Soulja Boy off in this OH! Wait what!? Sure in class there appeared to be a strong dislike for Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way), but if we were all honest with ourselves, we would admit that we all liked Soulja Boy, and we were all trying to crank that when the song came on. I for one like Soulja Boy, so my question is what’s the problem? Clearly he doesn’t have any because Soulja Boy has been crankin’ that paper ever since “Crank That Soulja Boy” got picked up off YouTube.
In class, we established that a great number of rappers endured an early life of poverty, and hip-hop/rap was one of their only outlets of expression. We also established that today most raps seemed to be only concerned with bitches, hoes, and “gettn’ to the money”. These two establishments led to the questions of why do rappers always have to rap about “the struggle” and can they find other rhymes other than those that concern bitches, hoes, and “gettn’ to the money”. Then Soulja Boy comes along to answer the affirmative of those questions. Yes rappers don’t have to come from the struggle and can rap about things that are not degrading, but yet everyone turned their snooty little noses up at Soulja Boy.
Some artists went further than just turning up their noses. Rapper Ice T posted a video on YouTube telling Soulja Boy to eat a dick and accuses Soulja Boy of single handedly killing hip-hop. He later responded with an apology, but really Ice T, really? Ice T is not only a grown man, by a hip-hop great. Instead of telling Soulja Boy to eat a gential part, if he really cared about the state of hip-hop, he would have reached out to Soulja Boy in a much kinder way and tried to mentor him.
First of all, let’s realize that at the time of this fued between Ice T and Soulja Boy, Soulja Boy was only 17. Yes that’s right ladies and gentlemen, Soulja Boy was only born in 1990, so in his defense, hip-hip music was degrading long before he got to it. And if anything, Soulja Boy was only taking note from those that came before him. Let’s take a look at the top rap songs that were popular before this 2005 YouTube beef.
2003
- 1. 50 Cent- “In da Club”
- 2. Joe Budden- “Pump it Up”
- 3. Outkast- “Hey Ya”
- 4. Bone Crusher ft. Killer Mike & T.I. “Never Scared”
- 5. Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz “Get Low”
2004
- 1. Terror Squad (ft. Fat Joe & Remy Ma)- “Lean Back”
- 2. Snoop Dogg- “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
- 3. Juvenile- “Slow Motion”
- 4. Trick Daddy- “Let’s Go”
- 5. Twista- “Slow Jamz”
Interestingly enough, most of these songs are dance hits, the same type of “ringtone” music Soulja Boy was criticized for. Soulja boy might not have known exactly what it was like to be a gangsta in the club because he was only 17, but he did know what his young peers liked to do: DANCE!
Would I say that Soulja Boy single handedly killed hip-hop? No, because I say hip-hop is not dead. On the contrary, Soulja Boy greatly influenced hip-hop. After he burst onto the scene with hit after hit, hip-hop began to see a wave of artists producing dance records. Taking a brief trip down memory lane, we had the two-step by Unk and Ciara, the Dougie, the Stanky Leg and the many other plethora line dances.
So quit picking on Soulja Boy! I rather him rap about his speakers going hammer than how he killed another black man or savagely treated another black woman.
