Baller Alert Exclusive: Soulja Boy Talks New #SouljaBoyChallenge and Opens Up About Changing Hip-Hop: “I Showed These Artists How To Be Social Media Famous and Social Media Savvy” 

Back in 2007, Soulja Boy released his debut single, “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” from his debut studio album, “www.souljaboytellem.com.” The song spent seven weeks at number on Billboard Hot 100 and even received a nomination for Best Rap Song at the 50th Grammy Awards.

One year later, the song became the first song ever to sell 3 million digital copies and was eventually named the 23rd most successful song of the 2000s on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade. 

Fueled by an instructional YouTube dance video, which garnered over 27 million views, the song and dance became “the biggest dance fad since the Macarena,” which, in turn, earned the Mississippi-bred rapper the title of Godfather of Internet Rap. 

But now, after a few years out of the limelight and more than ten years since breaking the Internet, Soulja Boy is back to reclaim his crown. 

In a recent interview with Baller Alert, Soulja opened up his return as a viral sensation, his new projects, his appearance on Marriage Boot Camp and more. 

“I didn’t even try to go viral,” Soulja said of the new ‘Soulja Boy Challenge. “I was just speaking on something real. I feel like I had the biggest comeback of 2018, and everybody was talking about Tyga.” 

While Soulja did acknowledge Tyga had a good 2018 – because of his hit record – but “his comeback was not as big as mine,” he said. “I came back from triumph, through trials and tribulations, I rose through the concrete, I rose through adversity.” 

“People thought it was over cause of Chris Brown and Migos beef,” he continued. “Now that I’m back and I got a new record deal and a new TV show, and a new endorsement deal with FashionNova and a new movie deal with AMC theaters, I had the biggest comeback.” 

As Soulja continued, he then opened up about his recent rant about Kanye West, in which he said Kanye jacked his swag. 

“I know he did,” Soulja said. “I’m younger so, of course, the older generation going to watch the younger generation.” 

“I was the first artist on the Internet, I was the first rapper on Youtube,” Soulja continued. “I showed these artists how to be social media famous and social media savvy.”

“I’m the reason why record labels are doing streaming now,” he added. “They said that I killed hip-hop, what I really did was change hip-hop.” 

Check out the full episode below: