WILL YOU EAT THE COCKROACH?
What I learned about being original from flat earth rapper B.O.B.
I was a rapper during a very magical time, the blog era. Music blogs were the way to get heard. I lived on Kanyeuniversecity, Kanye’s blog for fashion, architecture, music, and sometimes he’d get on there to rant. I discovered Passion Pit and Yelawolf on there. My music producer got signed in high school because Kanye posted his group’s song JIMMY DOVE There were a ton of music blogs, most notable were Pitchfork, Pigeons and Planes, 2DopeBoyz, StereoGum, too many to name. HypeM was an aggregator of the most popular songs on all blogs. I got one of my songs to go number 1 on there by kinda lying that it featured Jay Z.
DatPiff was huge because every rapper would host their mixtapes on there. I had a mixtape called Everything is Lame that had a feature from VA legend, an early Drake collaborator, who he calls his “idol,” Nickelus F. Now let’s talk about the cover of the mixtape, it looked like I was jerking off the L in Lame.
My favorite mixtapes were Lupe Fiasco’s Revenge of the Nerds, still some of the best rapping I’ve heard in my life. Mickey Factz’s Heaven’s Fallout was amazing because he would rap on everything, like the song in the popular Geico caveman commercial. Wale’s Mixtape about Nothing, especially this joint, Cudi’s a Kid Named Cudi, with him rapping on Nosaj Thing. One of the best mixtapes to drop during this era was Wiz Khalifa’s Kush and Orange Juice. I remember opening for him before that came out in a lil bar when Ink My Whole Body was bubbling online, his crew traveled in a van. After Kush and OJ, I opened for him again, this time at a much bigger bar, and he had multiple sprinters.
Music felt free; all you had to do was just get the email to the blogs, BCC them with your song and cover art, if they liked it, they’d post it. No label interference, every artist wore the NO LABEL thing as a badge of honor. Wiz, Mac, and Drake, who dropped the second hottest mixtape next to Wiz's, October’s Very Own. As we know, a good thing only lasts so long in capitalism. You could feel labels and executives trying to figure out how to stop the fun, and they did with one artist specifically, B.O.B.
I went to college at Florida State University in Tallahassee. That’s how I opened up for these big acts; they’d stop through on a college tour, and I’d be picked to open up for them. B.O.B. was managed by TJ Chapman from Tallahassee, who ran TJ’s DJs. I applied to intern for TJ I had an interview, and during the interview, he played me BOB’s new album. The Adventures of Bobby Ray, as I listened in my head, I was like, “How the fuck did he get so many features from legends on his first album?” Eminem, Hayley Williams, and fuckin Rivers Cuomo. Top that with Janelle Monae, Bruno Mars, and weirdly, Lupe Fiasco.
“Nothing on You” featuring Bruno Mars was originally made for Lupe Fiasco, but the label said his version was boring, so they gave it to B.O.B. This created a whole Fiasco — Sorry. This turned into a feud with Lupe’s 3rd album, Lasers.
I bobbed my head, no pun intended, and said “yo, this is cool,” but deep down, something felt fishy, and by fishy I mean forced, and by forced I mean corporate. This didn’t feel like music; it felt more like audio that was CGI’d, like a Marvel movie shot on green screen for the ears, packed with stars but completely boring. How could they brand B.O.B. as the next Andre 3000 when he has help on every song from established pop stars? I didn’t get the intern position, and The Adventures of Bobby Ray charted #1 on Billboard, selling 84k in its first week. That’s how badly the mixtape era affected sales; 84k was a triumph. After this release, I believe nothing was the same; the labels wanted hits.
Artists like Wiz, Mac, and Drake, who bragged that they weren’t signed to a major label, were dropping big singles on major labels. Wiz with Black and Yellow, Mac with Donald Trump, and Drake with Fancy. Thank god Rick Ross made BMF and Waka Flocka made Hard in the Paint to cleanse the airwaves because around this time Airplanes was fuckin everywhere. Looking back at it, 2010 was the B.o.Bification of rap music. My favorite rapper, Lupe Fiasco, whose style I jacked for a while, was feeling the pressure of this B.o.bification. Lupe was in a standoff with Atlantic Records because they were forcing him to rap over electro-pop style records. Lupe had his own vision for his 3rd album, Lasers; they wouldn’t promote songs he liked; he had to self-fund them, leading to protests outside of their Atlantic Records, and a petition with over 30,000 signatures. Lasers was eventually released, it was terrible, it was totally B.O.bified, Lupe hated the album, but it went #1.
At this time, I was working on a cool “trip hop” album with my bandmate Kyle Wyss, but even I started to put out rap songs over techno. I did a song called “They See Us” with electro producer Amtrac, which was remixed by now platinum producer Dallas K. I was trying to make hits; I wanted big hooks and songs about partying, rising, and grinding. I was making electro aspirational capitalist raps. I was being B.O.Biefied at this time; my manager was a party promoter, part of a huge white frat. What was their vibe? One night I went to a club with them, and they sprayed a electro violinist with Champagne because they thought he was annoying, he was. They got me a studio above one of T-Pain’s studios. I would work all night on an album called Flavored Wallpaper, it was packed with hits, hooks, and shit I felt like I had to make because everyone else was doing it.
The music I really wanted to make was with my groupmate Kyle Wyss; we were a producer-rapper duo called SKYWAY. Kyle thought Flavored Wallpaper sucked; he told me it was B.O.B. rap, and I thought he was being a hater. Deep down, though I knew he was right, I spent all those nights by myself, sleeping at the studio, my grades plummeting, just to make something I wasn’t proud of. I thought if I didn’t do this, I wouldn’t survive as an artist.
Then outta nowhere a black and white rap video drops with a young dude eating a cockroach. It’s unlike anything that's out and a direct “fuck you” to B.O.B.ification.
This was my first introduction to Tyler, the Creator, who then introduced me to Earl Sweatshirt. In the video EARL, Sweatshirt puts a bunch of shit in a blender and downs it with his friends, they start bleeding from their nipples, losing teeth, hair, and fingernails. At a time when shit when rap was going pop, the videos would have these heavy filters and try to look big budget, this felt like watching skate videos and jackass. The last person I was introduced to was Frank Ocean. I listened to Nostalgia, Ultra, and I felt jealous. “Why didn’t I follow my heart on my project?” - “Why did I try and do some electro rap shit?” - “I wish I could’ve made something this cool,” I vowed to never make another project to please people.
Kyle and I finished our album, 14 years later, and I am still happy with it. Tyler is now Tyler, Earl is one of the most skilled rappers around, and Frank dropped one of the best albums of all time, and hid for the past decade. Well, B.O.B., he is now a rapping flat earther.
Now, as a stand-up comedian, I always remind myself to “eat the cockroach,” do something daring that no one is doing. Even if the algorithm punishes you for it. I did a weekly show at a former Yugoslavian mob bar turned Dead Head record store for 3 years. Putting on comics I loved, taking film photos every week, and filming my special in the space before it closed. I was happy to create something with friends and community; it was made from that “eat the cockroach” energy.
Now more than ever, it’s tougher to make it as an artist. I struggle with consistently posting, I get really depressed, I’m unsure of what I’m doing, and this new era of constantly being online is exhausting. Crowd work clips? Rage Bait? Should I go on Kill Tony? I struggle to think what I can do to devour this next cockroach. I fear the cockroach may be swallowing me.