Hi, his name is B.o.B. He doesn’t know why he says these reckless things that he says and neither do I. Nonetheless, he intends to sing his song. You see B.o.B is a little different and he’s known that from an early age. Unfortunately, so did his peers. His only way of escaping their non-stop playground jeers was to take asylum in his own rhyme book, a place where he was free to be whoever.

B.o.B took cues from the likes of DMX, OutKast and Goodie Mob to spawn his own rap/production career. His grand introduction to the masses would be “Cloud 9.” The smoked out, cheeba-blowing anthem’s laid back vibe and slowed tempo set him apart from his peers providing an alternative to the media’s perception of ATL’s snap and trap formula. And with his track “Haterz” [click to view] and A3C appearances [click to read] getting more popular each day it’s only a matter of time before you’re accepting B.o.B the way his narrow-minded classmates never could.

HipHopDX: I know you’ve been asked this a million times
B.o.B: [Laughs] I already know what you’re going to say. What does B.o.B. mean?

DX: Yup. [Laughs]
B.o.B: [B.o.B stands means]: business over bullshit, business over bitches, bring one beer, bring one blunt, bring one broad. I like big ol’ booties, broads bustin’ out their britches. There’s never been one better or been one before, burning on bud, books over bullets and…yeah. [Laughs]

DX: I’ve heard you say your parents really wanted you to do the school thing. At what point did you figure out that school wasn’t really the move for you and when did you start taking your rap career seriously?
B.o.B: [In] 6th grade actually. I had always been rapping my whole life. I just kept preparing and doing it more and more so when I got to eighth grade I was already like I want to do this as a career. By the time I got to 12th grade, I got tired. So that’s when I left [school] and was just like fuck it.

DX: Speaking of your folks, is it true your father’s a pastor?
B.o.B: [Laughs] Yeah.

DX: How’d he respond when he found you were aspiring to be a full-time rapper?
B.o.B: When he first saw me walking around the house with rap books all the time, he kind of raised his eyebrow like what are you doing, why would you want to do that. But you know me: like father, like son. I’m real headstrong so I was like I’ll do what I want to do. When he saw how I was using music for therapy and expressing myself creatively through it and [how] everything happening like me getting the deal and all that they were with it. They’ve always supported me. They got my first keyboard to make beats on and they helped me out getting equipment here and there. But it was kind of hard for them to really understand what I was really trying to accomplish.

DX: One of the first tracks of yours that I heard was “Cloud 9” and my initial thought of the track was that it was mad different. You could have easily came up with some fake shit about selling drugs or shooting people…
B.o.B: [Laughs and repeats] selling drugs or shooting people

DX: Instead you made a track about getting high. Why and were you surprised at how people responded to the track?
B.o.B: Yeah, definitely. To be honest, I didn’t even plan on finishing the song. But B-Rich and Playboy Tre were like, “Dog this shit is jamming, you got to finish it.” So I performed it and people really fucked with it. When I performed it (“Cloud 9”), it was at an open mic. And you know how those scenes are…real club-oriented. So me coming in with a slow, laid back smoking anthem was real different and I knew it would set me apart from day one.

DX: How do you feel about rappers up-top who hate on the success of the south? Also, when you’re in New York what kind of feedback are you getting up there?
B.o.B: You know it’s crazy, but people are really accepting of the south. They still keep it half and half. They still play a lot of New York rap but at this point…you really can’t knock it. The south…we’re doing our thing down here. We don’t really pay attention to a lot of outside factors. We’re just trying to get our hustle on down here. If people don’t want to get with it, it’s all love. But I feel the south is in its prime right now. It’s incredible.

DX: You have the huge LRG billboard in Times Square, you landed the cover of Urb and things are really coming together for you. How’s life really changed for you on the day to day basis?
B.o.B: It’s really become a lot more busy. I’m always doing something or on the way to doing something. I rarely ever get time to just sit down and do nothing. I’m always thinking about I gotta do this or I gotta do that, which is fine. That’s just a part of the hustle but my life has really changed. And when I’m in public people are really starting to recognize me. It’s been a trip seeing the whole transition.

DX: Do you have any funny stories about how your fame has shocked you?
B.o.B: There’s stuff here and there like I’ll be in Walmart and a family may stop me and take a picture. This one time when I was in the Waffle House and I gave the waitress a CD and she held it up [like], “Everybody, it’s B.o.B. We got 'Haterz Everywhere' in the building!” (chuckles) so I had to go to my trunk and get CDs for everybody. It’s just crazy sometimes seeing how people react…over me. I’m like dang it’s crazy. Continued on page 2 »