By now you should've heard of DeAndre Ramone Way, better known as Soulja Boy Tell'em, because even the NY Times has taken a liking to the 17-year-old (they also note that he'll irritate "hip hop purists"). Just yesterday he was able to fend off Britney's march to the top of Billboard's singles chart by keeping her at bay with his very own "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" still at No. 1.
But I'm not totally convinced this kid wasn't created in a lab by Mr. Collipark, the producer behind the hardcore rhymes of Ying Yang Twins' "Wait (The Whisper Song)," David Banner's "Play" and now Soulja Boy's souljaboytellem.com. Doesn't it seem like a jump to go from porn-rap to Jermaine Dupri-style kiddie rap? Maybe not ($$$). Regardless, Soulja Boy is huge, so Vibe took to cataloging how he got so popular. It's not all interesting, so I've summarized the highlights:
* During the first two months of 2006, Soulja Boy opened up accounts on Youtube and MySpace, but it wasn't until March of this year that he recorded his signature tune, which he said originally "meant something else that I can't say." Any guesses as to what "Superman dat hoe" might mean? I'm all ears.
* By May of this year, Soulja Boy had seen everyone from Beyonce, to Sam Jackson and Chris Brown doing their versions of the ‘Crank That' dance. That reminds me that you can also catch mashups of the song played alongside video clips of Barney, Spongebob Squarepants and Winnie the Pooh in addition to watching the entire Texas Longhorns football squad cranking that - which they no doubt learned from Soulja Boy's low budget instructional video. But most importantly during May, Soulja Boy signed to Collipark Music.
* On September 1, Soulja Boy reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and now, a month later, he's held it for four non-consecutive weeks, keeping Kanye West and Britney Spears out of the top spot. In addition, he's also got the top spot on the Billboard Hot Ring Masters chart. Now it's easy to see why 50 wants a ride on those coattails.
