Atlanta’s newest rap phenom takes forward-thinkers 3000 light-years and beyond.

By Richard “Treats” Dryden If the distance from the South Bronx to East Germany is to blame for the old rift between rap and trance music, then Decatur, Ga., might be the place where the two worlds reconcile. That’s the hometown of 18-year-old Bobby Ray Simmons, a.k.a. rapper/singer/producer B.o.B., whose trippy, synthed-up anthem “Haterz Everywhere” threatens to spawn a new musical genre—trance rap. “‘My Love’ with Tip and Justin Timberlake fused that trance and that ’hood sound,” recalls B.o.B of the Timbaland-T.I.-Timberlake collabo. “[It made me think,] I like that shit, lemme try to do my own twist.”

Growing up in Decatur—hometown of Andre 3000—B.o.B. had a more conventional hip-hop education, with influences that include DMX, Eminem, and Goodie Mob. With his allegiance to music, Simmons quit school after ninth grade to drop lyrical bombs over open-mic sessions. In 2006, TJ Chapman, founder of TJ’s DJ’s national record pool, saw B.o.B.’s performance and helped him land a record deal with Jim Jonsin’s (Trick Daddy, Danity Kane) Rebel Rock/Warner Music label last October.

B.o.B.’s forthcoming addition to the ATL-ien invasion, The Adventures of B.o.B., isn’t just a trance-rap concept album; instead, it’s a melodic experiment of B.o.B’s sing-song raps over vigorous collegiate drum lines (no Nick Cannon). Still, B.o.B. will continue to play the postman and try to push the envelope. “When everybody’s doing the same thing, I just look at it like, ‘Why?’” he says. “I’m going wherever I’m scared to go.” Boldly, where no rapper has gone before.

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