A-TOWN REP-RAZENT!When Bradford Met Soulja Boy (Briefly)
Sorry, jaded white guy who professes to like rap music but can’t remember the other guy’s name out of Mobb Deep, but we love Soulja Boy. Since when did rap music being fun and goofy again become a bad thing? Ah yes, since out-of-touch old men like Ice-T and GZA started getting all grumpy about their nosediving sales and rapidly dimming limelight, that’s when.
I’m talking to all the white music journalists who went to the Wu-Tang reunion show last month and stood by the bar sipping flat Grolsch, trembling at the ten black people there. How come everybody thinks Lil Wayne is still good when his last record was boring? And all those rappers in their 30s doing expensive videos with hookers lapdancing in four-star hotel rooms while a guy from ’N Sync does some gay chorus? Please.
While these muppets desperately milk the shrivelled udder of the album sales cash-cow, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” was busy selling five million ringtones, making Soulja Boy the richest 17-year-old on the planet. His stripped-back, hook-laden party hip-pop and dance routines are the good-times antidote to the dragged-out sagas of most “major” rap albums that have emerged in the last year.
Anyway, we got our friend Bradford Cox from neighbouring Atlanta band Deerhunter to go meet DeAndre Ramone Way and shoot him for us at a recent studio session (with a camera, not a gun!).
Vice: What was it like having Soulja Boy freestyle at you for a whole shoot?
Bradford Cox: It was so rad. He ruled and his crew ruled. They would dance and act out what he was freestyling about like he had this troupe of interpretive dancers. They also pointed at him a lot. Like, “Here he is—listen to this guy”.
What was he rapping about?
You know, money, girls, guns and abstract ideas about cars. He also kept referring to weed as “cushington”.
What do you think of his music?
I might have dismissed it initially if my first impression had not been meeting the guy in person and seeing that he was a sincere and generally cool guy, but after a little research I’ve decided it rules. I also think it’s bullshit that all these people are accusing him of “killing” hip-hop. Not that my opinion on hip-hop is really that important or valid seeing as how I am a white kid from Marietta, but if he just wants to have a good time, hang out with his friends, make good music and be successful, what’s wrong with that?
If it had been a speed date how would you rate Soulja Boy?
Pretty sweet. I would say he was a good date, and I’d like to “see him again” or “stay friends”.
JAIMIE HODGSON
New Soulja Boy material will be out soon. myspace.com/souljaboytellem / souljaboytellem.com
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Jul 19, 2009 wrote:
waste | | Anonymous, on Dec 24, 2008 wrote:
hip hop is dead but this kid didn’t kill it. Fucking Laffy Taffy and anything else D4L has put out did way more to kill hip hop then this 17 yr old ass hole | |
| exitement, on Sep 26, 2008 wrote:
"LUPE, COMMON, AND COOL KIDS"?
i guess by leaving out Kanye you’re trying to make a statement, by i would interpret that as "I HATE GOOD MUSIC AND PREFER GAP MODELS." | |
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| neezy, on Sep 7, 2008 wrote:
soulja boy’s facial expression: what the hell is wrong with this white boy | | Anonymous, on Sep 2, 2008 wrote:
Did he Superman Bradford? | | Anonymous, on Sep 2, 2008 wrote:
I Love You Brad! | | Anonymous, on Sep 1, 2008 wrote:
I really hope this is some form of sick cruel joke, Vice... | | Anonymous, on Aug 28, 2008 wrote:
Soulja Boy cant be called hip hop in any shap or form...hip pop is very suited to this post pubic pric...the game, nas, busta, lil wayne - what the fuck happened to them aswell! LONG LIVE CHI-TOWN HIP HOP LUPE, COMMON & COOL KIDS | | Anonymous, on Aug 25, 2008 wrote:
meh, he might be a totally cool guy to chill with but his music still sucks | | Anonymous, on Aug 22, 2008 wrote:
Bronwyn Cox? Bradford Popp? | | Anonymous, on Aug 22, 2008 wrote:
Why dont you aging B-Boys fuck off back to the Hip Hop Connection Forum and VICE get rid of that wasteman Prancehall and start writing about Dot Rotten. | | Anonymous, on Aug 22, 2008 wrote:
Rap sucks these days, bring back the sugar hill gang you fuckin knock offs! | | Anonymous, on Aug 22, 2008 wrote:
vice supports soulja boy!?
<shakes head> | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
i did not hear that cunt ryhme anymore than 2 or 3 times in "crank da" and ryhming "ooohhhhh" with "oohhhhh" doesnt count. go to hell soulja boy | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
super soak dat hoooo! | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
So you admit you find black kids intimidating then? The last I heard of KRS he was performing at some shit Drum n Bass night in the sticks. Hip Hop lives! | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
the majority of popular rap is completely absurd. if you think soulja boy is a better rapper than krs then you are a fucking fool regardless of your social class or race. (and when did asian kids become intimidating?) | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
that shit aint hip hop | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
They also pointed at him a lot. Like, “Here he is—listen to this guy”.
Bradford rules, you should make him a permanent correspondent. | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
Ha, fucking Blue Scholars...you can catch this guy passionately explaining the difference between "hip hop" and "rap" at parties. And that is why I prefer "rap". YAH TRICK, YAAAH!! | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
Middleclass wiggers such as the dude below are intimidated by Southern hip hop and Grime because black and asian kids actually listen to it and not fucking KRS1, Foreign Beggars and Jhest and the other shit they listen to. KRS hasn’t been relevant since Edutainment. Fuck you and your Addict backpack! | | Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2008 wrote:
The term "hip-pop" is appropriate for Soulja Boy, because his music is shallow and lacks substance like most pop. The most relevant hip hop is socially and politically conscious like Public Enemy and KRS-One. Over the hill rappers who’ve already made their dough like Ice T aren’t relevant either. If you want to hear true hip hop now you have to go underground and find artists like the Blue Scholars who combine thoughtful lyrics with rhyme skill and speak truth to power--which is what the most important art does. So yeah fuck Soulja Boy and fuck you vice for being out of touch. | | Anonymous, on Aug 19, 2008 wrote:
Never minded Soulja Boy, but hated T-Pain at first in a he-killed-the-game kind of way. Many joints / drinks / parties / hangouts later he is the jam. | | Anonymous, on Aug 19, 2008 wrote:
bronwyn?!?!? how u know soulja? | | Anonymous, on Aug 19, 2008 wrote:
soulja boy is crap.
killing hip hop. | | Anonymous, on Aug 19, 2008 wrote:
Kush-ington? | | Anonymous, on Aug 19, 2008 wrote:
lol@u says: goddam I saw gza last winter and he was on about some weak ass mc, I forget who. But he spent a good 15 minutes of this show just calling that guy a biatch and this and that. it was pretty pathetic. and liquid swords is one of my all time favorite albums. fucking sad that show made me. | | Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2008 wrote:
i know how to crank dat. | | Anonymous, on Aug 18, 2008 wrote:
i wonder if he gave him a deerhunter cd. | | | Next 30 comments > |
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