ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

Born and raised in East Oakland,21-year-old Bobby Brackins embarkedon his music career at ayoung age as part of the groupGo Dav. The years of work he put infinally started to pay off when hewent solo. today, with his hit single“143” featuring Ray J climbing thecharts and helping to land a him adeal with Young Tycoon/UniversalRepublic, he’s .How many years have you been doing themusic thing?I’ve been making music for the past six years.When I got out of high school I was with agroup called Go Dav. We had a really big recordcalled “Ride Or Die Chick” that was playingon the radio; it was just a really big streetrecord that buzzed all over the country. I wasin a group for a while and then I got out of thegroup and started working on a solo projectand linked up with T-Pain’s management. I’vereally been working on my solo stuff for aboutfour and a half years now.How did you link up with T-Pain’s management?I put out a record called “Skinny Jeans,” whichwas a big street record. It was really big onYouTube and Myspace and getting millions ofhits. A bunch of people were hollering at us,but we felt like T-Pain’s management wouldbe the best situation because he had “Buy YouA Drink” out at the time and it was a really bigrecord. So we thought it would be a good fitto try to get something happening. [The businessdidn’t really work out] but I just talkedto him the other day. We’re still cool, no hardfeelings. He was busy with [T-Pain’s] projectand couldn’t really focus on me. It was a learningexperience, you know? You’re not goingto win with every situation. It’s all good. I wasyoung just trying to figure out the game. Basically,I learned that you’ve gotta be a prioritywherever you sign, you know?What made you decide to move to LosAngeles?I moved to L.A. like two and a half years agobecause my producer was out here going toschool. I was working with different producersin the Bay, but I felt like my producer, Nic Nac,just had the best music for me. I moved outhere to L.A. and ended up signing to [Young]Rell’s label. That was about a year ago andwe’ve been working on my solo project eversince. I’ve been flying back and forth betweenL.A. and the Bay just networking and makingmusic.The L.A. scene hasn’t always been real receptiveto Bay Area artists. Has that been anissue for you?No, not at all, honestly. I guess some people’spersonalities just don’t mesh well together. Ihave the type of personality where I can basicallyget along with anybody. I just got off thephone with [L.A. rapper] Nipsey Hussle a fewminutes ago. He’s putting a verse on the “143”song so we can do an L.A. remix. And I justtalked to [ ], he sings the hook to YG’s “TootIt and Boot It.” Me and him just made a reallycrazy record for my album. So, some people’spersonalities might not mesh but I’m notreally with all that drama, you know. If you’recool people, you’re cool people and it doesn’treally matter where you’re from.How did the collaboration with Ray J comeabout for your current hit record, “143”?We were basically just working on my album.I had a different record in mind for Ray J butwhen I wrote “143” I thought he might fitbetter on that one. I really felt like it could bea big universal smash record. I played it for mymanagers and the label and everybody likedit, so I eventually convinced everybody that itwas going to be the single we wanted to runwith. We had Ray come to the studio and heblessed it, he did his thing on it. He went hardon the record so it sounds super crazy.A lot of people who hear the record thinkit’s Ray J’s new single. How do you plan toestablish yourself as an artist and make surethey know who you are?Well, Ray J’s cool people and he sings on therecord, of course. But whenever I performthe record I know when I can just pause andlet the DJ drop the beat and the girls knowall the lyrics to my verses. So I’m just gonnakeep doing shows and interviews and leteverybody know that I’m the voice behind theverses on the record.Do you have a second single picked out?Yeah, it’s called “She’s Ready.” It’s crazy; it’sgonna be another really, really big radiorecord. We’re gonna do a video for it and keeppushing my whole solo career. I wrote thewhole “143” record and this record as well. I’mreally trying to get in touch with the ladiesbecause ladies are my primary fans. WheneverI go to the shows, it’s always the ladies whoare screaming my lyrics. So I’m just gonnakeep making great songs that both the ladiesand the fellas can enjoy. “143” is still climbingup the charts. It’s climbing up the rhythmicradio charts and it’s on the Billboard Hot 100,so we’re gonna just keep letting “143” grow.OZONE MAG // 61