For his debut album MANIFEST, Bobby Sessions went to the legendary Westlake Recording Studios in West Hollywood, California, to channel all the greatness that was recorded there. The No. 1 selling album of all-time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, was created at Westlake, and it was the ideal place for Sessions to record and make the best project he could with MANIFEST.
“In using the tools of visualization, I would imagine Billboard having a story on the 50 greatest debut albums of all time, and I imagine myself clicking that article and seeing MANIFEST there,” Sessions tells us of the newly-released effort. “We were in such an incredible zone for this album that this was the least amount of work I have ever done putting an album together. It was the most effortless thing ever.”
Bobby Sessions has a robust music catalog, but nothing he’s created compares to this major-label debut album. Released on Friday (June 11), MANIFEST is what Bobby Sessions describes as the soundtrack to manifesting one’s dreams. The album centers around the law of attraction — the idea that people can acquire anything they put their focus on. For Sessions, it’s a full-circle moment for the Dallas native whose practice of manifestation got him to this particular moment in his career.
In 2014, Sessions began applying that law of attraction when he wrote “Def Jam” on a dry-erase board, in hopes that his music career would take off. A year later, he dropped his debut project, LOA (Law Of Attraction), and Sessions had a Grammy Award drawn into the cover art. After years of focusing on his craft and believing he would achieve everything he wanted, Sessions signed with Def Jam Records in 2018 and won a Grammy in 2021 for his contributions to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage (Remix).”
Some critics believe the law of attraction is pseudoscience with no basis in fact, but Sessions’ experience says otherwise, and MANIFEST tells that story. Sessions wants people to view MANIFEST in the same lens books such as The Secret and Think and Grow Rich are looked at, just in music form — using it as a guide to manifest their dreams whether it’s building a business or getting a cup of coffee.
“MANIFEST ranks No. 1 in my discography without question. It’s the best body of work I’ve released thus far, and I think by a pretty sizable margin,” Sessions tells Billboard. “I think all the timing and experience on my previous projects led me to figure out how to get my messaging across in a more entertaining way with a perspective that can connect with a lot more people.”
To create an album that he touts as “the best album of 2021,” Sessions had to take action, one of the key concepts of manifestation. According to Sessions, everything about this album is a form of manifestation. MANIFEST was recorded over 10 days at Westlake Studios, a place with a history that oozes creative energy.
On “Gold Rolex,” Sessions makes a claim he’s the best rapper in the game and goes toe-to-toe with Benny the Butcher and Freddie Gibbs, two MCs that many fans consider elite. As he relays to Billboard, “You can’t call yourself the best rapper in the world and not rap with the best rappers in the world.”
The album opener “Penthouse Prayers” featuring Rick Ross is another example of Sessions turning his dreams into reality. The Grammy Award-winning rapper says he’s a fan of classic album intros, and he believes he has that here, alongside one of his favorite rappers of all-time.
“Rick Ross is the GOAT of luxury rap, and hearing him inspires me to dream bigger — so him being there is really some law of attraction s–t,” says Sessions. “Trilla was the first rap album I ever bought, and my favorite Ross album is Teflon Don. Rapping with him on the song, and making the music video, is a dream come true moment — and a true moment of manifestation.”
With MANIFEST, Bobby Sessions is the best version of himself. He first spoke about manifestation and its basics on LOA (Law Of Attraction), which opened the door for him to get to this point in his career. Even though his life is drastically different seven years later, he continues to manifest his dreams like it’s 2014.
“MANIFEST is discovering you are the light at the end of the tunnel,” says Sessions. “Knowing that this album would be the first time a lot of new people hear Bobby Sessions, it’s only right that this body of work represents me the most and shows what I’ve been doing since I came into this.”
He continues, “I’m motivated because this is a job that needs to be done, and it’s something that I’m genuinely passionate about. I dealt with what I feel like was the worst enemy that I would ever encounter, which was my negative thoughts and self-doubt. But I conquered that, and I hope MANIFEST helps others do that.”
