Bobby V is one of the most refined R&B artists around in the industry at the moment, still as fresh as ever twenty years on from the start of his career.

Performing in the US and also worldwide he remains a hit with international audiences, meaning the position of Bobby V’s agent is a hotly contested one.

Bobby V was born Bobby Wilson in Mississippi in 1980, and was reared on timeless soul staples such as Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson as well as taking inspiration from the great Michael Jackson. Thus his passion for music was sparked, falling for the smooth sounds and cool grooves of R&B music in particular, seduced by iconic stars of the genre.

Bobby V’s first strides in the music world were as part of the four piece youth R&B group, in the ilk of the seminal group Boyz II Men, at which point Bobby V was only 16 years of age. Despite disbanding in 1997, the group saw plenty of success before then, with Bobby and his three companions releasing several successful singles with the Organized Noise Productions Team, who also worked with TLC for their ‘Waterfalls’ single and on several hits for Outkast.

Despite having enrolled in college studying communications, Bobby’s mind was made up on a career in the music industry, and, after the band split in 1997, he began to lay down some of his own material in his free time between studies. Pushing hard to break into the music world, Bobby V even auditioned on American Idol, desperate to reach the kind of success that would necessitate a busy booking agent for Bobby V.

During this time, Bobby produced a large quantity of material, amounting to three eventual demo albums which were picked up by the likes of P Diddy and Ludacris, and began to kick off Bobby V’s solo career. The work also made its way into the hands of the label manager of ‘Disturbing Tha Peace’, Chaka Zulu, and impressed him in enough to result in Bobby V being signed as the imprint’s inaugural R&B artist.

It was on this label, and on Def Jam Records, that his debut LP was released, ‘Bobby Valentino’, and was produced by the Grammy Award winning producers Tim & Bob, who worked with Booby on his single ‘Slow Down’ which has since garnered the reputation as a true classic of the genre and cemented Bobby V’s status as an up and coming star.

Bobby V followed up on this hugely successful debut with an even bigger second album in 2007, under the title, ‘Special Occasion’, which garnered high praise from both critics and fans. By now Bobby V was reaching real stardom, featuring on the 2005 Scream Tour IV alongside huge names like Bow Wow, Pretty Ricky, B5, Marques Houston and Omarion.

Now a worldwide name, it made sense for Bobby to move camp to the major label EMI, on which he released his next album, ‘The Rebirth’, which featured the popular hit ‘Beep’. Having marked a new point in his career, Bobby V continued on his new trajectory with two more laudable R&B albums, 2011’s ‘Fly on the Wall’, which hit the Top 10 of the Billboard 100, and 2012’s ‘Dusk Till Dawn’. The 2012 release included Bobby V’s most famous collaboration, with none other than Lil Wayne on the track ‘Mirror’, on an album that took Bobby V away from familiar R&B territory, delving more into hip hop. Other such high profile collaborations include work with Timbaland and Nicki Minaj.

Having established himself as a huge name in the genre, Bobby has reflected on the state of R&B music today, musing that “R&B is in a weird place”, and feeling the need to take some time out “just sitting back a little bit and re-evaluating things”. Pointing to the years 2009 and 2010 as when the genre began to change with move towards omnipresent auto tune, Bobby V claims to have learned the ins and outs of R&B back in the 90s.

Bobby V remains a giant of the genre and a hugely influential figure today, with his latest release ‘Hollywood Hearts’ coming in the summer of 2015. To book Bobby V for a show, contact his booking agent at MN2S Agency in London.