BY SHARON JACOBS
Managing Arts Editor
Published May 3, 2010
The first single off B.o.B.’s debut full-length album is already the feel-good anthem of spring 2010, and for good reason. “Nothin’ On You” is just so positive and to-the-point, it’s hard not to enjoy.
B.o.B
B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray
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B.o.B.’s melodic accolades to a long-term girl who easily beats the plastic beauties of touring life pleasantly slide over spurting synths. The track shows a lot of promise — so it’s a pity that, as radio-ready as it is, B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray isn’t as fresh as fans would hope.
In the world of up-and-coming rappers, B.o.B. (offstage, Bobby Ray Simmons) has stylistically wedged himself in between the ultra-cool “hipster hop” coming from the likes of Kid Cudi and Wale, and the poppier, dancier Asher Roth-style stuff.
The former comparison is most obvious on the track “The Kids.” This funkier rehashing of the Vampire Weekend song “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” trades in the baroque arpeggios and sweeping strings of the original for a less pretentious bare-bones bassline and electric guitar accompaniment. But at the same time, B.o.B. keeps the upbeat tune and melancholy lines that made Vampire Weekend's version so lovable in the first place.
If Cudi could chill with indie-boppers MGMT and Ratatat on his single “Pursuit of Happiness,” and Wale could remix Justice’s "D.A.N.C.E.," then why shouldn’t B.o.B. take a Vampire Weekend single on a toe-tapping and lyrical ride through his own childhood?
Besides “The Kids,” the thick production and super-prominent keyboards on opener “Don’t Let Me Fall,” as well as the delicate rising and falling synths that back the lyric rumination “Ghost in the Machine,” recall intellectual hipster rap. But B.o.B. doesn’t quite fit into that scene. Put simply, he just doesn’t have the nerd cred of Kid Cudi or Wale.
For one thing, B.o.B.’s lyrics are rarely clever, relevant or unexpected. “Now I’m in your house / Now I’m in your stove / Now I’m everywhere that your iPod goes” is about as creative as he gets on “Don’t Let Me Fall.”
What’s more, guest spots from Rivers Cuomo on the track “Magic” and Paramore’s Hayley Williams on “Airplanes” are dated and just plain uncool, respectively. Cuomo brings to his collaboration a too-frantic alt-rock vibe that had the world tired and bored by the turn of the millennium. And although Williams is clearly doing her rock-chick darndest to sound edgy on “Airplanes,” she still comes off like an unreasonably angsty teen girl.
What saves Bobby Ray is actually its Roth-like simplicity. If the album isn’t quite smart and timely enough to be hip, at least it’s almost catchy enough to be pop.
Tracks “Fame” and “Lovelier Than You” take on well-worn themes that can be guessed from their titles, and B.o.B.’s lyrics don’t shed any new light. So what’s left? Well, the melodies on both are damn catchy. It’s hard not to chime in with the brass-heavy “Hey hey do you wanna be famous?” chorus of “Fame,” and the poetic clichés of “Lovelier Than You” are delivered with such an earnest sweetness that it somehow works. And B.o.B. can actually sing when he wants to, always a treat in hip-hop music.
So does B.o.B. do "hip pop" or "hipster hop?" Bobby Ray can't seem to pick one path. But if its indecisive tracklist proves one thing, it's this: Maybe B.o.B. isn’t the smartest or most original artist out there. But he doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he knows how to have fun. Bobby Ray, despite its faults, is a good time — and really, that’s why we’re listening.
