Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2010
Photo by Akira Matsumoto
Part Busta Rhymes, part pixie stick, B.O.B. jumped around the stage with so much energy, you’d never know he’d been jet-setting from Atlanta to New Zealand to Australia to Osaka and finally to Tokyo in less than two weeks. Playboy Tre, who was there either as a hype man or opener (I’m still not sure), looked awkward on stage trying to match Bobby Ray’s boundless enthusiasm, which had me bouncing around like a 7-year-old in time with his beats.
However, the recent US chart-topper brought more to the stage than just energy. There was a freshness in his attitude, and an obvious effort to make sure the audience got their money’s worth. This isn’t normally the case with many of the big American acts that travel to Japan, especially hip-hoppers. Fortunately, B.O.B. has yet to adopt the “I think I’ll sit back and enjoy my vacation” attitude: he rocked the stage well past his allotted time, with a generous encore of nearly half an hour.
Starting the night off with a few hype tracks that showed off his lyrical ability as a rapper—best showcased on his recent mixtape, B.O.B. vs Bobby Ray—he then cleared the stage and sang an angst-ridden “Letters from Vietnam” on guitar. It was like he’d suddenly morphed into Joan Baez, and at first you wondered if he might break into a comedy verse halfway through. Yet by the end of the song, it was clear that B.O.B. had another side which has yet to be showcased by his label, Atlantic.
Photo by Akira Matsumoto
Unsurprisingly, he performed the joint that launched him into mainstream fame, “Nothin’ on You.” Singer Bruno Mars never uttered a word of his part—the audience knew the chorus by heart. But when B.O.B. reprised recent #1 radio hit “Airplanes” as part of the encore, it turned out to be a letdown. The lyrics are gimmicky at best, and the song lacked the B.O.B. stamp of innovation that had dominated the mood of the rest of the show.
I’ve only got two complaints with the gig, one being that I wish we’d had a little more communication with the audience. I felt like shouting, “Don’t be scared Bobby Ray! Talk to us!” The other big disappointment was the size of the audience. With Club Quattro in Osaka filling to an optimistic guess of 300 and Yebisu Garden Hall only one-third full (the empty space in the back was hard to ignore), it was clear that Creativeman had done little to promote the party. Most of the audience looked suspiciously like music industry types. At least 50 or so had received their tickets for free at the last minute, and the rest had either stumbled upon the event by accident or were such hardcore fans that they’d navigated through mostly English websites to learn about his tour to Japan.
As someone who frequents Ebisu and reads Japanese hip-hop magazines and blogs daily, I knew that Creativeman had invited an all-star hip-hop cast to the annual Summer Sonic festival. However, I had no clue that they were bringing an artist who had just shifted over 280,000 copies of his debut album in the States until a friend at the Atlanta studio where B.O.B. records told me. So it’s two thumbs up to B.O.B. for a great Sunday night experience, and two thumbs down to the promoter for not giving more Tokyoites the opportunity to travel out of this world with Bobby Ray.
