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Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr. has released over 21 bodies of work, that along with countless features, chart-toppers, and production-credits highlights just how hardworking this southeastern artist truly is.


His musical output began in 2007, releasing 3 projects that year, as well as the following year. Then, in 2009, B.o.B released B.o.B Vs. Bobby Ray, and was made an XXL Freshman, however he’d not even started to see success. That is, until the Bruno Mars assisted #1 single “Nothin' On You” was released – one of the many successful singles from his debut album B.o.B Presents The Adventures of Bobby Ray, which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Charts. The album also received favourable reviews and 5 Grammy nominations (one for “Airplanes, Pt 2 (feat. Eminem & Hayley Williams)” – Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals).

After this amount of success many would take a well-earned hiatus, but not B.o.B. Before 2010’s end he released his beloved mixtape No Genre. Less than a year later he released another well received mixtape, E.P.I.C. (Every Play is Crucial), which was composed of songs of the excess songs he couldn’t fit on his sophomore album, Strange Clouds.

Unfortunately, his incredible run of mainstream success couldn’t last, with his following album, Underground Luxury, receiving little attention from radio. Since however, his output hasn’t diminished, with five mixtapes released since his third studio album – this output may’ve even been greater if it hadn’t been for him founding his label ‘No Genre’ (after his mixtape), and helping to establish his roster.


Whatever anyone may have to say about B.o.B, no one can deny he is one of the hardest working in the industry.

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Dayton is a company that makes racing tires. The situations that weigh heavily on the minds of young Tyler and his sister are things like dating (which is the homophone here), and wearing roller shoes with wheels on the bottom known as Heelys.

A racing mind is a mind that’s hard to control and uncomfortable. Dating is hard to control and uncomfortable, and so are Heelys.

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Kanye’s goal on this song, and entire album was to expose us, the listener, to his life. Instead of making a strictly personal album, he ended up making a fantastical version of his life, hence My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

This line is also showing Kanye’s inability to truly apologize for the Taylor Swift incident. He is talking about making mistakes and struggling to get back into the music/pop culture scene.

This line can be read as “I tried to tell you sorry, but all I could say was ohh,” with the “ohh” showing that all Kanye could do to apologize was to make music–this album–as he couldn’t bring himself to apologize normally.

“Dark Fantasy” was my long, backhanded apology. You know how people give a backhanded compliment? It was a backhanded apology. It was like, all these raps, all these sonic acrobatics. I was like: “Let me show you guys what I can do, and please accept me back. You want to have me on your shelves.” – New York Times, 2013

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Fergie’s part is a kind of link between the protagonist of the song and the metaphor about Kanye’s life. It could also be read as an epilogue to the story that Kanye told.

Listening to this as the voice of the “ex” reveals what happened after their last encounter. At Borders, he was trying to convince her to take him back. It appears that he was turned down, since his ex’s family is now struggling through the ghetto university with unemployment, debt, and other mental burdens, forcing her to turn to drugs for some relief.

Fergie’s own story flows into this, as she was addicted to drugs following the failure of her early RnB group Wild Orchid.

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The protagonist/Kanye have both realized that the best they can do to get over their troubles is to “do them”. They can’t waste time worrying about what others think of them

The best thing for him to do is get his own life on track. Only then may he be trusted to see his daughter again

Kanye figures out that he has to just make really good music to win people back. (He succeeded)

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One of the worst things about our protagonist and Kanye’s position post-Taylorgate was the shame they were made to feel from others who were only tangentially related to the incident.

Reading Kanye’s “daughter” as his music and creativity we can see that Kanye feels like his fans and everyone he knew pre-Taylorgate is now against him. Even the people in the music industry, who always showed love for Kanye, turned their backs against him. In this interpretation, the line resembles a line of the first verse.

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A matador is a bullfighter. When a matador “defeats” a bull, the matador kills the bull with a sword. Earl uses wordplay to convey that he wants to stop the games.

Also, more generally, this is a display of violent imagery.

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If you consider this verse one loose story, Earl is at a house party in his own home, which for some reason has bouncers, and they are planning on kicking him out for raping women.

However, it’s more likely that Earl is just describing the end of a typical Odd Future night on the town, as they tend wreak havoc, which can be seen from the previous lyrics in this song.

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Tyler has talked up Earl’s skills to his friends throughout this whole intro. He is now anxious for Earl to back up his claims, as Earl hasn’t been speaking this whole time. However, Earl is about to surprise them all, as his response to them is the next song, “Earl,” which is riddled with very precise lyrics and horror-core, which at the time, was Odd Future’s M.O..

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