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JACQUES: DeAndre ‘Soulja Boy’ Way’s 2007 hit “Crank That” took the teenager
from a cramped living room to No.1 on the Billboard charts.
JACQUES: “Crank That” kicked off a dance craze not seen since the “Macarena,"
and it was all built online with kids, sidestepping the music industry's tradition of breaking
records in clubs and on the radio.
SOULJA BOY: I dedicated the song to the little kids, you know what I'm sayin?
Something I made up for the kids to dance to have fun to.
It hit number one in the country man, album did numbers.
Everybody doin' the dance, I ain’t know it was gonna impact this hard it feel real good.
JACQUES: Here, Way namedrops his influences like Dem Franchize Boyz’s “Lean With It, Rock Wit It,"
and Yung Joc’s “It’s Goin’ Down.”
The ‘snap’ era’s dances helped many songs climb the charts, but Way encouraged
participation - preceding the ‘challenges’ that are so popular today.
SOULJA: And right now we finna show you how to do the Crank That Soulja Boy Dance, we
gon’ show you step by step, this the instructional DVD.
JACQUES: “Crank That” was a viral hit by summer 2007 thanks to to Soulja Boy’s
Internet hustle.
He had pages on MySpace, Soundclick and YouTube and it was all part of a strategy.
He told Vulture quote:
JACQUES: Mr. Collipark, the man behind the Ying Yang Twins
and who first signed Soulja Boy, spoke on Way’s digital moves.
COLLIPARK: I’m not saying he was the first to do everything but he made it popular to
use the internet from a marketing perspective.
JACQUES: Soulja also used illegal downloading services like Limewire to his advantage
by uploading 'Crank That' under the names of more popular songs in order to trick people.
SOULJA: They’ll go, they’ll download that song free like 'I’m finna get 50 Cent, "In Da Club"
They’ll hit download, they hit play, it’ll go ‘youuu’ dun, dun dun,
they like wtf is this but probably about a minute in they’re like damn this *** hard!
And they, 'Who the *** is Soulja Boy?' And I just Ah! Ah! Ah!
JACQUES: Soulja Boy produced the song himself on a simple producing program.
SOULJA: I did “Crank That,” right, on this program called Fruity Loops.
Probably took me like 10 minutes to make it and everybody knows I made 10 million dollars
off of the song “Crank That.”
JACQUES: The music video, shot in Atlanta by Mr. Rage, showcased his rise as an Internet
star and took fire quickly.
SOULJA: It just premiered on ‘106 and Park’ and the next day it was No. 2 on 'Rap City.'
We just got added to MTV and MTV2 and we got Jam of the week on MTV Jams.
JACQUES: In September 2007, “Crank That” peaked at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts,
staying there for 7 weeks.
JACQUES: Soulja Boy is very influential to the current generation of artists especially
in how he finessed the internet.
YACHTY: I feel like Soulja Boy was one of the smartest when it came to just connecting
with your fans and taking that to another level.
JACQUES: Soulja Boy created a blueprint that is still being replicated today.
Flood the market, don’t sweat the details and make sure everyone knows your name.
JACQUES: I’m Jacques Morel with Genius News, bringing you the meaning and the knowledge
behind the music.
Peace!