Music Review: B.o.B. & Priscilla Renae "John Doe"

B.o.B. & Priscilla Renea

John Doe

Album: Underground Luxury

Year: 2013

          B.o.B. has a rocky road to fame in the  halfway  “John Doe.”

         Finger wagging synths open the single, setting a shaming tone. Everyone knows but no one really wants to acknowledge it. After the show, he went to his dressing room and swallowed a ton of pills. . A woman from the press asks her if she knows where B.o.B. Renea motions to the door leading outside, saying he’s smoking a cigarette and getting some air. She says thanks and walks away. She turns to one of the other background singers and sighs, hoping she stalled the journalist long enough. It’s getting harder to hide and blind items are popping up online. He’s spiraling. (“Seems like your heart stops working/The minute they close the curtain/And take off your mask/And take off your costume/And if anyone asks you're taking a smoke break/Drinking some coffee/But everyone knows what you're doing/Seems like the bus moves slower/Just cause you got somewhere to go/So you take a few pills in Beverly Hills/But if anyone asks you've got a prescription/You got an addiction/Who do you think that you're fooling.”)

              In the chorus, she remembers when he first started out. He said he didn’t want to be of those stars that filled the tabloids and constantly put in death pools every year online. He still contacted his family. Fame wasn’t an issue. (“John Doe, I just want the John I know/Once you put the drinks on hold/Maybe you could come back home/John Doe.”)

               B.o.B, says he can’t give up the pills. He’s no different than someone who goes to the casino or to the mall all the time. It’s a chance to feel something. It takes the pressure off from all his everyday stress. He’s wondering how long will it last and why his dream turned out to have a dark side. No matter how much he drinks, he can’t think of a reason why it’s so. People see him stumbling and have heard his outburts. He still maintains his thinness is due to working out and eating healthy. The only person he’s lying to is himself. (“Errybody's addicted to something/Errybody's got to grip onto something/Even if it's just to feel the response of appeal/Maybe once, maybe twice/Maybe hundreds of times, hundreds of times/Without it, it's just harder to function at times/You race to the bottom of every single bottle/As if there was someone or something to find/You're struggling in your mind.And you tell yourself lie after lie

/Til you get to the point where it's no longer private/People that you work with noticed the signs/When you walk in the room/It gets noticeably quiet/So you break up the silence, you say you've been at the gym/But the way that you look, you can't blame on the diet/

So what you hiding?”)

            Renea sings the chorus again.

           He admits he slid into alcoholism and drugs. He was caught by the police. However, the drugs had left his system. It was a misdemeanor but it could’ve been much worse. He cheated on girlfriend. He had gotten careless and she found him in bed with another woman. At first, he denied it. Now, he realizes she wasn’t stupid. She knew what was going on. He needed to accept responsibility. He wants to be famous. He spent too much going unnoticed. It’s his time now. People told him it wasn’t going to happen but it he kept at it. (“Yeah, I've probably had too many things/Smashed too many freaks/Had too much to dro...(I mean)/Had too much to drink/Left the club, ended up in custody/Random drug test, passed it luckily/My girl broke up with me cause she walked in suddenly/With a woman up under me/I told her "Wait!/It ain't what it look like!/I must've slip and fell, clumsy me!"/Well, at least I admit it, cause the worst you could do/Is to do it and not be man enough to say that you did it/That's just how you prevent it, well I ain't no different/I love all the money, the fame/And the parties with beautiful women/I'd spent so much time as an underground artist/Cause I was afraid to succumb to the business/And what I'd become/But that what you'd judge I become/The path with the greatest resistance/That's how the tables can turn, when they pivot/And change your perspective and flip your entire position/My whole life I've been dying to wish and to live and experience/Everything possible/When I told them my dreams, they just said they ain't logical/Now, I can see it - it's optical.”)

            Renea sings the chorus again to end the single.

          B.o.B.’s knowing  rap wants to let his friends know that it’s ok. Rest assured, he’s been there and back. He has good intentions but comes across as smug and cured of his problems.

         Renea’s commanding vocals try to get B.o.B. from the edge. But instead of supporting him, she lectures him as he loses his grip.

        The  flawed “John Doe” is a celebrity version of an Afterschool Special.