When Mr. Beaks Met Soulja Boy...

When I was setting up my interview with the LOOK AROUND YOU lads last week (What do you mean you haven't read it yet!?!?), their publicist inquired if I'd also be interested in talking to Soulja Boy. (You may have heard of him. Perhaps you've even done his dance.) I politely responded that I didn't think Soulja Boy fit the AICN demographic. His publicist countered, "C'mon!" I said, "Okay." Though Soulja Boy is not terribly well represented in my iTunes (the price one pays for storing ten gigs of Guy Lombardo), his single "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" was a global phenomenon that, as of right now, stands as the best selling digital download of all time. Not bad for a kid who's still seven months shy of his nineteenth birthday. And while his latest LP, iSOULJABOYTELLEM hasn't exactly dominated the popular culture like his last release did, Soulja is (here come those PR reflexes) soldiering onward with an animated/live-action web series called, rather matter-of-factly, SOULJA BOY TELL 'EM: THE ANIMATED SERIES (co-created by ROBOT CHICKEN's Buddy System Studios). Since he's out doing press for this show, and seemed like a nice enough kid, I decided, "What the hell! I'll talk to this guy!" Why? Well, sometimes it's cool to talk to people who've captured the zeitgeist for one reason or another (kinda like Capone interviewing Paris Hilton last year at Comic Con). Also, as a hip-hop fan myself, I was interested in hearing Soulja's thoughts on the rough treatment he's received at the hands of an old-school player like Ice-T. Clearly, Soulja Boy is driven as much by a desire for fame as a need to connect artistically with an audience; this is true of 98% of all hip-hop acts. But he's here, and he doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, so why not figure out what makes this eighteen-year-old hitmaker tick? I was not surprised to discover that Soulja Boy's a good interview: you don't get this far without knowing how to sell yourself. What intrigued me most, however, was his limited curiosity about the legends of hip-hop; sure, he's (just now) getting into Biggie and Tupac, but what about Run-DMC, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, etc.? Even though he either wasn't born or was a toddler when these acts were at their peak, I'd like to think that this sudden rush of fame would've inspired him to check out the pioneers of his chosen genre. It's odd, but not entirely rare. It also makes me feel horribly old. Then again, he's fucking eighteen years old. There'll be plenty of time to catch up. Here's the video introducing the series (give it a chance, guys, it's pretty cool):



And here's our interview.

Mr. Beaks: Was this online animated series always something that was going to coincide with the release of the LP.

Soulja Boy Tell 'Em: I had several ideas of what I wanted to do with the cartoon, but as far as the live action, I didn't have that planned. This is something I just thought of recently.

Beaks: Were you fan of ROBOT CHICKEN before this? How did you get involved with those guys?

Soulja Boy: I was a fan of the cartoon, but I didn't specifically say, "I'm a fan of ROBOT CHICKEN, let's get the dudes who made that!" You know what I'm saying? These were just dudes who were hooked up through the label. They said they were good dudes to work with, so I went and met with them, and they showed me the things that they did and what they had to bring. I really wanted to do something different. I didn't really want to come with the basic cartoon; I wanted to come with something that would spark a lot of peoples' intention. And that's what they did.

Beaks: So why that live-animation mix?

Soulja Boy: Basically, it came from the two dudes from [Buddy System Studios]. They came in and said, "Soulja Boy, we're fans of your music. We look forward to working with you, and we have a brand new idea we want to bring to the table. They were saying this hasn't been done since ROGER RABBIT, and that technology has advanced so much that they can pull it off and make it look genius. At first I was kind of skeptical. I was kind of like, "I don't know, man." So we did a test episode with LeBron James, and after they showed me how it would look, I said, "This is perfect. I could change the game with this." So we did the deal, and now it is what it is.

Beaks: A test episode with LeBron? That's interesting. Things are good again after the whole playoffs dis from last April?

Soulja Boy: Yeah, it was a little mixup over that episode. We really capitalized off that whole situation, with him speaking my name and comparing me to DeShawn Stevenson from the [Washington] Wizards. I was like, "You know, we can capitalize with a cartoon off of this." So we did an online cartoon to see how the live-action would come off, and see what people would say about it." Back then, people didn't know I was working on a cartoon, so I put it out there, and the comments we got back was crazy. "Man, that's tight! How'd they do that?" So I said, "You know what? We need to go ahead and use that for the real cartoon."

Beaks: So you brought LeBron James in to do the video?

Soulja Boy: Nah, that's what I'm saying. We didn't use LeBron James.

Beaks: It's cool that you could get something out of that. It was an odd moment, but probably good for everyone involved. No such thing as bad publicity.

Soulja Boy: Yeah.

