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Trending in Soulja Boy’s World

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Story

Quick Facts

Born
1990

From
United States of America

Journey

Born in Chicago, DeAndre Cortez Way revolutionized his path to stardom by leveraging the internet as a backdoor into the music industry rather than just a digital stage. His upbringing spanned Chicago, Atlanta, and Batesville, Mississippi, a nomadic youth that exposed him to a rich blend of Southern and midwestern sounds. Using the name Soulja Boy, he began putting his recordings online while still young, first attracting attention through platforms such as SoundClick, MySpace, and YouTube. Instead of waiting for radio or a record-company campaign to introduce him, he circulated songs himself and encouraged listeners to participate in the culture surrounding them. That strategy reached its decisive moment in 2007 with “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” Built around a spare, immediately recognizable beat and accompanied by a dance that audiences could reproduce themselves, the song spread through the emerging online video culture and eventually reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. The success brought Soulja Boy into the mainstream and led to his major-label debut, "souljaboytellem.com," released in October 2007. The album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and established him as more than the creator of a viral single. His subsequent albums, "iSouljaBoyTellem" (2008) and "The DeAndre Way" (2010), produced further commercial records, including “Kiss Me Thru the Phone,” “Turn My Swag On” and “Pretty Boy Swag.” Through subsequent mixtapes, independent releases, entrepreneurial ventures and continued public activity, Soulja Boy has maintained a career shaped by self-promotion and constant adaptation. His breakthrough remains a defining example of the moment when internet culture stopped merely supporting hip-hop and began helping determine who could break through.