Just in case you thought “farm boys from Iowa” contributing to Salon were the only people livid about the effect of Soulja Boy on hip-hop*, SVU veteran and creator of my favorite rap album of all time Ice-T wants you to know that he has no respect for the snap superstar. “We came all the way from Rakim, we came all the way from Das EFX, we came all the way from motherfuckers flowing like Big Daddy Kane and Ice Cube, and you come with that Superman shit? That shit is garbage.”
Almost as if he knew the attack was coming, Soulja Boy released a new “freestyle” earlier this week, allegedly delivered as payback for half a million visits to his YouTube page. Watch as he brilliantly rhymes “on” with “on” and “on” with “on.”
Is there a reason he keeps looking off to the side between each line? Or why he stares to the left when zooming through the speed-rapping part of this “freestyle?” At the beginning of the clip we can see a video game on a giant TV screen to his right, and the same image appears to be on the computer he starts the music on. So did he have some giant digital cue cards set up for the “freestyle?” Or is he just simply checking on the game? Either way, I doubt this will help him regain Ice-T’s respect.
Ice T Says Soulja Boy Killed Hip Hop [YouTube via RealTalkNY]
Soulja Boy – Another Freestyle 500k Part 5 [YouTube]
* I’m still boggling over the phrase “since when did young black men, heretofore the arbiters of pop culture, become so lame?”
Das EFX? Bum stiggidy bum!
Single handedly killed hip-hop is giving him a wee bit too much credit. Still, yay Ice-T, I guess.
I much prefer this take on Soulja Boy: [www.popmatters.com]
Don’t really agree with Soulja Boy being a revelation (he’s definiteley a symptom of our decline into “Idiocracy) but the article is still pretty interesting from a phenomenalogical standpoint.
In related news, MC Serch just gave Soulja Boy the Gas Face. Did Ice T just wake up from a nap he started in 1989? Last I checked, Soulja’s part of a storied crap-rap tradition that’s at least twenty years old.
…. actually more curious about them crooked @ss shades he be wearin’
This site is a walk-through for all the information you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Look here, and you’ll definitely find it.
Such a well written post.. Thnkx for sharing this post!
It’s not freestyle. His guys behind him are chanting the “sway”, he cued up some music, and if it was free (which it isn’t) he’s got the smoothest mind I’ve ever seen to go through that speed section and not screw it up so much as once.
I went through USMC Boot Camp with a guy from somewhere in L.A. and he COULD freestyle. No music, no beat, no prep, no writing, no NOTHING. You’d say, “Do a line about that canteen.” and he’d give you two minutes right off the top of his head without but a moment’s hesitation. This kid prepped that crap. Closest he got to freestyle was a Tony Hawk game.
I started listening to Ice T in 1987 when he was on his promo tour for “Iceberg” and yeah, if you can’t tell, I’m a suburban white boy. Ice T had a message that rang. Learn, get out of the ghetto (I can’t relate but I can understand, there’s a difference), stay away from gangs, drugs, crime, boost yourself, be honest, do not backstab the people that help and support you, be loyal, freedom of speech. That’s the foundation on which he writes and performs. Yeah, he has some harsh ones but there’s a valuable message in an Ice T album. He writes social commentary in his raps.
What’s Soulja Boy got? “Just Got My Report Card”. Throw some D’s on it because even THAT is too high for him to attain on his own.
Without guys like Ice T, Ice Cube, Rakim, Public Enemy, NWA (yes I know Cube is a member), Grandmaster Flash, Kool Moe Dee, and a couple dozen others, this little punk wouldn’t have a career, he’d be getting D’s and F’s and he’d be a disgrace to his parents.