B.o.B – Bombs Away ft. Morgan Freeman

Somebody must have told B.o.b. that they’re handing out Grammys for ‘Most Cinematic Rap Song’ this year because the intro cut to his new album definitely qualifies. The legendary Morgan Freeman kicks things off with a dramatic opening monologue that features fancy quotables like ‘the clock ticks faster and faster while time runs the marathon in this babylon’. Yeah, he used the word ‘babylon’. Fancy.

Bob follows with uptempo raps and a motivational (but kinda corny) chorus over theatrical production with plenty of strings. Throw in some wailing female vocals and you’ve got the kind of track destined to serve as the soundtrack for overdramatic highlight videos for mediocre high school basketball players everywhere. You know what I’m talking about. But seriously, I like this one. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the album. It gets really safe and predictable really quickly. I hate to sound like the guy who only likes a rapper’s early mixtapes and hates the albums they put out once they see success, but that kind of applies to me in this situation. Oops.