Rapper B.o.B. Has Controversial Beliefs About People Being Cloned and Earth Being Flat
B.o.B. has never been like any other celebrity entertainer. The “Nothin’ on You” rapper made his name an underground success in the early days of internet mixtape culture. Since then, he’s risen to the highest of highs and experienced the lowest of lows while speaking his mind. However, his outspokenness can sometimes lead to his controversial claims about everything from the Earth’s shape to human cloning.
B.o.B. rode ‘Airplanes’ to fame
According to Turntable Thought, B.o.B. first started turning head in 2009 after a slew of successful singles and mixtapes put him on the map. But when XXL featured the rapper as one of the top up-and-comers, everything changed forever. B.o.B. was already a massive success on YouTube and music-sharing services, but this limelight turned him into something bigger.
His first album, B.o.B. Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray, was a smash, spawning a hit single with Bruno Mars and the Paramore/Eminem collaboration Airplanes. Though the rapper failed to re-create that triumph, his follow-up albums were still moderate successes. However, the rapper’s strange musings began drawing more attention than the music.
While his Bobby Ray persona spoke radio-friendly messages of love and getting along, B.o.B. was always the enlightened rapper. Before long, the latter persona overtook the former. With his album sales plummeting and internet buzz painting him as the clown prince of hip-hop, B.o.B. began leaning into how people see him.
B.o.B. solves the cloning problem
Complex notes that B.o.B. has made outlandish claims since he was a teenage rapper on the internet. However, after his rise to the A-list and fall back to the B- or C-list, the claims he made grew even stranger. In 2015, B.o.B. took to Twitter to connect two fundamental problems with zero evident connection.
“Hundreds of kids go missing each year = cloning center,” the rapper tweeted.
He followed it with claims that people are cloning celebrities to establish a New World Order, Insider reported. Of course, the internet had a field day dissecting B.o.B.’s claims, with some alleging he just wanted attention and was spreading dangerous lies. He didn’t relent, defending himself for several months before another claim drew even more attention.
He is not a cartographer
In 2016, the year of celebrity-flat-Earth theories, Billboard reported that B.o.B. made waves when he questioned the Earth’s shape. Citing his research, the rapper defended his belief that the world is flat by presenting shoddy science about its shape.
“A lot of people are turned off by the phrase “flat earth” … but there’s no way u can see all the evidence and not know … grow up,” he tweeted, followed by a pair of links he claimed proved his theory.
Of course, this was fodder for scientifically minded celebrities like Neil deGrasse Tyson, who broke down the flaws in B.o.B.’s claims. The rapper was unfazed and released a diss track aimed at Tyson and the scientific community.
“Globalists see me as a threat … Free thinking got a world at my neck … Aye, Neil Tyson need to loosen up his vest … They probably write that man one hell of a check … Aye, I’m over here on this side of town. Come on over, over, over, over here, try to clown.”
B.o.B., per Genius
Tyson responded, hiring his nephew to record a lighthearted rebuttal aimed at B.o.B.’s audacious claims. The feud eventually subsided, but like so many other claims B.o.B. makes, the absurdity of it all remains as much a part of his brand as pop-infused hip-hop.
