B.o.B's 'Underground Luxury' review: His most formulaic and crass

B.o.B arrived as a crafty, pop-leaning rapper-producer, scoring big hits with Bruno Mars on "Nothin' on You" and Paramore's Hayley Williams on "Airplanes."

But the follow-up failed to click as well, so now we get "Underground Luxury" (Atlantic) -- where he mostly dumbs his sound down to its most formulaic and crass, while cultivating an anti-hero persona. He shows some style in "Headband" and some soul-searching in "Coastline," but mostly it's about buying crap, using women, putting out half-baked conspiracy theories and then wondering why people think he's a jerk.

"I guess I bit off more than I could chew," he laments in "Nobody Told Me."

Guess so.

B.o.B

"Underground Luxury"

THE GRADE B-

SEE PHOTOSRock stars then and now

BOTTOM LINE Wasted hip-hop opportunities