For a festival which has featured hip-hop headliners in the past, Lollapalooza is playing it cool when it comes to hip-hop acts in 2010. Apart from B.o.B's opening set on Friday, other hip-hop acts for the three-day festival include J.Cole, Erykah Badu and Cypress Hill. Interesting, considering that in 2006, Kanye West headlined the festival and Lupe Fiasco and Consequence performed. Sure it was plagued by bad sound, but it also featured an epic shout out to his late mother, Donda West.

Having to carry a whole genre on his shoulders Friday, B.o.B. certainly delivered. The sea of spectators grew exponentially during his 45-minute set on the Adidas Mega Stage. Bobby Ray's energy was contagious too. Within seconds he had people waving their hands in the air to songs like 'Past My Shades,' off his recent 'B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray' and 'Satellite,' off his 'B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray' mixtape.

"This next song, it's about a soldier who goes to fight in the Vietnam War," B.o.B. told the crowd before playing the more R&B cut 'Letters From Vietnam.' "He writes his wife but she doesn't write back. He gets a letter from his cousin that his wife remarried and this is his story."

B.o.B wasn't all sentimental. He was sarcastic too. "Ok, guys relax. Just calm down here," he said before rebutting. "Come on! Don't calm down. Everybody make some noise!" He then revved it up again for his final four, a medley of his hits, so to speak -- 'Don't Let Me Fall,' 'Nothin' On You' and 'Airplanes.' After a rapid-fire freestyle, which appropriately ended with "My name is Bobby Ray and I'm a teach you how to flow," the rapper had indeed proven that he could hold the genre on his shoulders and finished with a genre-bending closer -- a cover of one of his favorite songs, MGMT's 'Kids.'

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