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B.o.B Looks To The Skies For Inspiration In Latest Album, 'Strange Clouds'

B.o.B Channels Inner Conspiracy Theorist In New Album
In this Thursday, May 3, 2012, image released by iHeartRadio, B.o.B performs songs from his new album
AP
In this Thursday, May 3, 2012, image released by iHeartRadio, B.o.B performs songs from his new album

B.o.B (a.k.a. Bobby Ray Simmons Jr.) likes to keep one eye on the sky.

His breakthrough single, featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore fame, was all about "Airplanes" and shooting stars. His latest album is called Strange Clouds. But those aren't the only things that the Georgia rapper and singer/songwriter is searching for when he looks skyward. As he tells AOL Music Blog, B.o.B. is a lifelong conspiracy theorist as well-versed in UFOs and X Files-esque shadow governments as he is in rhymes and beats.

"When I was in high school, that's what I loved for," says hip-hop's answer to Fox Mulder. "I learned a lot."

Although he's not quite as obsessive about his theories these days, they still creep up in his lyrics from time to time. On Strange Cloud's lead track, "Bombs Away", (featuring acting legend, documentary narrator and one-time new Twilight Zone guest star Morgan Freeman) B.o.B says that "And it seems like, in the grand scheme of it all/ The world's run by a few people and we never seen them at all/ How do they exist if we don't know who they are?" before going on to mention UFOs and the theory that humans were created by an alien race.

When asked about the lyrics, the rapper laughs and hums the first few bars of the Twilight Zone theme song. Then he gets a little more serious.

"There's definitely a lot we don't know," he says. "There's definitely a lot we don't need to know and there's definitely a lot we probably will never find out. But just the fact that those ideas exist and are true, it keeps us searching for the truth and deeper meanings and the lifting of the curtains."

B.o.B.'s not sure whether he'll ever have a chance to peek behind those ominous and mysterious curtains in his lifetime, but he genuinely believes that there will come a day when humanity will finally find the answers it seeks. Until then, he promises to continue his quest.

"Now, whenever mankind is ready for all of the veils and curtains to be lifted, they'll be lifted. But, until then, the show must go on. And," he smiles, "the truth is out there."

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