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Soulja Boy - SouljaboytellemAlbum Review by:
Pharoh Talib
Friday, October 12, 2007
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Hip-hop purists were already pissed off at the avalanche of ring-tone raps and ATL dance songs that have been overwhelming radio airwaves over the past year. But when Soulja Boy came out of nowhere and dominated the charts critics were dumbfounded when they found out that even Sam Jackson couldn’t resist trying to “Superman that hoe”. The grass roots marketing team behind Soulja Boy did a wonderful job of bringing him from Myspace to the mainstream. Because of his internet buzz Soulja became an underground phenomenon among Youtube-addicted youngsters, which led to his signing to Mr. Collipark, who’s responsible for “. Staying true to his internet roots Soulja Boy named his debut album Souljaboytellem.com, which is genius in itself as it becomes an instant website plug wherever the album is listed.
On the heels of the viral success of the self-produced “Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)” the 17-year-old producer knows what works for him and so he doesn’t stray far from his down-bottom, high-energy formula of when recording his Colliepark/Interscope debut. Listening to this album without understanding the club and youth culture that dominates Atlanta may lead some to automatically discount Souljaboytellem.com as a legitimate Hip-Hop album but it’s an album that stays as true to A-town’s ass-shakin’ roots as any. People tend to forget that the job of the original New York MC was to simply hype the crowd with simple call-and-response phrases while the DJ does his thing. Much of the club music from the bottom of the map does the same thing. Think of Soulja Boy as sort of a Lil-Jon for teenagers and pre-teens, that means don’t expect to hear much in the way of metaphors and narratives just crunk-ass music.
Colliepark describes Soulja’s music as “fun” and that’s exactly what it is- 14 tracks of chant-heavy hooks fused with simple one-fingered keyboard melodies and down-bottom snares, kicks, and claps. It’s a hip-hop dance album in every sense of the word but quality guest appearances of artists not named Arab would’ve upgraded the album tremendously. While most of the production shows that Soulja Boy is a more than capable producer he is barely tolerable as a rapper. So don’t expect a lot of substance on this album…as a matter of fact don’t expect anything- just dance. Listening to the album it seems that no less than half of the album contains songs that are some spin-off of “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”, including the intro track. The “yuuuah” that dominates “Crank Dat” is recycled more than a couple of times (“Snap and Roll” and “Soulja Girl”) and he also rehashes the line about his Bathing Apes for the chorus for “Bapes”, essentially a free 4-minute promotion for the Japanese clothing brand.
You never forget this album is helmed by an underage kid because most of the subject matter undeniably juvenile. “So get out my face you doo-doo head dummy” is an actual lyric. On the Colliepark-produced “Sidekick” Soulja donates even more of his album space for free advertising talk about his Sidekick 3, even plugging his t-mobile address. “I can’t believe that I’m rappin’ about a phone and won’t you believe is that I wrote this song (on my Sidekick)” Yes we do. Soulja Boy employs an elementary flow that’s reminiscent of Yung Joc when he raps. Not much thought seems to be put into a majority of the lyrics. With the exception of a couple of songs, most of the heavily southern-accented lyrics on the album are nothing more than cleverly crafted dance instructions or only serve vocal filler until the chorus comes back. The lyrics that are essentially different variations of ‘girl turn around and shake it’ sprinkled with a little ‘how we do in Atlanta’. “They wonder why they son or they daughter got they name on they shades or wonder why they only wear Bathing Apes or why they sit at the computer watching Soulja Boy all day”. On “Let Me Get At Em”, Collipark does the responsible thing and begins the track with a public service announcement stating that the “Shoot out” is a dance and not a promoting violence. Song titles like “Donk” and “Booty Meat” are obvious selections if you just went down the track list looking for songs that do nothing except make the donkey move mindlessly.
The best song outside of the album’s hit single is “Report Card”, which playfully uses “Throw Some Ds” in its hook. But instead of talking about rims Soulja Boy cleverly uses the Rich Boy sample to ask his teacher to raise his bad ass grades up from Fs to Ds. The last track on the album is Soulja Boy’s most revealing. On “Don’t Get Mad” the Atlanta teen shakes off the grown haters quipping “Don’t get mad ‘cuz you kids like me”. “If you don’t get it by the end of this song you won’t get it”, he says. And that’s the bottom line. At the end the day this album is what it is. If you’re a 106th and Park faithful or just a fan southern dance music then this album is a decent pick-up but if you’re more of the ‘drink and two-step’-type then save your money and brain cells.
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