Soulja Boy

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About

Soulja Boy is an American rapper, recording artist and entrepreneur.

History

Soulja Boy began his rap career in 2005, uploading songs to the website SoundClick.^[1] On March 15th, 2006, he uploaded his first video to YouTube. Within 12 years, the video received more than 753,000 views (shown below).

On May 2nd, 2007, Soulja Boy released "Crank That (Soulja Boy)." The song quickly became Soulja Boy's first hit, spending seven weeks at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 ranking of album sales and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song.^[1] While the original video has since been removed from YouTube, a re-upload of the video, which was posted on November 22nd, 2009, has received more than 375 million views in ten years (shown below, left).

On June 21st, 2011, Soulja Boy released a trailer for Soulja Boy: The Movie, a biographical documentary about the rapper. Within the decade, the trailer for the film, which was released on October 18th, 2011, and received more than 693,000 views.

SouljaGame

On December 5th, Soulja Boy, aka DeAndre Cortez Way, announced the release of the SouljaGame consoles via a link on his Twitter account (shown below).

Quickly, internet users quickly discovered that the SouljaGame and SouljaGame handheld, emulators with 800 and 3,000 titles, respectively, were, in fact, identical to emulators by a company called ANBERNIC rebranded with SouljaBoy's name and marked up in price.^[2]^[3] This led to speculation that SouljaBoy was buying the emulators in bulk and selling them at a higher price as a scam.^[4] On December 15th, he announced two more consoles: the SouljaGame Fuze and the Mini.^[5] The Mini is another emulator from ANBERNIC, though the Fuze does not appear to be an ANBERNIC product. It is unclear if the Fuze has any games on it. Nintendo reportedly threatened legal action against Soulja Boy,^[4] though it's unclear if this is, in fact, the case. However, if Soulja Boy is found in violation of Trademark Counterfeiting Act, he could face a lengthy prison sentence. In response to a potential lawsuit, he said that they would do nothing, claiming "Nintendo ain’t gon do SHIT" (shown below), as well as claiming that “Nothings going to happen everything is legit” in a now-deleted tweet.^[6]

Drake?!?

On January 16th, 2019, Soulja Boy appeared on the Breakfast Club radio show. During the interview, after being asked a question about rappers Meek Mill and Drake, Soulja Boy stood up from the microphone and yelled in a high-pitched voice "Drake?!?" Within a month, the video of the interview received more than 13 million views.

That day, people online began using a screenshot of Soulja Boy in the interview and mimicking his vocal inflections. For example, Instagram ^[7] account @meme.shake posted an image macro of Soulja Boy with the caption "Job: could you stay till – Me: Staaaaayyy?" The post received more than 1,600 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). Over the next week, others used the screenshot and phrasal template, helping its popularity grow (examples below, center and right).

On January 25th, artist Colton Valentine posted a mural of the screenshot that he painted on the side on a sports bar wall in San Antonio, Texas. The post received more than 1,900 likes on Instagram^[8] and was reported by Uproxx,^[9] Complex,^[10] San Antonio Current^[11] and more (shown below, left).

On January 26th, the Soulja Boy "Draaake?!?" meme was parodied on an episode of Saturday Night Live. Within one week, an upload of the parody received more than 947,000 views (shown below, right).

SouljaGame

SouljaGame refers to the multiple game consoles branded by rapper Soulja Boy. The consoles were quickly identified as poorly-made emulators which already existed, only rebranded with SouljaBoy's name and sold for more than they are elsewhere. The consoles gained widespread attention following a JonTron video about the subject (shown below).

I'm So Fresh You Can Suck My Nuts

I'm So Fresh, You Can Suck My Nuts a catchphrase that originated from the song So Fresh by DeAndre Cortez Way that was used in the Brody Quest mashup "Soulja Quest." The phrase is commonly used in animated GIFs and image macros featuring characters throwing their elbows and torso back and forth (shown below).

Bitch I Look Like Goku

Bitch I Look Like Goku an exploitable catchphrase and lyrical reference to Soulja Boy's 2010 hip hop single "Goku," a musical tribute to the protagonist character in the popular Japanese manga / anime series Dragon Ball Z.