If any of you have been on Twitter or any form of social media in the last week or two you may have seen the interview with rapper Soulja Boy on the Breakfast Club. If you haven’t seen the interview you may have seen the memes floating around.

Soulja Boy has been memified, mocked and ridiculed on Twitter for not only the interview but his various business ventures throughout the past couple of years. It’s easy to overlook and forget everything that Soulja did for the current climate of music.

In the breakfast club interview Soulja Boy makes the claim of how influential he is to other rappers, He backs this claim up by showing how fellow rapper Drake used his exact same flow in his song “Miss Me.”

Drake’s Verse in “Miss Me” (2010)

I said “Tell me what’s really goin’ on”
Drizzy back up in this thing, I’m ready,

what’s hannenin’?

 

Soulja Boy’s verse in “What’s Hannenin” (2007)

Tell me what’s really going on
 Soulja Boy up in this thing, I’m ready
 What’s hannenin’?

Soulja boy even took this claim a step further by saying that Ariana Grande copied his flow from his song “Pretty Boy Swag” in her new song “7 Rings.” This caused a huge backlash on Twitter from people just saying it was a coincide. While this may or may not be true, I think it’s important to acknowledge the impact that Soulja Boy did have on music.

DeAndre Cortez Way better known under the stage name of Soulja Boy is most well known for his hit songs “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”, “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” and “Pretty Boy Swag.” What makes Soulja impactful is the way he distributed and promoted his music.

Soulja Way was one of the first artist to use internet platforms as a way to distribute and promote his music. Before Soulja Boy signed with his record label, he already managed to have buzz surrounding his name due to his popularity on Youtube.  His single “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” garnered over tens of millions of views on YouTube, which was a first for a relatively unknown artist. Within the first year of the release of “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” it had set the record for most digital downloads in the U.S. with over three million units sold, which made him the first rapper to achieve this. He was one of the first artist to use YouTube as a platform, which inspired other artists to use YouTube as a means of breaking into the music industry.

Soulja Boy was also the first artist to bring in the style of mumble rap (simplistic lyrics, catchy refrains, and sparse production) that other aspiring rappers began mimicking. Soulja Boy can be considered the founder of mumble rap.

Before ridiculing and mocking musicians of the past that have seemingly fallen off don’t forget all they have done to pave the way for the modern rappers of today. While Soulja boy may be nothing but a meme today, he is a pioneer in the modern rap era. He set the way for soundcloud rappers. (I still don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing just yet.)