Grammy® Winner Bobby Sessions Releases Debut Album, ‘Manifest’ Via High Standardz / Def Jam Recordings

Image Credit: Cover Art

Revolutionary Grammy Award®-winning Dallas rapper Bobby Sessions releases MANIFEST, his label debut album via High Standardz / Def Jam Recordings. The album is the ultimate result of his deeply-rooted idea of manifestation, that he can turn his dreams into reality by envisioning them. It’s a theme that weaves throughout his music and takes center stage on MANIFEST, a collection of sharp, affecting songs that mix soul samples with a bubbly trap bounce.

MANIFEST finds Bobby serving up more vividly realized bars than ever before, while still managing to sneak wisdom and grace into every verse. It’s the sort of record that sounds like something he’s been working his whole life to make, full of songs meant to bring dreams to life. The album includes his two most recent single + video releases, “Gold Rolex,” a collaboration with Benny The Butcher & Freddie Gibbs (May), and its predecessor, “Cog In the Machine” (March).

MANIFEST was created in a span of 10 days during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Bobby and his team locked in at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood, in the same room where Michael Jackson recorded Thriller more than three decades earlier. Champagne and cookies were consumed every night, and in Bobby’s words, “God was in the room. I knew this music had to be amazing or the ghosts in this room were going to be very disappointed.”

2021 brought Bobby his first career Grammy Award® for Best Rap Song as co-writer of Megan Thee Stallion & Beyoncé’s landmark RIAA platinum “Savage Remix.” Bobby and Meg continued to collaborate on “I’m A King,” lead single from the Coming 2 America Original Motion Picture Soundtrack album on Def Jam.

This breakthrough year for Bobby also saw the climax of his collaboration with Marvel Comics, as his original three-page character-driven story about Black Panther debuted within issue #24 in March. It was part of the final three-issue “Intergalactic Empire” saga of Marvel’s Black Panther comics series, from the acclaimed guest creative team of writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Daniel Acuna.

MANIFEST builds on the impact of the RVLTN series of controversial EPs that began after Bobby signed to Def Jam in 2018: RVLTN – Chapter 1: The Divided States of AmeriKKKa, RVLTN – Chapter 2: The Art of Resistance, and RVLTN (Chapter 3): The Price of Freedom, including the original “Made A Way.” The track was featured in EA’s FIFA 2021 interactive game trailer, and later segued into the “Made A Way (Remix)” featuring fellow Texas MC Lecrae (now included on MANIFEST.

Bobby first won 4-star praise in 2018, for “The Hate U Give,” his title track (featuring Keite Young) from the critically acclaimed motion picture’s all-star soundtrack album released on Def Jam. Prior to that, Sessions had attracted nationwide attention with his first two incendiary singles for the label, “Like Me” and “Pick A Side.”

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