We were lucky to catch up with MC BOB recently and have shared our conversation below.

MC, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I remember when I reached a point in my life where I didn’t really know how to feel. I was fresh out of high school, and there was just an immense wave of emotions/thoughts that flooded my mind. As a result of this, I hit rock bottom with my music itself. I would spend hours listening to rappers such as J Cole, Kendrick, Eminem, Outkast, Mobb Deep, thinking to myself… “How can I write like this?” After hours of deep reflection and perfecting my craft, I ended up creating a project called “I’m Batman” in which I made one of my most lyrical songs “Happy Meal” (only available on Soundcloud). At the time I still wasn’t as known as I am today, so the project flopped heavily. This discouraged me tremendously, and led me to fall into a depression. I just started questioning absolutely everything. How can I create a project with such skill but have it flop? I knew if any mainstream rapper said what I said in that song, they’d be quoted and praised throughout all of social media. At this point in time, I had just moved to Victorville, CA so I felt very lonely seeing all my hometown friends going out and having fun without me, not to mention my love life wasn’t all that great either. With all these discouragements surrounding me I realized I should release and express my feelings through what I do best… music! I packed all my emotions at the time into a project called “I’m Not Going Back Home”, which was my way of saying “okay, that chapter of my life is over and now it’s time to focus on a new one”. I released my personal problems and battles through a song called “Mental Enslavement”, my growth and new perspective on love in a song called “I Hope All My Exes Hear This”, and my personal feelings in a song called “Where the Love At?”. It felt extremely good to release my stress and express myself. I felt liberated from everything that was weighing me down. Until this day, I still listen to those songs to look back on my growth. Not only as an artist, but as a person. I’ve learned that even though I’m an artist, It’s not always about competition. Sometimes it’s okay to just write a song about how I’m feeling. That breakthrough was very impactful on my life even till this day, and it’s simply a very meaningful project to me.

MC, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My stage name is MC BOB, but my government name is Robert Godoy. I was born and raised in the city of Lynwood, California. Since the age of 5, I always had a love for music. I remember watching eminem’s “Stan” music video with a paper in front of me pretending I was writing to him. I wouldn’t stop listening to music at all. I started freestyling at the age of 7, but didn’t write my first song until I was about 10. A lot of people like to categorize me with this new generation of “tiktokers” who decide to do music, or a “gang banger” who drops a song and goes viral, but that’s not me. I’m a REAL artist, and I have my work to speak for me. I can literally say that I started from the bottom. I used to record songs in the restroom of my one bedroom apartment and rap during lunchtime in elementary school. I dropped my first song in 8th grade, and my first ever album sophomore year. I recorded my first music video on an Obama phone, and dropped it my freshman year of highschool. If I’m being honest, I used to sound pretty bad. I always had it in me, that’s for sure, but I lacked structure, image, wordplay, and delivery. I had to sharpen my skills over the years to rap the way I do now. I have well over 10,000 hours in training. I didn’t just decide one day at the age of 18 “Yeah, let me make music because everyone else is doing it”. It took practice and dedication. Along with this practice and dedication, came versatility. Recently, social media has been trying to box me into this “chicano rapper” genre, but typically I do every genre. I have mastered Boom bap 90’s rap, new school rap, R&B, indie, Rock/rap, and it’s shown through all my music catalog. I wish people would understand that I’m a real artist. I devour 90% of today’s artist with my song “Mom I Met the Boogey Man” alone. They can’t rap the way I do and it’s due to our difference in practice. I want to deliver experiences, and feelings through my music. That is the reason why I make my songs vivid, and descriptive depending on the vibe that I’m going for. I want my supporters to know one thing, I don’t want fame, I don’t want the money, I just want recognition for my art.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I wouldn’t call it a story, but rather living proof right now. Whether you like my music or not, everyone recognizes that I’m doing numbers. Since the beginning of my journey, I was also getting made fun of in school. I’ll never forget that… I was always the joke of the school, the “soundcloud rapper”, and even though the majority of my classmates recognized my skill there was an immense lack of faith & support. I didn’t start taking music seriously until after highschool. So far I only have a full year taking it seriously.. I’m currently 18 years old with over 6 million streams on spotify. I can’t pinpoint exactly where the shift happened, but I just remember telling myself “alright, I’m going to do this”. The hardest part was the lack of support, but I’m very big on “I’ll find a way”. I’ve been kind of winging it since day one but I’ve been working hard. I don’t have a record label, I don’t have a promoter, A marketer, A PR team, A vocal engineer, let alone my own studio. I’ve literally been doing everything ON MY OWN. I do my own promotion, engineering, song writing, management (shoutout to Maddy though, she’s been helping me on that bit recently) . Think about it? I’ve gotten this far by myself in just a year, what can I do in two? The odds have always been against me. But God has allowed me to come this far, and I’m grateful for it. I don’t like to hear these people put excuses on why they aren’t chasing their dreams, cause there’s ALWAYS a way. The numbers I’ve been doing are unbelievable for a one man team like myself, but MC always keeps it pushing no matter what.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started off with about 1,300 followers when I started taking music seriously. Not much at all, if we’re being honest. I currently have 12.1K on Instagram alone, but I got about 4 songs doing over 300,000+ streams on Spotify… How is that possible? Marketing. If you’re not up with the latest trends you’re losing. All my followers are REAL, and ACTIVE. If you’re scared to make a Tiktok, it’s because you’re worried about what people might say… Quit, this industry isn’t for you. The media can either make you or break you. You have to learn how to handle criticism/hate, and learn how to tell the difference. Tip #1 I’d say.. don’t expect anything from your friends or family. Till this day I have strangers do more for me, than any of them ever do. The media is like sheep, people won’t support you until they see everyone else doing it. Which leads me to my next thing, fake it till you make it. Always make it seem like you’re doing big moves even when you’re not, as long as people believe it they’ll support it. They won’t support a post of you dropping a single but they’ll support a post of you in a studio saying you’re collaborating with a popping rapper. Once you get the ball rolling, it’s only up from there. People are too quick to give up on promotion… when I’m literally promoting projects I dropped months ago. Don’t stop! Being creative and persistent is also a big one. If I make 20 videos on Tiktok about my new drop, only about 2 will go viral but that’s all I need! Marketing strategies such as giveaways, music videos, skits, stunts are all good ideas to build your audience. The most important part I learned though is to build a solid fan/supporter base. Even if it’s only 5 people as long as they’re solid. Once you have those five, do what I said above, and the numbers will multiply. I promise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0OWToUlGPyXUSAcrCZxu3g?si=qRJ1U3gwTmelZ_4Yfo_ikg
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iicyxnobody/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@mcbob90262?si=C3oaeY0BaqGg4UIV
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mightfvkaroundnblowup?lang=en