Soulja Boy's contributions to the culture are second-to-none, even if it's been a slow process to give him his credit. Many have offered him his flowers for his music and marketing but one thing that doesn't necessarily get brought up as frequently as it should is his production style. The rapper produced his debut album entirely on his own, using a cracked version of FL Studios which, as he details in our extensive new interview, was unheard of at the time.
"I made every beat and went platinum, you see what I’m sayin’? I made these rappers wanna produce their songs. I introduced FL Studios. I introduced Fruity Loops to the culture. They were laughing at me, “Where your MPC at? Haha.” No, “Crank Dat” just sold 10 million. HA HA!" said Soulja in a recent interview with HNHH. "Stop playing with me. I’m the best producer of all time. They try to discredit me and suppress me because I’m a great, I’m a legend. I don’t know why. They never seen nothing like it before"
Soulja Boy explained that because he served as both a producer and the composer, he was able to collect 100% of the publishing, thus changing the game, as it were.
"These rappers don’t produce their own music," he explained. "I came into the industry at 16. I wrote the record, produced the record. What’s that mean? One hundred percent go to me. These rappers, they don’t write their music. What’s that mean? 50 percent of the song gone. They don’t make the beat. What’s that mean? The other 50 percent gone. They don’t make no money from the record."
While Soulja Boy continues to use FL Studios, he reflected on the moment when he pulled up to the studio with his laptop rather than an MPC.
"I played piano and violin on a keyboard," he continued. "That had never been done before that. They were using MPCs. I pulled out a laptop in the studio and hooked it up to a quarter-inch and put it through the speakers. They didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. The record labels were looking at me like I was crazy. They was like, ‘Where the shit at? What the fuck? He finna make a beat on a laptop? What the fuck is going on here?’ Yes, n***a. That’s how I went platinum."
Check out the full interview with Soulja Boy here.