Detroit rapper Royce 5’9″ releases a new video for his single, “Boblo Boat” feat. J. Cole today and announces his forthcoming album, Book of Ryan, (Entertainment One/Heaven Studios, Inc.) on May 4, 2018. J. Cole also directed the video for the track.
Complex.com shared the cover art and track listing last week, and Royce released the single on Friday. On “Boblo Boat,” Royce warmly looks back at his childhood growing up in the D, a proud, blue collar city that has not always received the most positive of accolades. Royce transports listeners back to a time in the ‘80s when families could take a boat ride to Boblo Island and forget, for just a few hours, the stinging realities of life for black folks in Ronald Reagan’s greed-is-good America. “The song came together super organically,” he says of the heartfelt “Boblo Boat.” “There was a boat back in the days that took people across the Detroit River to these little obscure islands. One of the islands, Boblo, housed a poor man’s amusement park where a lot of young black kids would go. It was the best shit ever. We didn’t realize it was a cheaper option looking back at it in retrospect. We were too busy having fun.”
