Soulja Boy won’t rest until Hall of Fame level respect is put on his name.
With nearly 15 years in the game, millions of records and ringtones sold and an undeniable claim of being one of, if not, the first artist to capitalize off YouTube when it was itself a fledgling phenomenon, the “Crank Dat” rapper has several notches under his belt. While some rappers let their work speak for itself, Drako is not one to be silent about his accomplishments, whether they in his head or actual fact.
SB is not averse to making bold, sometimes unverifiable, claims. Like the time in 2019 when he alleged, he was hand-delivered the first ever iPhone from Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself on the "Crank Dat" video shoot. “He walked up to me with the first ever iPhone in a box,” SB said in an interview with BET. “He give me the phone. I take the phone out the box. I grab the phone, and within like two seconds of me grabbing the phone, it fell out my hand and broke to pieces. The first ever iPhone, bruh.”
And, let’s not forget about the time in 2016 when he claimed to have inked a $400 million deal. Then there was the time he was reportedly caught in a lie about purchasing a $55 million jet for his 21st birthday.
This year, the now Cali-based rapper has been taking it up a notch. In the past four months, he made some wild claims including bullish statements about his impact on fashion, technology and even Drake’s career. At this point, its hard to tell whether Big Drako, who recently inked a new deal with Virgin Records, is trolling, delusional or really rap’s version of Elon Musk.
Here are seven things Soulja Boy has taken credit for in 2021 alone.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Came Up With the Idea of Apple’s FaceTime
Jan. 17, 2021
Back in January, Big Soulja got on Instagram Live to proclaim he came up with the idea of the Apple visual phone call feature, FaceTime. The boast followed a tweet he sent out earlier in the day, which read, "Kiss me thru the phone hit different now huh."
"I came out with ["Kiss Me Through the Phone"] before FaceTime. So, let's talk about that," Soulja said on IG Live. "Stop acting like I ain't the G.O.A.T. Real G.O.A.T. status."
The Verdict: Big Soulja may have a point here. His hit single "Kiss Me Through the Phone" came out a full two years before Apple debuted its FaceTime feature in 2010.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Was the First Rapper to Sell a Tweet
March 8, 2021
A strange as it may sound, buying tweets with NFTs (nonfungible tokens) is a thing. Just two days after Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, put his first ever tweet on the bidding block on March 6, and before it sold for 1,630.58 ether, a cryptocurrency, Soulja claimed he was first hip-hop artist to jugg a Tweet. "1st rapper to sell a tweet," Soujla posted on March 8.
Verdict: The "first" is hard to verify, but Soulja did jump on board very early in the game, reportedly selling an autographed tweet for $1,288, a couple days after auctioning tweets became possible.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Is Responsible for One of Drake’s “Miss Me” Bars
March 17, 2021
Soulja made it well know that he feels like Drake swagger jacked his line from “Whats Hannenin’” on Drizzy’s hit song with “Miss Me” with Lil Wayne. He reiterated his feelings in March after Drake praised Bow Wow for being the blueprint. "That nigga drake is hilarious. Dude stole my whole bar then thanked bow wow," SB posted on Twitter.
Verdict: Well, the lines sound pretty close to us. The cadence and the flow are there. This might be another win for Drako.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Is the First Rapper on YouTube
April 3, 2021
Soulja Boy's masterful finesse of YouTube is well documented. But, on April 3, he claimed to be the first rapper to ever appear on the video sharing site. "I was the 1st rapper on YouTube. Ever. In life. In history," the rapper tweeted.
Verdict: SB definitely changed the game with his use of YT and opened the door for other rappers to do the same. But first ever? Ever? Ever? This one is hard to verify in a timely fashion. However, going by sheer odds, we are going to say this is an exaggeration.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Is the First Rapper on Twitch
April 3, 2021
Twitch game service has been live since 2011, though its popularity has risen in recent years. Big Soulja claimed he was there since Day 1, before any rapper in the world. "I was the 1st rapper on twitch," he posted on Twitter in April.
Verdict: Unverifiable.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Popularzied the Bathing Ape Brand
April 7, 2021
Bathing Ape became a popular street wear brand right after the turn of the century. And it's all thanks to Soulja Boy? He believes so. "I made these niggaz wanna wear BAPE," he typed on Twitter in April.
Verdict: Maybe for some demographic this is true, but overall that's a negative. Pharrell is hip-hop's de facto father of the colorful brand, which he along with the Clipse helped popularize in the States years before SB was cranking out anything.
-
Claim: Soulja Boy Popularized the Jordan V “Raging Bull”
April 10, 2021
The Jordan V "Raging Bull" got a re-release on April 10 and Soulja Boy made sure to note that he had a pair when they were originally released in 2009, and was the Pied Piper for sneaker heads worldwide. "I made niggaz want the raging bulls," he tweeted on the re-release date.
Verdict: Jordan doesn't need anyone to help push his shoes. The hypebeasts do it for him.