10 Bands Destroyed By "Selling Out"

Remember B.O.B? There was a time, not too long ago in the winding corridors of history, when the Georgia rapper was absolutely everywhere. Whether he was schmoozing it up with Bruno Mars or mistaking jumbo jets for shooting stars with Hayley Williams, Bobby Ray Simmons jr. was an all-conquering chart behemoth, leaping out of the underground and into the mainstream with an assurance and charm that few have captured since.

What made B.O.B so appealing was his willingness to be a bit of a goofball. Unlike his rap peers, he wasn’t fussed about honeys or money, but seemed much more content to put out singles like ‘Magic’ with Rivers Cuomo, straddling the line between hip-hop and nerd rock with a surprising ease.

In this sense, B.O.B’s inclusion on this list is a bit of an anomaly. Why? Because whereas other artists tend to become less cool by selling out, his conscious effort to reimagine himself as a credible rapper with credible rap lyrics ultimately meant that he lost his spark as a songwriter.

In more recent times, the kind of lines and observations that made him such a pleasing quirk in a saturated market have been replaced by paint-by-numbers rap cliches that, much like his beliefs on planet Earth, are pretty flat.