Album Review: B.o.B. – B.o.B. Presents The Adventures of Bobby Ray

On February first, B.o.B. gave his fans the May 25th mixtape, commemorating what he thought to be the release date of his debut album, B.o.B. Presents The Adventures of Bobby Ray.

To the rapper’s delight, however, the album release date was pushed forward due to the extremely successful lead single, “Nothin On You,” featuring Bruno Mars.  The song has since produced the Atlanta artist’s first platinum plaque.

B.o.B.’s album artwork, conveying the four elements of Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire, helps to show how far his adventures have taken him.  Similar to the art work’s wide variety in images is the album’s wide range in sound.  B.o.B. does everything from rapping, to singing, to playing the guitar in this unique hip hop debut.

It’s been a long journey for the talented artist who’s seen a number of album push-backs and spent years on the infamous “major label shelf.”  The album’s opening line reinforces this feeling, by stating that B.o.B.’s successful career was “just a dream, just a moment ago.”

Let’s get into a few of the tracks that will make this one of the year’s best releases:

B.o.B. – “Bet I Bust” (Featuring T.I. & Playboy Tre)

“Bet I,” with its catchy hook and guest verses from T.I. and Playboy Tre, is one of the few tracks off of the release that can strictly be classified as rap.  The video, released today, shows B.o.B. and his management team celebrating in a manner that I’m sure they’ll be revisiting next Wednesday when the album’s first week numbers are revealed!

T.I. comes through with one of his best verses since being released from jail:

“I’m ballin hard, baseline,
B.o.B. threw the alley oop, bang,
Coming through this thing like James,
In the air off the rim I hang, nigga this King,
Pretend you forgot my name if you wanna,
I’mma come hard like a bona, Don’t I,
Make a nigga wanna re-vamp, turned up all the way re-amp,
Two or three tramp, with ‘em in the Bentley,
Niggas say they doin it like us, you shittin’ me?
‘96, ‘97 in Atlanta didn’t we,
Have more blocks than Mutombo, Dikembe.”

That line about having more blocks than Dikembe Mutombo is pretty hilarious!

Two other traditional sounding hip hop tracks that stood out were “Fame” and “Past My Shades,” the latter featuring Lupe Fiasco.  ”Fame” is a solid track that has B.o.B. comparing his experiences with being in the spotlight to people’s expectations.  ”Past My Shades,” however, could have used a third verse from either of the two emcees, or ideally a final verse where they’d go back and forth commenting on how little people know about them.

B.o.B. – “Airplanes Part 2″ (Featuring Eminem & Hayley Williams)

Hayley Williams‘ catchy hook coupled with the Eminem guest verse automatically made “Airplanes Part 2″ the skip to track upon purchasing the album.  Having said that, B.o.B. holds his own alongside one of hip hop’s titans.  Both of the emcee’s share personal stories with lyrics that explore a series of “could have been” situations.

Here’s Eminem’s guest verse:

“Let’s Pretend,
Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen,
Let’s pretend,
Things would have been no different,
Pretend he procrastinated had no motivation,
Pretend he just made excuses that was so paper thin,
They could blow away with the wind,
Marshall you’re never gone make it, makes no sense to play the game it ain’t no way that’ll you win,
Pretend he just stand outside all day and play with his friends,
Pretend he even had a friend to say was his friend,
And it wasn’t time to move and schools weren’t changing again,
He wasn’t socially awkward and just strange as a kid,
He had a father and his mother wasn’t crazy as shit,
And he never dreamed he could rip stadiums and just lazy as shit,
Fuck a talent show in the gymnasium bitch,
You won’t amount to shit quit day dreaming kid,
You need to get ya cranium checked, you’re thinking like an alien,
It just ain’t realistic,
Now pretend they ain’t just make him angry with this shit,
And there was no one he could even aim when he’s pissed at,
And his alarm went off to wake him but he didn’t make it to the rap Olympics,
Left to his plane and he missed it,
He’s gonna have a hard time explaining to Haley and Laney these food stamps and WIC shit,
Cause he never risked shit,
He hoped and he wished it,
But it didn’t fall in his lap, so he ain’t even hear it,
he pretends that.”

Having a guest verse from Eminem is both a blessing and a curse, as few people have ever come close to matching him bar for bar.

B.o.B. – “Magic” (Featuring Rivers Cuomo)

The hook on “Magic,” performed by Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, and the production provided by Dr. Luke (Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Flo Rida, Katy Perry, etc) are enough to make this track a hit single.  That’s not to say B.o.B.’s lyrics are lacking, but the real focus of this track was giving B.o.B. a pop radio hit.

I can’t help but envision “Magic” being played as the theme music to a number of Disney movies, ha!

B.o.B. – “Lovelier Than You”

B.o.B. produced a number of songs on the debut album, but the ones that really add diversity to his sound are “Ghost In The Machine” and “Lovelier Than You” (seen above).  It’s singer-songwriter tracks like these that showcase his musical ability and set B.o.B. apart from other emerging hip hop artists.

B.o.B. – Satellite

I’ll end this review with some live footage of the bonus track “Satellite.”  As you can tell from the video, this song is definitely a fan favorite!

With the impressive label push behind him and an outstanding amount of artistic creativity, B.o.B. is a young artist that you’ll want to keep your eye on!

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE TRACK OFF THE ALBUM?