Bob

BoB 2009

BoB (born November 15, 1988 in Winston-Salem , North Carolina ; real name Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. ) is an American rapper and music producer . He is currently under contract with Atlantic Records . His worldwide breakthrough came in 2010 with the single Nothin 'on You .

Life

childhood

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr. was born in the US state of North Carolina in 1988 and grew up in Georgia . Already in his childhood he played the trumpet, later guitar, cello and piano were added. While he was in high school, he started his own production called Klinic. When he was 15 he sold one of his own beats to Citty, an artist on Slip-N-Slide Records .

International breakthrough with BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray

Simmons 'first commercially successful single was Nothin' on You (2010) , which he recorded with the singer / songwriter Bruno Mars . It became a number 1 hit in the Netherlands and the US and also went platinum in the US. In other countries like Australia and New Zealand the song reached the top 10 of the charts, in the German single charts the best position was 22nd. The music video of the song, which consists of a kind of collage of faces of different women as well as Simmons and Bruno Mars, was for the 2010 MTV video Music Awards nominated in the category "Best Pop video".

BoB 2008 (in Atlanta)

His debut album BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray was originally due to be released on March 25, 2010, but was not released until April 27, 2010 due to the commercial success of his song Nothin 'on You . The album was released under the label of the rapper TI , Grand Hustle Records and, in addition to the collaborations with Bruno Mars, Hayley Williams and Eminem, features the musicians Lupe Fiasco , Playboy Tre, Rivers Cuomo , Ricco Barrino, Janelle Monáe and TI. With 84,000 albums sold in the first week, Simmons is the 13th male solo artist who managed to reach number one on the US Billboard 200 with a debut album .

The reviews of the album were very different, but mostly positive: Paul MacInnes from The Guardian newspaper only gave the album two out of five possible stars on the grounds that it lacked soul despite many piano passages . Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times, on the other hand, recognized the traits of the young Kanye West in the album, which, in his opinion, had the phrase from dishwasher to millionaire , and rated it with three out of four possible stars. The music editors of the USA Today newspaper saw the work even more positively , where it was rated three and a half stars out of four and given the comment “Beyond Hip-Hop boundaries” (for example: “Beyond the boundaries of hip-hop”).

On April 13, 2010, the single Airplanes was released as the second single from BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray . In addition to Simmons, Hayley Williams, the front woman of the American band Paramore and the rapper Eminem also worked on her . In the radio edition of the song, apart from Simmons, only Williams can be heard. The song was able to build on the success of Nothin 'on You and reached number one in Great Britain along with number two in the USA. In Germany he was even more successful than Nothin 'on You and reached number eight in the single charts. Airplanes was nominated in four categories for the MTV Video Music Awards 2010 , in which Simmons, Williams and Mars also performed a medley of different songs.

controversy

In early 2016, Simmons attracted attention by using his Twitter account to believe the earth was flat and launching a failed crowdfunding campaign. He also referred to various other conspiracy theories and called on his fans to study the works of the Holocaust denier David Irving .

Surname

Although Simmons bears the stage name BoB , which he says he got from a friend one evening, he does not determine whether he should be called BoB or Bobby Ray by the media and fans . This was also evident when naming his album BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray . In an interview he said that his older, rather unknown mixtapes sounded more like BoB than the current tracks.

Music genre

According to his own statement, Simmons' current style of music was influenced by artists such as OutKast , Björk , Gnarls Barkley or Goodie Mob and the music groups Foo Fighters , My Chemical Romance and Coldplay . These performers come from different genres, which he comments as follows:

"I want to show people that there are endless things that you can do."

