B.o.B.: 'I could say that I blew up Bruno Mars'

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B.o.B , the 25-year-old, Atlanta-based hip-hop artist, drops his new album Underground Luxury next month.

“I feel like everything I wanted to say I am saying,” he told theGrio. “A lot of the inspiration came from my past.  When I came up nothing was ever given to us.  We had to turn dusty into luxury.  We had to really find that inside ourselves in order to create an outside reality. “

His latest single “Ready” features Future’s emotive vocals.

“Me and Future are both Scorpios from the eastside of Atlanta,” B.o.B told theGrio. “We collaborated on my mixtape Epic so this was part two of the Eastside escapades. There was this chemistry that was just elevated.”

B.o.B exploded on the music scene with his 2010 single “Nothin on You” with Bruno Mars. It also launched Mars’ career. Early next year Mars is headlining the Super Bowl halftime show and B.o.B fans are campaigning to have the two stars reunite.

“I could say that I blew up Bruno,”  B.o.B told theGrio, “But we cool. We were recording in L.A. before everything. He was playing his guitar and I was like ‘yo man why don’t you be an artist not just a songwriter.’  Just crazy how it all transpired.”

B.o.B moves effortlessly between genres.  He has collaborated with artists ranging from country’s Taylor Swift to hip-hop hitmaker 2 Chainz and wants to record with dubstep artist Skrillex.

“I don’t look at myself as eclectic,” says B.o.B. “I am just doing what naturally is coming to me. I was spinnin’ club music. I want to do a rock album. But once I get tired of something I’m a move on. So I may get tired of rock music and say, ‘yo I’m just gonna rap.’“

B.o.B grew up as the son of a preacher. At one point in his fast-moving career he felt torn between the values of his former life and fame.

In his popular song “Airplanes,” he wrote about returning to a time before the “partyin, smashin and politics we call the rap game.” His evolving persona was reflected in his 2009 request for people to call him Bobby Ray, his birth name, instead of B.o.B as he announced he was taking his music in a new direction.

B.o.B is also not oblivious to the industry’s racial attitudes. In the “Ready” music video, he deliberately includes a shot with a dark-skinned beauty, a rarity among the light-skinned and white women that dominate contemporary hip-hop clips.

“I think now it’s just one way so I tried to broaden it up a little. If I as an artist feel there’s an imbalance in culture, then I try to rectify that. “

Checkout what else B.o.B had to say in our exclusive video interview.