B.o.B. - The Adventures of Bobby Ray Review

Download

Well, we have another rapper who lives in outer space.

If you're looking for adventures though, look elsewhere. B.O.B. hasn't really done anything adventurous, in particular musically. Following the groove left by Wale and Kid Cudi to have weird indie pop music mixed with hip hop, B.O.B. presents us with his adventures.

1.) Don't Let Me Fall - 3/5

Choice lyric: "I was up so high looking down at the sky."

I wonder what Ice Cube thinks of all this singing and twinkling pianos. He might dig this electric guitar a little bit. If only rappers 15 years ago could hear where the little homies of the future were planning on taking it. I guess the idea here is that if you let B.O.B. have the number 1 song in the country, you better buy his album and keep him up there.

2.)Nothin' on You feat. Bruno Mars - 3/5

Choice lyric: "Baby you the whole package, plus you pay your taxes."

And here is that number 1 song that is pretty average, and not like any of the other songs on the album either. I love that people pretend like there isn't a formula to making a hit song, and then all the hit songs are about pretty girls with random guys singing sweetly into their ears.

3.) Past My Shades feat. Lupe Fiasco - 3/5

Choice lyric: "I cough without covering my mouth."

I don't know, I feel like if I were a new artist coming up, I would want to let people see past my shades, so that they could get to know me a little better. I thought we were trying to not be so egotistical, the real rapper. I just hope that he can see past his shades, or else we're all in trouble.

4.) Airplanes feat. Hayley Williams - 3/5

Choice lyric: "Take me back to when I was trying to get a tip at Subway."

You know what I never understood about rappers? How they were always able to have so much money before even putting out an album. So Bobby Ray is writing this song, with minimal fame, and is already complaining and wanting to go back to the way it was. I guess one thing to look forward to about being famous is you really quickly forget how little fun you used to have, but for some reason really want to go back to relive it- probably most for that street cred.

5.) Bet I feat. T.I. and Playboy Tre - 2/5

Choice lyric: "Imma come hard like a boner."

"Give me 15 minutes and I bet I bust." Is it a song about mature ejaculation? Is it a song about 15 minutes of fame? Is it a song about how long it takes to write a song? Are any of these ideas good ones to write a song about?

6.) Ghost in the Machine - 2/5

Choice lyric: "If you could open up your eyes, you could see what I couldn't describe. And then you'd see the signs, and then your soul would be set free, and you would be released."

This is the scary song, with a few of the glitter piano sound effects left over from the first track. B.o.B. has an interesting fake Cee-lo voice, but why do so many musicians insist on making really obscure empty metaphors songs about nothing at all? I guess to really draw us into their fake drama. The less specific you make your problems, the easier it is for someone to be tricked into thinking they can relate because they have the same not-real (ghost!) problems.

7.) The Kids feat. Janelle Monae - 2/5

Choice lyric: "We're trapped inside the Matrix."

I guess this is a Vampire Weekend song, so if you're into them, then maybe you'll like this too. But then again, you might be like me, and be totally confused as to how skinny jeans, long hair, and gentle (not soft) rock got so popular. And that's why you skip songs like this. And of course, songs like this are never an island on these albums anymore, which brings us to...

8.) Magic feat. Rivers Cuomo - 1/5

Choice lyric: "See, when I rhyme, I flow on a beat like ba da da da."

If you need a reason to not do rap songs with Weezer, look no further than their duet with Lil' Wayne.

I understand when you're trying to be ironic, but when both you and your audience are the butt of the joke, something is wrong. This song reminds me a lot of "Boom Boom Pow" in that it is terrible, and is a song about how good someone is at making songs. "I be rocking dem beats."

9.) Fame - 3/5

Choice lyric: "Just look at the picture I'm painting." Look at words you're speaking. Yes, Cuban B.

A song like this gets you excited, because there's been a long drought of good music on the album. But then you realize you've heard this song before, at least few times on this album. There really is nothing worse than a mildly famous person bragging about how difficult it is to be famous.

10.) Lovelier Than You - 2/5

Choice lyric: "We go together like the tub and the showerhead above."

Aw sick, I didn't know Jack Johnson was on this album. My guess is that he promised some girl that he'd write a song about her and put it on his album, and he's an honorable guy and decided to really do it. Good for him and her, bad for the rest of us.

11.) 5th Dimension feat. Ricco Barrino - 3/5

Choice lyric: "Cooler than the freon that's in your Dodge Neon." Sweeter than the Coca-Cola that's in your Toyota Corolla. Doper than the marijuana that's in your old and busted Honda.

What's up? What's down? This song might actually have Cee-Lo on it. Once again referencing that he's from another planet. Outer space is getting chock full of rappers. Ain't nobody from the streets anymore?

12.) Airplanes Part 2 feat. the girl from part 1 AND EMINEM! - 3/5

Choice lyric: "But I didn't have neighbors, that's why they call it hood."

If there were only one version of this song, then I think it would get a higher rating, but sequels to your own songs on the same album is just lame. But the song is a good motivator for those of us who like to just sit around and wait for something to happen- basically people who read The Secret and think if they just wish really hard for stuff, it will happen. Eminem would like to tell you different.

Overall - 3/5

Download

This album reminds me a lot of when I was younger and Nate Dogg would drive me to the mall so I could buy the new Lloyd Banks or Slim Thug album, and Nate and I would skip through the tracks; we'd usually make it to about track 8 before he refused to play anymore in his car, and we'd just switch back to the radio, both very disappointed, for different reasons. Listening to this on my own, yeah, I can get into it a little bit, definitely. But much like Kid Cudi's album, this is not something you will be blasting in your car with your buddies, high fiving each other and singing along.

Or maybe you will.