Beaks: What about bringing Alfonso Ribeiro in there? I'm older than you, so I can remember him being on SILVER SPOONS. But definitely FRESH PRINCE, too. How did he get involved?

Soulja Boy: I mean, he got involved because I was thinking, "Man, I want to be innovative." He was just, like, the funniest dude that could come in and play the part of the principal at the school. You're used to seeing him as Carlton from FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR with Will Smith. So I was like, "That would be a good team up: me acting with him as my animated self." So he came in, read his script, and it was magic, man. It was funny. I was like, "That's it, right there!"

Beaks: What are you thinking about in terms of an audience for this? Are you trying to appeal to younger kids, maybe teens?

Soulja Boy: My target demographic is probably twenty-one and under. Of course, the kids are going to jump on it, but there are some things in the cartoon that are not for kids. We're trying to keep it as clean as possible, but we're also trying to keep it from being corny. We're still trying to make it where it can target my fan base without having to bleep out too many things.

Beaks: When you were coming up, what hip-hop did you listen to. What got you into this?

Soulja Boy: I'm still young, eighteen years old, but one of my top rappers that I listened to was 50 Cent. When 50 Cent came out, I was eleven years old, and that was all I was listening to. His first album, GET RICH OR DIE TRYING... I was like, "Man, I want to be rich like that. I want to shine like that. I want to be a celebrity, be a superstar rap star, go across the world and have millions of people screaming my name and buying my albums. That's all I had in my head at that point: "I want to be just like that when I grow up!" So once I saw my opportunity to do it, I did it. And [50 Cent] was one of the main artists I was listening to period.

Beaks: Do you ever go back to any of the old school stuff? Do you ever listen to, like, A Tribe Called Quest or De La Soul or any of the guys who laid the foundation for what you're doing today?

Soulja Boy: To tell you the truth, I ain't never went back that far. As far as I went back was 2 Pac and Biggie. Once I got into the game, people were telling me, "Whatever you do, study your craft." Last night, I went to the NOTORIOUS premiere, and it was like, after I left that movie, I felt like I knew B.I.G. I was like, "Man, people was right!" So I went on iTunes, typed in "2 Pac" and typed in "Biggie", and I bought all their albums. I studied it, I listened to it word-for-word, track-for-track, front-to-back. Because people were telling me that those were two of the greatest. So that's as far as I went back.

Beaks: I think those guys, especially Biggie, are still unmatched lyrically. They're still the best.

Soulja Boy: Yeah.

Beaks: Staying with the old school thing, it's been interesting to see you have a couple of dust-ups recently with older artists like Ice-T and Nas. Do you take that as you being the young guy that they have to initiate a little?

Soulja Boy: I think so. When I had my meeting with KRS-One on Rap City, he was basically inducting me into hip-hop. That was my first album. And I feel he did it the right way. Even if Ice-T was trying to do that, KRS-One did it in a way that was respectable, and I appreciated that. I appreciated him for trying to help me. He came and sat me down and tried to teach me a few things about hip-hop. I think Ice-T went about it the wrong way.

Beaks: How about you coming out and saying some things about Nas?

Soulja Boy: Man, that whole thing... what I was trying to say during that videotaping was that people don't want to hear an artist who's been in this game for a long time and is established and has been around longer than a lot of artists... what I was basically saying is if he wouldn't have said "Hip-hop is dead," a lot of things wouldn't be the way that they are now. People were saying that I said Nas killed hip-hop. That's not what I said. I said that if he would've never come out and said "Hip-hop is dead," a lot of things that are happening within the music industry wouldn't be happening. I think he should've reworded that. But who am I to say that? I just gave my opinion on the situation. And I just think the game would be better right now if he would've never came out with that album.

Beaks: You talked about going to the NOTORIOUS premiere last night, are you looking into film at all?

Soulja Boy: I'm out here in Cali right now. I'm at the William Morris Agency looking over a lot of scripts, and I came across a script a couple of days ago that is really looking interesting. You can look forward to Soulja Boy playing in a movie in 2009, but as far as a Soulja Boy movie about my life story, I don't think I'm ready for that yet; I don't really want to jump into that until my legacy is over and I can really tell my life story.

Beaks: You've still got a life to go. But in terms of playing a character in a movie, were you thinking comedy?

Soulja Boy: I'm thinking comedy. I think that as far as my YouTube videos, my fans really respond to the ones where I make them laugh. So I think once you finally do see me break out on the big screen, I think it will be a comedy character. And I think I'll do really well at that. I think a lot of people think I'm a funny dude.

SOULJA BOY TELL 'EM: THE ANIMATED SERIES will be available at Soulja's official site. On the way are interviews with DOUBT writer-director John Patrick Shanley and PUSH's Chris Evans. Just thought you might like to know that. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks