Why Bobby Ray won’t visit T.I. in prison
May 12th, 2009 by Ben Westhoff in Music newsBe sure to check out my story on Bobby Ray this week, in which he discusses his transition from gat-rapping persona B.o.B to existential genre-hopping rocker/crooner/MC.
He was very forthcoming in the interview, and I ran out of space for all the great anecdotes and info he shared. Here are the best cutting-room floor bits.
Why he won’t visit his Grand Hustle label head T.I. in prison
“He doesn’t want anyone to see him in prison. I thought about it, I was definitely going to come by a lot. But he doesn’t even want his kids to see him there. He doesn’t want that image implanted in their heads, of him being in jail. I can kind of understand that.”
Janelle Monae
“She is probably my sister from another planet or something. She reminds me a lot of me. Everything that she says and does, her music and her show, kind of rubs off on me. She has a lot of good energy, and I take what I like from it and put my spin on it.”
His future goals
“I’m trying to outdo myself. I’m going to take all the best elements from all the music I know. I don’t even want to say some of the stuff I’m thinking about, because it’s stuff that’s never been done before, like recording a song on an airplane. Or maybe even recording a song outside.”
On the Outkast-sized expectations people have for him
“It’s what you make of it. Sometimes it used to intimidate me, but now, it’s like, you gotta go with it, you have to use the energy to your advantage. If people are excited to see me, I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah, I’m excited too. Let’s do it.’”
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