Interview: B.o.B. aka Bobby Ray (10/5/09)

B.o.B., aka Bobby Ray, rocked the crowd at NYC’s Highline Ballroom last night, giving the fans a performance they won’t soon forget.

Requests from his deep mixtape catalog were screamed throughout the night, as the crowd danced frantically to his music.

Unlike most hip hop shows, B.o.B. brought a lot of creativity into his set via a live band with a few performances that saw him on the guitar and keyboard.

To start off the show, B.o.B. and Playboy Tre brought the crowd back to B.o.B.’s first hit record, “Haterz,” off of the Cloud 9 mixtape.

The rock star energy brought forth by “Haterz” carried through B.o.B.’s entire set.

Shortly after B.o.B. finished performing, he sat down with HipHopAtLunch.com to discuss his motivation behind performances, while also sharing what a few years in the hip hop game has taught him.

As you can tell, B.o.B. is an extremely chill and funny dude who is all about being in the right state of mind.  Since today’s his day off tour, hit him up on Twitter:@bobatl and let him know what you think of the interview.  While you’re at it, you may want to ask what he’s doing to relax.

The crowd really got into B.o.B.’s performance when he broke out the guitar and showed his diverse sound.  Check out B.o.B. taking the crowd to outer space with “Satellite.”

Other performances off of the B.o.B. vs Bobby Ray mixtape were Put Me On, Mr Bobby, and Wonderland.

“Satellite” was my favorite song of the night, but B.o.B. made sure to perform the crowd favorite, “I’ll be in the Sky,” before he left the stage.

The group of girls next to me were waiting for this track all night, and B.o.B. didn’t disappoint!  Other performances off of the Who The F#@K Is B.o.B? mixtape were Generation Lost and On Top of The World.

Before we left B.o.B., we asked him to speak about the origins of his stage names, B.o.B. and Bobby Ray.  Luckily he gave us the whole story!

We can all thank Willie Joe for giving Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. the nickname, B.o.B.  That being said, B.o.B.’s focus on the music and being true to himself is more important than any stage name.  So whether it’s B.o.B. or Bobby Ray, it’s the music that will make you a fan!

Big shout out to everyone at the show last night @PlayboyTre, @JasmineSolano, @BRich404, @TJsDJs, Latrice, and @WesleyClouden!

To get more information on B.o.B.’s music, check out our feature article.  Also, be sure to catch him when he comes to your city.  Currently his tour has shows lined up around the country from now until December 4th!