DeAndre Ramone Way (born July 28, 1990), better known by his stage name Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, dancer, and record producer. In September 2007, his single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was initially self-published on the Internet, and it became a number-one hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks starting in September 2007.

Biography

Early life

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em was born in Chicago and moved to Atlanta at age six, where he became interested in rap music. At age 14, he moved to Batesville, Mississippi with his father, who provided a recording studio for Way to explore his musical ambitions.

Career

In November 2005, Way posted his songs on the website SoundClick. Following positive reviews on the site, he then established his own web pages on YouTube and MySpace. In March 2007, he recorded "Crank That" and released his first independent album Unsigned & Still Major: Da Album Before da Album, followed by a low-budget video filmed demonstrating the "Crank That dance". By the end of May 2007, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" received its first airplay and Way met with Mr. Collipark to sign a deal with Interscope Records.

On August 12, 2007, the song appeared on the Emmy-award winning HBO series Entourage, and by September 1, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot RingMasters charts. Way's major label debut album Souljaboytellem.com, which was reportedly recorded using just the demo version of FL Studio, was released in the United States on October 2, peaking at #4 on both the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. On December 9, 2007, Way was sued by William Lyons (aka Souljah Boy of Mo Thugs) who claims he first created the stage name "Souljah Boy".

For the 50th Grammy Awards, Way was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song with "Crank That (Soulja Boy)". He lost to Kanye West's and T-Pain's "Good Life".

Souljaboytellem.com received a favorable review from Allmusic but received mainly negative ones, such as from Entertainment Weekly. Several reviewers credited Soulja Boy with spearheading a new trend in hip-hop, while speculating he will likely be a one-hit wonder.

Critics and hip-hop figures such as Snoop Dogg and Method Man cite Soulja Boy as artistically typical of contemporary rap trends such as writing for the lucrative ringtone market, and the ascendence of "Southern hip hop", emphasizing catchy music that discards rap's traditional emphasis on message. Soulja Boy identifies his goal as making upbeat, party-themed music that avoids the negative, violent image that he sees in most hip-hop. Despite this, his music has been banned from some school dances for sexual, violent content or innuendo. However, he has denied these claims. In the original YouTube video for "Shootout," Soulja Boy demonstrates his dance while holding a handgun in each hand and pretending to shoot into the audience.

In June 2008, on DJ Cisco’s Urban Legend mixtape, Ice-T criticized Way for "killing hip-hop" and his song "Crank That" for being "garbage" compared to the works of other hip-hop artists such as Rakim, Das EFX, Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube. Way then responded in a YouTube video by mocking Ice-T's age saying "we Wikipedia-ed this nigga, this nigga was born in 1958...you was born before the Internet was created; how the fuck you even find me?" Way, who seemed to be reading the Wikipedia article about Ice-T as he spoke, frequently punctuated his comments with laughter. Ice-T proceeded to offer a video response to Way's reaction in which he made an apology for the harsh comment, but many felt it was a backhanded apology, because at the end of the video Ice-T's son appeared reiterating the same negative comment that Ice-T had stated in the mixtape. However Ice-T did not apologize for his critique on Way's music even as to go so far as reiterating his belief that Way's music was "garbage." Rapper Kanye West defended Way by arguing that Soulja Boy created a new, original work for hip-hop, thus keeping the authentic meaning of the music. Way followed suit by posting another video on the Internet in the form of a cartoon mocking Ice-T and ridiculing a video clip of Ice-T dancing.

The follow-up to souljaboytellem.com, iSouljaBoyTellem, was released on December 16, 2008 to negative critical reception. The first single from the album, "Bird Walk", peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and the top 20 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. "Kiss Me Thru the Phone", with Sammie, followed, peaking at #3 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Rap Tracks charts.

On December 30, 2008, Soulja Boy was robbed and assaulted in his home. Initial reports indicated that the robbers were six masked men with AK-47s and pistols but on December 31, 2008, video clips surfaced on the Internet of two masked men claiming sole credit for the crime. Soulja Boy described the incident to MTV News a month later: He had come home very late at night after attending an album release party and was recording songs with friends when the robbers came in pointing their guns.

The DeAndre Way is the rapper's upcoming third studio album which is set to be released on August 25, 2009. The first single, "POW" was released to his YouTube account in early 2009, with profanity. The song was later re-recorded, sans profanity, and released to iTunes.