New Música: B.o.B Tops The Charts

By Simone Hilliard

Has Bieber fever died down? Looks like another young protégé of a big Atlanta star owned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard album chart last week.

B.o.B, a smooth-voiced 21-year-old crooner under the wing of rapper T.I., reached the top spot with his debut album, B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, which sold 84,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Thanks to the success of his singles "Nothin' on You" and "Airplanes" (currently at number 2 and 7 on Billboard's Hot 100 list respectively), B.o.B is only the second hip-hop artist to debut in the top spot in 2010 (Ludacris did it back in March with his Battle of the Sexes album) and only the third since September of last year, when Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 dominated the landscape.

B.o.B, whose real name is Bobby Ray Simmons, is certainly on a roll right now, but the upstart hip-hop star, almost didn't get his hands on the Bruno Mars-assisted "Nothin' on You."

The record, produced by the Smeezingtons (Bruno Mars and songwriting partner Phillip Lawrence), was originally slated for Lupe Fiasco, B.o.B's Atlantic Records labelmate. According to producer Jim Jonsin, who signed B.o.B to his Rebel Rock imprint, he was responsible for redirecting the record to his artist.

"I was actually working on a session in Chung King [Studios], and [Atlantic Records chairman] Craig Kallman called me during that session with that particular track, to work on it for Lupe Fiasco. I told Craig, 'I like the song a lot. It's a smash and could be somebody's single. But it's not Lupe's record. I need this record for B.o.B. Please give this record to B.o.B.' I guess they went through whoever they went through, convinced whoever they needed to, and it got to B.o.B."

We've got more on B.o.B's rise to the top, after the jump!

As the song was climbing to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, B.o.B told MTV News he was as surprised as anyone by the song's success.

"We really didn't expect it to have the dramatic impact it had, nor how fast it happened. Me and my managers, B. Rich and TJ, we still look at each other speechless. We always aim to be successful. But when the byproduct exceeds your expectations — when usually you barely make the basket with what you want — the gratitude is through the roof. It's literally a dream come true."

The rewards have been a long time coming for the Atlanta emcee. He's been signed as an artist for a few years but realized only minimal success with a few scattered mixtape tracks. His potential, however, was always recognized, landing him on MTV's News' an "MC to Watch" list eighteen months ago and on 2009's cover of hip-hop magazine XXL's Freshmen 10 issue (putting him in the company of Wale and Asher Roth, among other rising MCs).

B.o.B had this to say about his career climb:

"I will tell you this about the journey as an artist to get to the point where you actually have a release date. The biggest lesson I learned is patience. Once you get here, it's like, 'OK, now you have to keep going. You never get to an end.' So you have to be patient and pace yourself. Take time. It's like building a house. You gotta take time, build a foundation, get the walls right, get the electricity right, get the plumbing right and make sure when you turn the light on that the door don't open up."

Words of wisdom!

Tr3s Comunidad, what do you think of B.o.B's smash single, "Nothin' on You?" Weigh in below, or @MTV3!

Tags B.o.B., B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, Billboard, charts