 Asher Roth | Wale  |
Whether I’m a rapper, trapper, slapper, whatever, I’m still gonna do what I do, but, I don’t know, something about the term rapper…. I feel like the term ‘rapper’ is bad.
Eminem cosigned him on a recent stop at BET’s 106 & Park, T.I. is his boss, and Drake, Kid Cudi, Asher Roth, and Wale are his peers. Needless to say, B.o.B, aka Bobby Ray, as he’s now known (“aka” included) keeps good company. But if Drake makes mood music and Kid Cudi makes moon music, then B.o.B. makes pop music, or at least that’s the point.
At just 19, the multitalented
VIBE: Let’s start at the beginning, how you got started, why you started rapping…
B.o.B. aka Bobby Ray: Why I got started? You know, honestly speaking, I really started making music for therapy, and then I just kept doing it because I got pretty good at it, enough to where it was more pleasing, [rather] than a headache, to listen to. [laughs] And I started out really just rapping, you know, really just being an MC. That was my comfort level at the time, and as I’ve grown, my comfort level has expanded such to where I feel most inclined to just be a musician, in totality, you know, just playing instruments, rehearsing a lot more for shows, just whatever I can do.
You grew up playing instruments, right?
Yeah, definitely. I wish I would have kept playing the trumpet. I think I’m gonna pick that back up again. [Laughs]
Anything else?
I played the guitar and the piano.
I’ve seen you play guitar onstage, so you obviously kept at that. And I know you’re doing a lot of your own production.
Oh, yeah, definitely. And now that I’m working with other musicians, I’m actually challenging myself productionwise, because it’s actually easy for me to go in the studio by myself and just make a good song. But I’m challenging myself from orchestrating different musicians—and even beyond orchestrating, there still has to be a spontaneous element in musicmaking that you can’t orchestrate, and it just has to come to you—so I’m kinda learning how to be patient and really manifest what I see musically.
Do you go into the studio with an idea in mind of what you want to do, or do you prefer it to be more spontaneous?
Most of the time you try to mastermind everything, but in actuality, when you do that, you always end up with what you didn’t intend on doing. So really, in actuality, the majority of the time in the studio is really experimenting, and things happen that you don’t intend on happening. Really, all you can do is just be able to play, be able to sing, be able to do whatever you can do, and then inspiration will hit you when you least expect it.
Do you have a particular studio or particular place where you feel most comfortable making music?
Yeah, definitely. The studio I’m recording at in Little Rome, in Atlanta, [in the] preproduction room. I am still able to orchestrate and make demo songs, and even though they’re kind of demo songs, they don’t sound like demo songs, in terms of just getting live instruments on them. I can definitely make an album in there, which I’ve been doing. The last bit of my album, I’ve been recording there. And other than that, I’ll just record at Grand Hustle. I like recording at Grand Hustle because there’s enough people there to where you can kind of gauge their reactions from your music, so you can kinda see how people respond to it, different crowds of people, what they like.
When you’re working by yourself, do you find yourself going off on tangents? Like, “whoa, that’s a little too out there”? As opposed to when people are around, maybe staying more grounded?
With me, the hardest thing for me to do is to not think and just do it. Because when there’s nobody else who’s committing time to it, you feel like you have all the time in the world, so you just kinda play around. But I’m getting to the point now, where I know how to just do it and just not think, and just go and just do it, and that’s really the hardest part. And when you’re working with different musicians, you have to be that way, you have to just, go with it and go with inspiration, and at the same time recognize what everybody else is inclined to do. And then you’re like, “Okay, y’all are inclined to do this, and I can bring this to the table….” And then, there you go: It’s working like clockwork.
Sure. One of the things that’s struck me about your music is the record “Generation Lost,” where you rap about having a grill and getting tats and trying to fit in.
[Laughs] Oh, oh, yeah.
You’ve obviously moved away from that idea. Can you talk about that?
Yeah, yeah. That phase that I went through is a phase that a lot of, a lot of, I mean, shit, 99 percent of teens go through…and, it’s like this unspoken rule book, and that was the chapter that dealt with rappers. Like you gotta have tattoos, you gotta seem aggressive, you gotta seem really, really, really confident, even if it comes off as being arrogant, just whatever the case may be. It’s so self-conscious that you don’t realize it until you take a step back and you’re like, “Wait a minute, why am I doing this?” And as I evolved out of that, the hardest thing for me to do was to continue to be—just as a commodity, but being true to myself—and not just being an image, but actually being a person that people can click with, and not just look at and be like, “Oh, he looks cool.” And so that’s really what that song was about. And of course, it goes deeper, through different lines that I said, talking about, you know, slavery has changed, it’s a modern-day disaster, and some different types of things. But really it’s just, I was touching on that unspoken rule book with things.
And then now that you’ve got through the name change. Telling everybody to call you Bobby Ray seems to speak to that idea that you seem to really hold dear, which is that you are an individual, you are a person, you aren’t just this rapper whom you can put in a box. And yet you’ve caught a lot of flack for that, especially changing your name without having an album out. How have you felt in the face of that reaction?
Um, really…it’s really…it’s actually good to see that. Any reaction is a good reaction. And I feel like there are people watching. And as long as people are watching, I feel like I’m satisfied. And it’s not even an attention type of thing, but the type of influence that I could have on people to shed some light on certain topics and touch on certain areas, because I have things to say, some of which I can’t make into a song at this point because I just don’t know yet, or it hasn’t dawned on me, but I feel like there are things that I need to say. But you know, all the flack and all the different comments and critiques, that’s just a part of the game. You have to expect that. But at the end of the day I have to be me. I have to be me regardless of any uproar or all else, because if I’m not me, then what’s the point of me doing anything? Then you’re just a puppet. Then you’re just somebody else’s fool. So I have to be me and just continue to realize how much of me I’m being.
Were you surprised to see the blowback?
You know, I was so set on being myself that I didn’t really expect it or not expect it. I just kinda wanted that relief. I just stopped checking everything. I stopped getting online. I didn’t really check my e-mails. I was just in my room, just really trying to meditate and get centered. And I’m continuing to grow, you know? I like that. There’s this poem called “Empty,” and basically, it just talks about how you gotta keep the cup empty, and the cup is your mind and it’s like, no matter what you hold true, or what you feel like you know, you have to always keep an open mind and keep an empty cup. And who knows, next year I may be like, “You know, I don’t really like Bobby Ray….” I mean, I’m not gonna change my name again, but you always continue to grow. So I don’t feel like I’m at a point where I know everything. I just feel like this is just the steps that I’m taking for my own happiness and my own sanity.
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