Review by Tina Hart – written 27/5/2010

Sporting the lowest crotch on a pair of jeans I have ever seen in my life at the King’s College Student Nightclub in London last night was none other than the holder of the current UK number one single, B.o.B, who’s in town promoting his album B.o.B. presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray.  We were a bit annoyed to find there were no support acts but several special guests cropped up throughout his set…

Introduced onto the stage by his mate, Playboy Tre, B.o.B soon busted the crowd energy open with a lively rendition of Haterz Everywhere, telling us to put our middle fingers up, to which we kindly obliged.  The audience clearly consisted of more than just fair-weather fans (who chanted ‘B.o.B’ throughout the evening) as he continued with more of his older tunes.  Bet I was accompanied by an en-masse singalong which didn’t die down the whole night.

Erupting into what may have been the loudest cheers of the evening, we were very pleasantly surprised when massive UK talent and BET award-winning Giggs took the stage, with a chain that almost blinded me, for a performance of Don’t Go There featuring B.o.B which appears on his forthcoming album.

Other acts that weren’t present but still featured were B.o.B’s label boss T.I. and Ludacris’ On Top of the World and Paramore’s Hayley Williams on the beautiful Airplanes, which had everyone with their arms in the air.  Next up, spitting a capella gave even more weight to the controversial lyrics of Generation Lost ‘Honestly I don’t even listen to rap, ‘cause when I turn the radio on out comes crap’. Ooh!

At this point the band came out and within seconds the whole venue was rocking out to Created a Monster.  This was followed by Satellite with B.o.B showing off his multi-skilled repertoire on guitar, and amazing acoustic versions of No Man’s Land and B.o.B’s favourite track on the current album Don’t Let Me Fall which isn’t out yet but everyone knew the words.  Rounding off this section was the poignant Letters from Vietnam..

A song that heavily lends to all the Outkast comparisons, I’ll Be In The Sky had the audience jumping up and down and belting out the lyrics.  Unfortunately, I think venue curfew times (and the fact they came on late) meant the set had to be cut short, but not before bringing out bring out Ricco Barrino. (brother of American Idol winner Fantasia) for the number one smash Nothin’ On You at which point the ladies in the crowd went crazy and I think I almost went deaf.  To end the night we had a rendition of one of B.o.B’s big influences, MGMT’s Kids which had the unwavering crowd finishing the night on a high.

It’s mad to think that this 21-year-old T.I. protégé has been a significant figure in the hip hop scene for a good few years.  He definitely showed his flair for being an all-round performer, maintaining the 600-strong crowd’s unceasing frenzy all night.

Online it appears that the purist hip hop community have mixed opinions about B.o.B but there are many that are saying he is one of the greatest young, new(ish) artists around.  I certainly think he’s a multi-talented dude with musical skill, charisma, witty rhymes, and that genre-convention-bending boldness which actually works.  I had an awesome night and think that B.o.B presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray is definitely worth dishing out a few hard-earned pennies for.

Random note: To top off my evening, a very chivalrous and dapper-looking Chris Moyles let me on the tube first at Temple, I bumped into a bloke I worked with at my Saturday job in Boots eight years ago as well as Giggs (who is very cute) in the corridor of the club, and I sat opposite Mike Atherton on the tube on the way home.  You couldn’t make it up.