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(like Rae Sremmurd, for example)

what kind of song would he even do now to stand out?

When I say people, I really mean more of 'stuck-in-the-90s' crew than anything. While they had a valid point about the fact that rappers of their era had way more skill at that age, the older eras were more focused on lyrics and technique in general.

Soulja Boy really was this generation's sacrificial lamb in the sense that he took a lot of flack even though he was kinda laying the groundwork for this current batch of rappers.

Who was really getting on nationally off a YouTube video before Soulja Boy? No one.

He made decent singles for his crowd (teenagers) but that was it. He was truly a sign of his times.

>Soulja Boy really was this generation's sacrificial lamb in
>the sense that he took a lot of flack even though he was kinda
>laying the groundwork for this current batch of rappers.

when what you really are saying is that he set a new precedent of wackness for his peers to live down to.

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The man who thinks at 50 the same way he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life - Muhammed Ali

although the way he stated it DOES kinda make it sound like that's what he believes.

I'd just say Soulja was a pioneer in the model of melodic, dance-based rap songs
blowing up on their own with little backing. I think that may have led to an outfit like
Odd Future who COMPLETELY took things into their own hands and did everything in-house,
including engineering and some very creative videos... and they happened to
also be some spitters.
The kid was one of the first, if not THEE first to get huge just handling his own shit.

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Days like this I miss Sha Mecca

they are STILL expecting artists to come to them
with completed, polished albums that will sell a million copies
without any type of artist development.

what they fail to realize is back in the days of Super Tuesday,
the artists that were selling a gazillion units had time to grow and
develop and learn.

and they didn't get dropped from their label their first time
their albums didn't go platinum.

hell, even now... most of the biggest selling artists
(kanye, timberlake, pharell, robin thicke, lady gaga, beyonce, jay-z) are essentially veterans.

they grew up in an era before they'd just hand you am album
because you had talent. they used to have teams of ppl
to help you refine your sound and they have you time to fail a few times.


they essentially threw soldier boy to the wolves
and dropped him when there was nothing left in the tank.

to me, that reveals the record executives don't know how
to do their jobs anymore. they struggle to recognize, develop,
and market talent.

most ppl that are stars now are stars because
they essentially learned how to do their own quality control
back when labels would do their best to handle that for you.

quality control and artist development doesn't exist now,
and labels want to keep blaming napster and pirating.
i mean, that's part of the problem, but it's not the bulk of it, IMO.




>although the way he stated it DOES kinda make it sound like
>that's what he believes.
>
>I'd just say Soulja was a pioneer in the model of melodic,
>dance-based rap songs
>blowing up on their own with little backing. I think that may
>have led to an outfit like
>Odd Future who COMPLETELY took things into their own hands and
>did everything in-house,
>including engineering and some very creative videos... and
>they happened to
>also be some spitters.
>The kid was one of the first, if not THEE first to get huge
>just handling his own shit.

Nah man..

Souljah HAD the TEAM...

Who knows hits better than Mr Collipark? You think Souljah boy made Souljah Girl? Or was just left to his own devices to make Turn My Swag On?

Souljah and team stopped making hits.. simple.. there was no mainstream backlash..

Pretty Boy Swag was innovative and helped usher in Lil B era.. but that was on the underground not mainstream...

As to your broader point... Here is the issue..

Artist development is always an interesting topic... do you want a label to take a person off the street give them songs, and identity and throw em out there and tell them to own it?

What was there to develop with Souljah Boy? He made multiple hits.. with himself and others..

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
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twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

Artist development, first of all, was about artists being able to continue making music,
even when they didn't have a "hit". I think that was able to happen because labels
weren't struggling financially back then... the bigger sellers kept the lights on and
money wasn't lost.
To the point tho, when artists were able to keep trying and trying, they got better.
That can't be overstated.
But what's even MORE important to keep in mind (especially as it pertains to Soulja Boy)
is that artists, back then, were dedicated musicians. These weren't just people who
were grabbed off the street because they had one popular song. If we look at Sly & The Fam's
1st album, they told him to come back with something more commercial, but he had
the talent to do what he wanted with his music, at will. His life had been dedicated
to music... an accomplished musician. No way we can compare some cat who made
a funny youtube video in high school to that. Earth Wind & Fire, hell pick any of them.
They were accomplished.

