The Bay Area hip-hop group SOB x RBE brought the energy of street tapes to their wildly popular late-’10s releases. Amid the success, the rap brotherhood fractured due to internal drama and other factors.
• SOB x RBE represents a union of two different teen crews: Strictly Only Brothers and Real Boi Entertainment. The group was formed by Yhung T.O., DaBoii, Slimmy B, and Lul G. • The group began recording music in T.O.’s grandmother’s garage in North Vallejo. • Kendrick Lamar personally enlisted SOB x RBE for 2018’s Black Panther: The Album. He flew the group to Los Angeles and collaborated with them on the track “Paramedic!” • “Paramedic!” was certified platinum after the Black Panther soundtrack was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards. • The foursome scored a gold plaque for “Calvin Cambridge,” off their self-titled 2017 debut album. The song pays homage to Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood.” • In September of 2018—the same year the group released the albums GANGIN and GANGIN II—Yhung T.O. announced that he was leaving SOB x RBE. He dropped the solo project Trust Issues that December. • The foursome—including Yhung T.O.—linked up with producer Hit-Boy for the 2019 joint project Family Not a Group. That same year, they released Strictly Only Brothers sans Lul G. • After leaving SOB x RBE in 2018, Lul G inked a deal with Def Jam Records.
