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Rapper B.o.B Closes Out SPA Day With A Middle School Dance

To close out a long, relaxing SPA Day, Atlanta-based rapper B.o.B performed for a half-packed Alumni Hall Friday night.

B.o.B, born Bobby Ray Simmons Jr., gained fame at the beginning of last decade with a string of singles from his 2010 debut album The Adventures of Bobby Ray.

Those singles, “Nothin’ On You” featuring Bruno Mars, “Airplanes” featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore, and “Magic” featuring Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, ultimately became the soundtrack to many Penn State students’ formative years and regular staples at middle school dances, homecomings, and proms.

His follow-up album, Strange Clouds, delivered even more bangers, with the title track which features Lil Wayne, the song “So Good,” and the song “Both Of Us,” featuring Taylor Swift.

The next year, he delivered the album Underground Luxury, featuring the very popular song “HeadBand” featuring 2 Chainz.

On Friday, B.o.B took the stage five minutes after 9 p.m. After some initial microphone troubles, he opened with hit “Strange Clouds.”

“I’m not crazy,” B.o.B said before going into his next song, “Out Of My Mind.” “I’m just outta my f***in mind.”

After “Out Of My Mind,” B.o.B only needed two words to get the entire crowd singing the chorus to “Nothin’ Out You,” bringing them back to a much simpler time when the squad would hit Applebee’s after the middle school dance.

“Do Penn State girls know how to twerk?” B.o.B asked.

He then was joined by four students from the crowd who came onstage to dance to “HeadBand.”

“Who has been listening to me since you were in middle school?” B.o.B asked after taking a quick break to throw autographed SPA merch into the crowd. “You guys are in college now!”

In honor of the 10th anniversary of his debut album, B.o.B went into the iconic “Magic,” and then performed the song “Bet I,” which is also from The Adventures of Bobby Ray.

“If you wanna request a song, I got two microphones up here,” B.o.B said. “So you gotta perform it with me too.”

Patrick from San Francisco then got onstage and joined B.o.B for a rendition of “Arena,” a song from 2012’s Strange Clouds featuring T.I. and Chris Brown, but was then unceremoniously kicked off stage for forgetting the words.

B.o.B was then joined by Sean from Pittsburgh and successfully performed “Bombs Away,” another song from Strange Clouds that features Morgan Freeman.

After the karaoke session, B.o.B then went into Jessie J’s hit 2011 song “Price Tag” and performed his verse from the song.

B.o.B closed out the show with an impeccably strong final three tracks: “So Good” from Strange Clouds, the iconic “Airplanes” from The Adventures of Bobby Ray, and “We Still In This Bitch” from Underground Luxury.

“One last thing before I go, Penn State,” B.o.B said before he departed.

“Don’t drink and drive, just smoke and fly.”

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About the Author

Matthew Ogden

Matthew Ogden is a senior double majoring in Marketing and Journalism. He resides in South Jersey and is the cohost of Onward State's podcast, Podward State. Email him your favorite Spotify playlists to [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @MattOgden98.

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