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Days like this I miss Sha Mecca

>Artist development, first of all, was about artists being
>able to continue making music,
>even when they didn't have a "hit". I think that was able to
>happen because labels
>weren't struggling financially back then... the bigger sellers
>kept the lights on and
>money wasn't lost.


i think it's the opposite problem.
record executives used to be ppl that loved music AND wanted to
have hits.

berry gordy.
Clive Davis.

etc...


not only that, a lot of labels were companies where their music
division was a footnote on their balance sheet.

how much did Warner Bros really care about their music division?
i mean, as long as it wasn't a money pit, the suits didn't care.
so they could pretty much do what they wanted.

and then "thriller" hit and everybody started paying attention to their music division.

now suits figured if we pump money into something,
we can make it sell.


well that was true, to a degree.
but they forgot that the artists they were pumping money into
had SOME measure of quality control without their input.

it wasnt CBS that made thriller hit...
it was MJ.



the 90s still had folks that knew what the hell they were doing,
and the music boom created by thriller was still going...
even through the N'sync, backstreet boys era.

But the execs were so greedy that they thought EVERY artist should so
MJ numbers their first time out.

that's when they quit nurturing artists. and now there is nothing left of what
used to be a cash cow. they killed all the golden geese.






>To the point tho, when artists were able to keep trying and
>trying, they got better.
>That can't be overstated.
>But what's even MORE important to keep in mind (especially as
>it pertains to Soulja Boy)
>is that artists, back then, were dedicated musicians. These
>weren't just people who
>were grabbed off the street because they had one popular song.
> If we look at Sly & The Fam's
>1st album, they told him to come back with something more
>commercial, but he had
>the talent to do what he wanted with his music, at will. His
>life had been dedicated
>to music... an accomplished musician. No way we can compare
>some cat who made
>a funny youtube video in high school to that. Earth Wind &
>Fire, hell pick any of them.
>They were accomplished.




i won't say there is a lack of talented ppl.
but nobody knows how to find them.

I could pick soldier boy as an example of a clear non-talent
picked by a suit that didn't know what they were doing.
But that's be too easy.

He did write a catchy song.
And i nobody would've thought the dude that made fingertips
would write innervisions, so you never know where ppl might go.


Maybe i am being too fair to soldier boy.

I hate that guy.

>He did write a catchy song.
>And i nobody would've thought the dude that made fingertips
>would write innervisions, so you never know where ppl might
>go.
>
>
>Maybe i am being too fair to soldier boy.
>


Well of course you are... you're comparing him to a 12 yr old child prodigy who started
classical piano lessons at the age of six and played 4 instruments, lol.
This is what I'm saying about the way artists were selected back then.

Soulja Boy was a guy who made a splash with a funny youtube video at 16. I really
don't think there's a comparison.

Labels now don't start with the talent. They start with how many people are paying
attention to you (aka, visiting your youtube video)... not realizing that the talent
will create that CONSISTENTLY if it's nurtured properly, while anybody can get
attention for a moment. But in addition to talent, it was about people who were
dedicated to music back in those days. Their lives were all about it. They were consumed
by it.
Not just cats who played basketball and video games with their friends and then
had a hit youtube video, lol.

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Days like this I miss Sha Mecca

Honestly the creative side was never successfully in a big building..

it was always a production company.. or joint venture or P&D scenario.. or manager

That exists 100% today.. it's just staffed differently..

Whereas Bad Boy or Def Jam were your intermediaries in the 90s.. now its Atom Factory or Turn First Artists which are seeking multiple opportunities.. then hand off to (Big Boys) labels for radio and distro etc..

This honestly is the perfect scenario... zero people meddling in your creative process except for your "team" and as long as the label loves the music boom and boom

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
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twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

Amateur ass videos blowing up off Crank dat > Amateur ass Jerkin videos getting love in L.A. and then the rest of the nation > DJ Mustard and others developing that sound

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unfortunately, he'd probably be amongst the better rappers out today.

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That post...

lol!!!

Niggas heads exploded and were never the same..

Honestly.. years from now.. Souljah will get his just due as some weird innovator in the genre.. whether u like it or not he won because he created something that didn't exist before him...

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
-------------------------------------------
twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

Where's JohnBook? I hope he does a podcast at some point because dude had gems.

That post was the precursor to the MAD that was coming later. Imagine Trinidad James coming out back then. The lesson would explode.

he is absolutely an influence on the newer generation

i think noz has talked about this too but it's his absolute lack of musical ability that makes him experiment because he really has no idea what he's doing. the musical equivalent of beginner's luck because he's not boxed in by any preconceived notions of what is "good"

that song is great, i can listen to it 1000x times and it doesn't get old. the reaction of everyone in that post shows that he was onto something

Let's recap:
lyrical masterpiece: no
a fun earworm: yes

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