Black Rob is certainly
no stranger to making classics.

After guest appearing on a string of timeless Bad Boy cuts by people like Mase and the Chairman of the Boards himself P. Diddy, Rob finally barnstormed his way out on his own in late 1999 when his “Whoa!” hit the streets.

The song produced by Buckwild, proved to be a phenomenon, immediately engulfing listeners and holding the dance floor hostage with its blends of traumatic bass and synthesizers underneath Rob's glowering snarl, which dropped the word “whoa!” at the end of every sentence. Not surprisingly, the undisputed penultimate street anthem and instant club staple would go on to become the biggest record of the year 2000 and parlay into a platinum plus LP for its author.

“‘Whoa!’ is unstoppable,” laughs Rob. “To this day, you could put that on in any club or drive through any hood pumping it in your car and people are going to stop and dance and sing along with it. I made the history books with that one.”

Raised in Spanish Harlem, making rap history wasn't always a priority to Robert Ross during his formative years. He was just trying to survive to the next day. Rob was quickly forced to grow up with lack of a father figure. He became victim to the trappings of the streets, eventually running away from home and being forced to live in group-homes and ultimately prison. As young adult, he began to put crime life of robberies and narcotics sales behind him and was discovered by P. Diddy and Bad Boy President Harve Pierre in 1995. He was quickly signed to the label.

“When Puff came across me, it was in a time in my life when I was just doing a lot of wrong things,” Rob says. “For him to give me that hand and let me do what I do, was a blessing. I just needed a chance.”

It's been five years since Black Rob dropped his classic debut Life's Story on the heels on of the aforementioned groundbreaking single ‘Whoa!,’ still B.R. has proven that not only is he getting better at dismantling mics, but his fans have an undying allegiance for him.

Lately he's been rocking sold out shows at Madison Square Garden, infiltrating the mixtape circuit with his own brand of unflinchingly rugged street stories and more importantly, constructing another timeless LP at Daddy's House studio.

“This is B.R., I'm futuristic daddy,” Rob taking a break from a recording session with legendary Bad Boy producer Deric “D-Dot” Angeletti, said while sitting in a Daddy's House lounge. “My creativity is at an apex. It's through the roof. Understand me. I'm 150 songs strong right now. I could do this for a minute. I could sit at the round table and play my cards right now. You're going to understand the validity to what I'm saying.”

Rob's presence is so immense right now that Bad Boy is releasing his album, The Rob Report this Spring.

“It´s a beautiful thing man,” Rob said about the support of his label Bad Boy and its CEO Sean “P.Diddy” Combs. “That just shows me that they're still behind me. They got faith in BR. Its loyalty. When you're apart of something, you just want to be apart of that. You don´t want to be apart of nothing else. That Bad Boy thing been apart of me for ten years. I can't even see myself on no other label. They stuck behind me through everything I've had to endure. So I had to come back like crazy.”

The Rob Report not only details some of its author's trials, tribulations and ultimate triumphs, it finds B.R. returning to form as one of hip-hop's premier gutter griots, never relinquishing his mastery of slick word play and story telling.

There is “Ooh Ah,” where Diddy's general unleashes a new stop and go flow, rapping “Since the day of my birth I was coming up the worst./ Snatch the purse put my hand up the skirt./ Put the body in earth./ Then I thought what's it worth. Now forever I'm cursed./ I'm cursed, bowing down in the church praying to stay away from the hearse.”

“Star in the Hood” is vintage Robbie O, club land flavor where he spews his rhyme arsenal over the heavy bass and synths, celebrating ghetto celebrities everywhere. On the record Rob trumpets the fact that you don´t have to be chased down by paparazzi everywhere you go to have a special swagger. Just to receive praise from everyone in your neighborhood is an accomplishment.

Not to be outdone is “Just Ask me,” where he vents and lets go of the stress on his chest. In true unflinching Rob manner, he lets loose on everyone from girls who are trying to get money from to hatas in the streets.