Did Soulja Boy Kill Music and Introduce Social Media?

Back in the mid 2000's, if you were on the web, then you were on Myspace. Everyone in the whole world was watching Soulja Boy and was waiting on him to blow. Everyone I know had multiple songs streaming on their Myspace page.

This was the true beginning on how music was going to be discovered. At that moment when Soulja Boy hit the big screen, CD's in stores began to slow down as well as CD distribution.

It’s already been said that Soulja Boy was responsible for sparking that shift, and one could label him the very first Internet rap star.

“I was the first artist on the Internet,” he told Baller Alert. “I was the first rapper on YouTube. I showed these artists how to be social media famous and social media savvy. No artist was on Instagram and Twitter. Let’s be real. Now every artist in the world has an Instagram, Twitter, YouTube page and doing blogs. I was doing that 10 years ago as a teenager, and people had to catch up.”

It’s also been said the Internet, as well inexpensive home recording studios, have lessened the quality of rap music since one no longer has to go through the studio owner gatekeepers or expensive producers. And some have blamed Soulja for that change as well. But the rapper denied it and said he helped hip-hop by creating another revenue stream.

“I’m the reason record labels are doing music streaming now,” stated Soulja. “There’s no more CDs no more. When I came out with ‘Crank That’ (Soulja Boy),’ it went No. 1, sold 10 million copies and went diamond. They said that I killed hip-hop.”