Atlanta's rising star B.o.B. raps like English is not his native language, emphasizing the wrong words as if he doesn't always understand the meaning of what he's saying. He doesn't just gravitate toward cliches and easy rhymeshe delivers them with the unearned sense of accomplishment of an 8th grader who believes himself the best rapper his middle school has ever seen, as if he deserves a pat on the back for rhyming MTV, BET and MVP. His voice suggests Andre 3000, but his flow is more in the league of Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda.
But the rising star is also a savvy enough pop artist to understand that it doesn't matter he's not a very good rapper. There's a reason Linkin Park has sold so many records: Clunky raps are memorable rapsthey linger in head longer than dense wordplay, and they're easy to sing along with. That's B.o.B.'s true talent: Giving the listener something to sing along with. With eyes on Top 40 radio, he packs his debut album, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, with huge choruses from outside singers: the Chris Martin soundalike Bruno Mars on the album's inaugural hit "Nothin' on You," Weezer's Rivers Cuomo on the impossibly perky "Magic," Janelle Monae on the blog-baiting, Vampire Weekend-sampling "The Kids," and Paramore's Hayley Williams on the angsty "Airplanes," a song that could one day be cited for setting Williams' inevitable solo career in motion.
B.o.B. happily cedes the spotlight to these singers, rendering himself an anonymous guest-rapper on his own album (he also lets actual guest rappers outshine him, too, as when he plays Washington Generals to T.I. and Lupe Fiasco's Harlem Globetrotters). It's not a glamorous strategy, but it's an effective one: The Adventures of Bobby Ray is loaded with potential follow-up hits for when "Nothin' on You" finishes its run on top of the charts.
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