B.O.B.'s Shoulda Been My First Album Mixtape: A Review

Before his hit single, Nothin on You, and his major label debut, The Adventures of Bobby Ray, the artist (singer, rapper, producer) known alternately as B.O.B. and Bobby Ray was been in a bit of label limbo. His mentor, the man who signed him to Grand Hustle, the Atlanta rapper T.I., was incarcerated on federal weapons charges. Further Grand Hustle is home to already established acts such as Young Dro and Killer Mike, both of whom you had to imagine would have taken precedence. And so the rookie, despite some truly excellent mixtapes, was relegated for the time being to the mixtape-circuit and live performances. But as anyone knows who's heard his mixtapes, that's not quite a bad thing.

His last work was the appropriately titled mixtape Shoulda Been My First Album, which aptly illustrates the raft of album quality material the rapper released on previous excellent mixtapes, such as B.o.B. vs Bobby Ray (read review) and The Adventures of B.o.B. The mixtape is structured like a proper debut album, beginning with introductory records like the excellent Sing My Song, and gradually followed by the increasingly experimental work for which he has become known. A highlight of these is Middle of the Day, which recalls Outkast's longer musical excursions such as Southernplayalisticaddillacmusic's Funky Ride or Aquemini's SpottieOttieDopalicious. There's a musically interesting record with a looped Amy Winehouse sample that might get stuck in your head if you aren't careful. And there is some strong emceeing here as B.o.B. more than holds his own alongside Juvenile and Rick Ross. Overall, sonically, it's not quite as trippy as Kid Cudi's debut, but it is eclectic, and true to B.o.B.'s unique musical stylings.

There's little new here: grade A material such as Camera and Mr. Bobby are featured here along with some less known tracks. One of the few things one may find fault with here is the records that didn't make the cut, such as the T.I. collaboration I'm Dat -----, the Stat Quo collaboration Double Bubble, or the heady Wonderland, or Already Gone. What is most striking is that this is such a solid body of work that it is difficult to judge it as anything other than an album. As such, in the good old days of reliable Source Magazine reporting, it could have easily been a 4.5 mic album. But it's a mixtape, a mixtape which ably highlights the shame of the hip-hop industry: as record sales decline and artist-label owners find themselves unable to quickly push the projects of their protégés, a generation of talented youngsters and cerebral artists, such as B.o.B. and Charles Hamilton are finding themselves either without a proper platform or stuck in limbo for far too long. The best music is simply not rising to the top, and today B.o.B. has some of the best music around.