Critics see his musical style as equally varied:

“Bobby Ray [...] likes to mix [...] different styles, which makes his tracks sound comparatively poppy and have absolutely nothing to do with street rap. [...] The mixing of styles is certainly not new and is generally rejected by purists. Nevertheless, BOB delivers interesting approaches with which the genre is breathed a few impulses that it urgently needs. "

- Matthias Reichel (CDSTARTS.de)

Discography

→ Main article : BoB / discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2010	BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray	DE93 (1 week) DE	-	CH47 (15 weeks) CH	UK17th gold (18 weeks)UK	US1 × 2 Double platinum (39 weeks)US	First published: April 27, 2010 Sales: + 2,140,000
2012	Strange clouds	DE46 (1 week) DE	AT64 (1 week) AT	CH23 (6 weeks) CH	UK30 (3 weeks) UK	US5 platinum (23 weeks)US	First published: May 1st, 2012 Sales: + 1,000,000
2013	Underground luxury	-	-	-	-	US22nd gold (12 weeks)US	First published: December 17, 2013 Sales: + 500,000
2015	Psycadelik Thoughtz	-	-	-	-	US97 (1 week) US	First published: August 14, 2015
2017	Ether	-	-	-	-	US179 (1 week) US	First published: May 12, 2017

Awards & nominations

• Teen Choice Awards
  • 2010: for "Hook Up Song" ( Airplanes ) (Won)

• BET Awards
  • 2010: for "Best Male Hip-Hop Artist"
  • 2010: for "Best Collaboration" (Nothin 'On You) (with Bruno Mars )
  • 2010: for "Video Of The Year" (Nothin 'On You) (with Bruno Mars )

• BET Hip Hop Awards
  • 2010: for "People's Champ Award"
  • 2010: for "MVP Of The Year"
  • 2010: for "Track of the Year" ( Airplanes ) (with Hayley Williams )
  • 2010: for the "Made-Man-Look Award"
  • 2010: for "Perfect Combo Award" (Nothin 'On You) (with Bruno Mars )
  • 2010: for "Best Hip-Hop Video" (Nothin 'On You) (with Bruno Mars )
  • 2010: for "CD Of The Year" (BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray)

• Suckerfree Summit
  • 2010: for "Instant Classic" (Nothin 'on You) (with Bruno Mars )

• Teen Choice Awards
  • 2010: for "Music Star Male"
  • 2010: for "Breakout Artist Male"
  • 2010: for "Album Rap" (BoB Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray)
  • 2010: for "Best Summer Song" ( Airplanes ) (with Hayley Williams )
  • 2010: for "Best Single" (Nothin 'On You) (with Bruno Mars )

• MTV Video Music Awards
  • 2010: for "Best Pop Video" (Nothin 'On You) (with Bruno Mars )
  • 2010: for "Best Male Video" ( Airplanes ) (with Hayley Williams )
  • 2010: for "Best Hip-Hop Video" ( Airplanes ) (with Hayley Williams )
  • 2010: for "Video Of The Year" ( Airplanes ) (with Hayley Williams )
  • 2010: for "Best Collaboration" ( Airplanes ) (with Hayley Williams )

swell

1. ↑ http://idolator.com/5481781/bob-on-loving-hayley-williams-and-hating-rap-politics
2. ↑ http://www.rap2soul.de/2010/06/17/bobbob-presents-the-adventures-of-bobby-ray/
3. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/may/27/bob-adventures-of-bobby-ray-cd-review
4. ↑ http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2010/04/album-review-bobs-bob-presents-the-adventures-of-bobby-ray.html
5. ↑ http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2010-04-27-d_listen27_ST_N.htm
6. ↑ US rapper wants to prove that the earth is flat. DerWesten.de, September 26, 2017, accessed October 15, 2017 . 
7. ↑ BoB (@bobatl) | Twitter. In: twitter.com. Retrieved February 16, 2016 . 
8. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Archive link ( Memento of the original dated June 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ http://www.cdstarts.de/kritiken/106006-Presents%2520The%2520Adventures%2520Of%2520Bobby%2520Ray.html
12. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

Commons : BoB  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Lyrics (on lyricslounge.de)