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t was an honor for Jakarta to open the Asian tour of American rapper Bobby Ray Simmons, Jr., better known as B.o.B.

Unfortunately, promotion was rather shoddy for a big event at the Istora Senayan. Aside from B.o.B.’s die-hard fans, not very many people knew that the promising young rapper was coming to Indonesia.

The opening act, Bondan Prakoso & Fade2Black, joked on stage, saying their name was not on any flyers. They did, however, have a great time playing, since most of the crowd knew their songs by heart and excitedly sang along.

Despite the sparse audience, the night of July 27 was far from dull as B.o.B. and his band started to heat things up with a song titled “I See Ya”.

Without any chitchat, B.o.B. continued with a rendition of “On Top of The World”. This song was originally sung by B.o.B. along with fellow rappers T.I. and Ludacris. The lyrics are a perfect description of B.o.B., who has reached global fame although he has not yet reached the age of 23.

B.o.B. charmed the audience when he sang his latest single, “Magic”, driving the crowd, which filled about a quarter of the sports hall, to screamed and sing along with the song’s chorus.

The rapper jumped around the stage hyperactively, at times even dancing with two of his sexy dancers.

The loudest cheers shook the venue when the band began playing the intro of “Nothin’ On You”. The song, which features the equally young and talented singer, Bruno Mars, was first released in February 2010.

B.o.B. went triple platinum with “Nothin’ on You” in the US, capturing three Grammy nods and winning the Soul Train Award for Best Song in 2010.

Things cooled down a bit when B.o.B. sang “I’ll Be in the Sky” and played his acoustic guitar while sitting down, accompanied by fans as backing vocals.

Some of his biggest supporters stood in front of the stage and called out his name continuously during the performance.

“We’ve been here since noon. We’re from Team B.o.B., and we won the meet-and-greet contest,” one of the girls said.

B.o.B. then asked the audience: “Who has The Adventure of Bobby Ray?”as he introduced a song from his first album

He then recognized a big orange poster that said “Team B.o.B.” that was created by the girls and brought it up on stage.

During the performance B.o.B. showed that he was not only a rapper but also an expert in music. In a song titled “Don’t Let Me Fall” and in a few subsequent songs, B.o.B. and his band added a touch of rock melodies, which resulted in even louder howls from the fans.

Having worked with a long list of musicians from the hip-hop genre such as Eminem, Sean Kingston, and Jessie J. B.o.B. brought along a guest rapper to Jakarta and performed with him.

“We come all the way from Atlanta, Georgia, please welcome Playboy Tre!” B.o.B. said as he leaped into a rendition of “Bet I” with the rapper.

The wildest part of the night came when B.o.B. asked the audience to raise their hands to the sky and look up. Everyone suddenly knew that the next song was “Airplane”, which was originally featured with Hayley Williams of Paramore.

The song went quadruple platinum in the US, received a nomination at the 2011 Grammy Awards along with “Nothin’ On You”, and won the 2010 Teen Choice Award as Best Hook-Up Song.

The crowd was shrieking at top of their lungs and B.o.B. was equally ecstatic. Right after he sang the first verse of the song, he jumped into the crowd started ‘crowd surfing’.

After singing 12 songs, B.o.B. introduced his band members and said goodnight, but only to be called again for one more time.

In his encore, he sang a slow song on his guitar titled “Lovelier Than You” before ending the night with a cover of MGMT’s “Kids Cover”.

Aside from B.o.B’s rap talent, a full-sized band and his catchy songs, amazing lighting on stage was a great help in setting the concert’s mood. The event promoter might not have been 100 percent successful in advertising the event, but the stage set and the brilliant lighting really paid off.

With only one studio album and a number of mix tapes, B.o.B. really ruled the night and left his fans wanting more. Eventually, B.o.B. left Jakarta to continue his Asian tour in Singapore and Seoul.