Steve 'Flash' JuonIt’s time to talk about Soulja Boy again, and in turn it’s time for DeAndre Cortez Way to rub his status in everybody’s face again.
“Kanye name droppin me, I gotta pop my shit
Two million in two days, boy, I gotta pop my shit”
He really doesn’t have any other choice on “Big Draco 2” and not just because it’s a sequel. In Soulja Boy’s life everything is a sequel. It doesn’t even surprise me on “Pressure Breaks Pipes” when he starts dropping references to movie franchises with numerous sequels: Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman. He long since accepted that he has a franchise he’s obligated to produce follow ups for. Unlike Hollywood though he can’t hire a new director, new script writer and new actors to freshen things up. He can’t even “reboot” the franchise because there’s no way to capture the “Crank Dat” magic in a bottle again. He’s not the young man he was when that song went viral.
Over the years SB has gone from the young’un who started a dance fad to an increasingly bitter and vindictive rapper. Even on songs like “Bands Up” where he should theoretically be celebrating his success, he is instead obsessed with a worldview where every single person is out to get him. “Fuck nigga play/run up, know he get blammed up/you know I ain’t doin no chain tucked.” It might be heretical in DeAndre’s world to suggest there are better things to do with your wealth than wear it around your neck, but when hip-hop is plagued by incidents like PnB Rock’s death, it’s not hard to wonder if conspicuous consumption is consuming its proponents.
“VVS chain, dancing like Diddy/ice on my chain, dancing like Diddy.” I swear I didn’t pick “Dancing Like Diddy” on purpose to reinforce the point, because literally every song has the same message. “Diddy” is just more in your face about it right from the jump. “Pinky ring nigga cost like ten.” At what point is that kind of ostentatious display even worth it? It just reminds me of a famous SNL skit starring Joe Pesci where he is mocking the very wiseguys he portrays in mobster movies.
It’s not a coincidence that Soulja Boy often comes off the same way on social media, screaming into a mirror and saying “I’m not finished” when interrupted. It’s hard to understand why DeAndre is so mad if his life is so fab, unless you pull back the curtain and take a good look at the man behind it. DeAndre can’t change. He desperately wants to change. He even tried to break into the video game industry to escape from his reality, but he had the same “big shot” problem as Tommy Tallarico and his ill-fated Amico. He assumed that simply on the basis of being famous, he could say whatever he wanted and it would come true, only to leave a lot of angry customers who never got their products demanding their money back. At least if he pocketed that ill-gotten cash he can keep making sequels like “Big Draco 2” for a while longer, all the while getting angrier that he has to keep up appearances even if he’s ready to say “fuck this rap shit” and do anything else.