Soulja Boy set off a huge debate about his legacy and influence today when he made the outrageous claim that Drake copied his style on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club morning show. Wondering why he didn’t have a similar comeback to Meek Mill last year, he went off on a tangent that included his assertion that Drake bit his flow on the 2010 single “Miss Me.” The resulting wave of disbelief, confirmation, and general discussion shook Twitter so deeply it even awoke sleeping rap titan Jay Electronica, who emerged from social media retirement to offer his own two cents on the subject.
“You have to give credit where it’s due,” he wrote. “I too, followed @souljaboy’s blueprint and made myself known via the internet initially as well. i was even labeled a “internet rapper” those days. #LongLiveKingDraco”
Jay Elec’s rise, while similar to Soulja’s in many ways, was also pretty singular as well, considering it never resulted in an official album or even a complete music video for any of the singles that built his buzz at the time to a deafening roar. A partial video for “Dear Moleskine” emerged, but at one minute, 45 seconds, no one believed then that any song could be a so short and still be taken seriously as a single. Now, short songs are pretty commonplace, but in 2010 it was unheard of.
And while Jay may give praise to Soulja for being a pioneer of the blog rap era, he actually shares at least one thing in common with Drake: both starred in Sprite commercials at the height of their hype before Drake took off with the release of Thank Me Later, leaving both Soulja Boy and Jay Electronica to live on as rap internet legends.
Update: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that The Breakfast Club radio show appeared on Hot 97 rather than Power 105.
