and learning how they record,” he said. “It’s kind of like a trade off: You trade off information and … you get something in return.”
Simmons also trades off different personas, going by both B.o.B and Bobby Ray. Bobby Ray, he said, is “the original,” the music and the soul, while B.o.B is his created identity for the stage.
But both sides of Simmons are focused on success, something that became very real when he was nominated for five Grammy Awards this year — including Record of the Year for “Nothin’ on You” — but came home empty handed.
Simmons likened the experience to fighting for a Super Bowl ring in the NFL playoffs.
“I think the nomination, to me, is more important because at least you got the nomination. You were noteworthy,” he said, adding that the goal of winning an award is for his team and his fans. “But you always have that voice in your head that’s like, ‘You can do better.’ It’s kind of like a gift and a curse. You just have to keep trying to outdo yourself.”
With or without statuettes to prove it, even Simmons, who is only 22 years old, will not deny he has been working nonstop — and he is about to start work on a new B.o.B album that will be “better than the first,” he said.
But this time around, he’s learning to make time for Bobby Ray.
“The hard thing is always finding the time to celebrate,” he said. “But now … we work it into our schedule.”
al106606@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCulture
