It is no secret that the music industry is in some shit. The explosion of the internet has put major music labels in a hell of a predicament. While it is apparent that many artists have built, and continue to sustain their lucrative careers around their internet buzz; many labels have suffered in terms of the bottom line. Artists (who shall remain nameless) continue to ditch studio time to collect the much more lucrative and safe tour and club appearance money. There is absolutely nothing wrong with chasing that check because at the end of the day you do have a family to feed. However, it is safe to say that the quality of music has suffered based on those facts. So speaking as if you were the head of a major label, why would you place your money behind an artist who does not believe in their own new material when they are already losing money, and on the surface, it seems like you do not care enough about your own material.
Enter Bobby Ray, a.k.a., B.o.B. While this young artist has bubbled for quite a while with underground hits like ‘Haters’ and shining on tracks with Atlanta heavyweights Ludacris and T.I. on ‘Top Of The World,’Bobby quietly evolved and went through some actual artist development; a rare commodity in this day and age of the record industry, where he could have just rode off the initial success of Haters. The Decatur native initially emerged as B.o.B, the high energy hard-spitting country bumpkin that reminded many of Andre 3000. This man eventually insisted to be referred to as Bobby Ray as he started to strum on his acoustic guitar an sing what he felt was real, reminiscent of one Andre Benjamin.
Out of seemingly nowhere, this kid was now one of the most promising and supremely talented artists to come along in quite some time. Bobby Ray was a guitar strumming, piano playing, rapping, singing musical dynamo. Upon working with the Atlanta prodigy, Eminem mentioned that he didn’t know if there was one thing he couldn’t do musically. While shooting the cover for The Source Power 30 issue last year, Bob’s Grand Hustle boss was surrounded with his label cohorts Yung L.A., Young Dro, 8Ball, MJG, and more. Throughout the shoot while the label mates mostly clowned around like homies usually do in between shoots, their was one Bobby Ray, sitting in the corner, only accompanied by his guitar. Tip immediately noticed this and brought a camera over to spy on the youngster and whispered to the camera, you see that there?
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That right there is the difference between two million and ten million.One year later, Bobby is the one making sure the Grand Hustle ship was never sinking.
Now this is where you come in. It’s safe to say that the ringtone-rap era is dead, and music is in a pretty good place right now. It’s time to take it to the next step. Today, Bobby Ray’s debut album,The Adventures Of Bobby Ray hits stores. While he currently holds the #1 record in the country with Nothin On You and Airplanes is slowly climbing up the ranks; I believe the success of Bobby Ray’s debut album could change the entire music industry. The success of this album can show labels that fans aren’t stupid. Fans will cough up the 10 bucks to support someone whose talent warrants it. D
