in a recent phone interview. "I might fall off in the
mall, even though I might get chased by a bunch of
girls. I just walk in the mall and straight be shopping
like it ain't nothing" He laughs, then jokingly adds,
"Or I'll probably be in the airport and steal a car or
something and ride around inside." He laughs again.
Being the latest teen phenomena must be nice! But
seriously, the swagger in his voice
shows that the seventeen year old
cutie from Atlanta, GA is comfortable
with his very first single "Crank That
(Soulja Boy)" hitting number one
on Billboards top 100. Just three
years ago, Deandre Cortez Way
and his hype man on the road, Arab
began hustling their music via the
internet. The love that they received
back from listeners inspired Soulja
Boy to set up his website www.
souljaboytellem.com. One listener
in particular, by the name of Mr.
Collipark, took Soulja Boy under
his wing, signed him to Interscope
records and the rest is going to be a
part of Hip Hop History. Here is what
he told FLOSS.
three years, how did you start
recording?
pulling out my songs in my house
on my computer. I recorded my first
songs in my bedroom.
this, but critics are calling your
music `ringtone raps', especially
"Crank That" how do feel about
this?
a ringtone rapper, an album rapper,
showcase rapper, stage rapper, all that bull, but
when they see the numbers that my album Soulja
Boy Tell `Em is going to do, all that talk right there
will stop. I can see why they would say that "Crank
that" is ringtone rap because it's the number one
ringtone in the country right now. It did 250,000 in
one week so that's all they can say until my album
show and proves them wrong.
do you drive?
had the time to get a car. I see no point in getting a
car because I'm not going to have time to drive it;
I'm never home.
or something like that.
see people enjoying your music and doing your
dance?
enjoying themselves to something that I created. To
it, T-Pain, Chris Brown and other celebrities like
that. When I see them taking the time to put it in
their show, it makes me feel real good. When I'm
doing a show and everybody is rocking to it, it's a
wonderful feeling that I can't explain.
doing their thing right now and I got respect
for everybody. Now that I'm number one on the
charts, I know that a lot of people are coming for
that spot. For two weeks now "Crank that" has
been the number one song in the country. I'm just
going to try to remain on top, so I'm going to do
whatever I have to do to stay on top. I just dropped
waiting for that to hit number one
too.
but I'm sure that you know
real Hip Hop when you hear it.
Do you think Hip Hop is dead?
How do you feel about Nas'
comment?
understand why he would say
something like that. I know he
probably feel that way because
Hip Hop ain't where he wants it
to be. But I have not heard any
other artist say that besides Nas,
so I don't know why he feels that
way. If he could explain a little that
would help. Me? I'm just doing my
thing. I'm on my new Hip Hop
thing, the new generation of Hip
Hop, that's what I'm calling it.
track on your album?
that" because that was my first
breakthrough single. I produced
90 percent of my album and I
got a couple of upcoming artists
that I produced, that are going to
be dropping their albums pretty
soon. I got beats going right now;
it's pretty crazy.
business ventures.
the Soulja Boy shades, The Soulja Boy clothing
line is coming, I have Souja Boy TV coming. I've
been going to power meetings, so I have some
movies, TV shows and stuff like that coming up
that I can't really speak on. I have my label Stake
on Big Entertainment and you can look forward to
my artist Arab coming in 2008. I'm the executive
producer of his album, The Well. The people will
be seeing a lot more of Soulja Boy coming in the
near future.