Soulja Boy is still here.
Truthfully, it is a feat that may didn’t think the teen rapper could overcome when he emerged in 2007. In 2010 and two more albums, the young rapper has emerged as a leader in a youth movement and a decidedly different sound for Hip-Hop. Now 20 years old, Soulja Boy presents The DeAndre Way the latest installment in his discography. AllHipHop.com got the rapper on a number of topics. To see the video or the entire interview, scroll to the bottom of this page.
How Soulja Boy’s music has grown in the last three years.
“I was in the studio with Kanye and Cudi, in New York, I was in the studio with 50 out in Cali, I was in the studio with studio with Snoop, I worked with Boi-1da and he came through and dropped like 75 beats on my hard drive. I was writing through my whole process, I was using a perspective, and I was writing on a Boi-1da beat and I just really sat there and thought about how I wanted my listeners to view that “Speakers goin Hammer” is a single that he produced and its crazy because I just shot a video like two weeks ago in Cali and I saw a edit, like rough cut from that so, I think that is going to be dope, yall look out for that.”
SB speaks on the intangibles of the grind.
“I try to stay on top of my game and be a trendsetter in hip hop, you know what I mean? For me, today I woke up on the tour bus, I hopped up out the bed on the tour bus, I got fresh threw my clothes on, got my shoes together, I had to do an early morning radio show, I had to do meet and greets with DJ’s, take pictures with the fans and I was just really promoting my new music.”
Touring and recording on the run.
“I been making music and making beats, but I like been hitting the hotel and recording. I been making beats and before I went on the first official day on my promo tour, I went to Guitar Center and spent like $10,000 on equipment. Like I need the best mic, best speakers, I need this, I need that. Like I am going to be on the road for this amount of time, and Keri Hilson, she been buzzing me like “Yo I need to do this verse for me.” So I was just like look man, lets go to Guitar Center so I can be on the go recording because these people need these features, so that’s how I got this set up.”
The song on The Deandre Way that may make you cry.
“I had a lot of different listening sessions, one of the tracks, I had someone bust into tears, and one of the songs other people really congratulated me on the song called, ‘I Deserve a Grammy’ ft. Ester Dean, and it’s the last song on the album, The Deandre Way, and the production on the song is just really pictured everything that I wanted from the kick to the clap to the chords to the treble, everything. Once she stepped in the booth, and once I heard her voice, and vocals, it really just hit a nerve and made me feel a kind of way and the intro to the song is pic and you can hear the audio clip from CNN and they took and audio clip from it and you can hear the strings behind it and that’s a song that really stood out to me, I think that people will look at me on a different level as far as a lyricist and as far as an artist the way I opened up musically on that.”
How The DeAndre Way is different from the others.
“So I think if you cop my album The Deandre Way on November 30 th, look for the song, I deserve a Grammy. I took it on a more personal level. If you look at my album, SouljaBoyTellem.com, look at my second album iSouljaBoyTellem, if you look at this third album, its like I am becoming more personal and more real and telling people about my life as a human being, not as a super star. I think all my fans, I know all my fans are going to feel that.”
What comes after the album.
“November 30th is my album, I’m really pushing that, The Deandre Way, and I’m doing a mixtape called Soulja Society, and I leaked the artwork via Twitter and really got a good response from that. People are waiting to hear about that, Lil B, he is dropping a SOD album called Thraxkiss, and it’s going to be through SODMG Records, and Jbar is dropping his album 2011. My movie hits theaters in 2011. Its called “The Deandre Way” and its going to be on DVD and these people have been pitching me this movie idea for so long, and now I am letting them orchestrate my art and tell my story and let people see it on the big screen. A lot of people say ‘Soulja Boy is a one hit wonder, and he’s lucky’, and its not even about music, not even just about me, it about a success story, but its about a true story from the bottom to the top a true success story.”