Soulja Boy has been all over our feeds lately. To many, the 28-year-old rapper is a star of yesteryear, a brief, albeit memorable internet moment, that produced the now classic “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” In recent weeks, however, Soulja has reemerged to proclaim that he’s now hotter than ever and fervently assert that he’s the progenitor of many of the trends we see occurring in contemporary hip-hop. Some onlookers have found this as cause to point and laugh. Others, however, have come to Soulja’s defense. In fact, many of rap’s biggest names have emerged to defend the artist’s legendary status. One such foot soulja (I’m sorry) is Vince Staples.
On Friday, the Long Beach Rapper interrupted the normal programming of his Apple Music Beats 1 radio show, Ramona Radio, and dedicated most of his air time to appreciating Soulja Boy. Over the course of the hour, Staples played deep cuts like “What’s Hannenin’,” “NuReligion,” and “Tear It Up” from Soulja’s woefully under-heralded, 2011 mixtape Skate Boy In his classic inflammatory and slightly hyperbolic fashion, Staples unleashed fiery retorts to Soulja’s critics throughout the show. “Ya’ll don’t like Soulja Boy cause you racist!” he said at one point. Later, he added, “Ya’ll wouldn’t be making fun of soulja boy on the internet, if it wasn’t for Soulja Boy!” If nothing else, we now know Soulja Boy’s fans are loyal.
