Soulja Boy has given us some immortal hits. Party-starting records like "Crank Dat," "Turn My Swag On," "Pretty Boy Swag," "First Day Of School," and "Zan With That Lean" should ensure his musical legacy. However, the rapper has more recently attracted attention for his various antics and beefs than for his music. Over the last few months, we've seen him instigate feuds with Lil Yachty, Quavo, Chris Brown, and more, and his escalating bids for attention have tended to do more damage to his reputation than good.
Here's hoping that the rapper will comes to his senses and get back to making hits in the near future. Until then, here are five times Soulja Boy played himself.
When he falsely announced he got a $400 Million deal
When Soulja Boy announced that he'd signed a $400 million deal with in "in-flight gaming" company World Poker Fund in 2016, it seemed too good to be true. Turns out, it was.
Though Soulja seemed very convinced that he'd signed an $80 million-a-year contract for 5 years, the report was quickly debunked. It turns out that the company paid the rapper in stock, capping the value at $400 million. The company itself is only valued at $52 million. It turned out that the shares Soulja was holding on to were valued at about $2.5 million, which is nothing to scoff at, but a pretty big letdown from Soulja's premature announcement.
When he tried to sell hoverboards, only to be scammed out of $175,000
Soulja Boy's foray into the hoverboard market was not as successful as he'd hoped. According to a report from Buzzfeed, the rapper's branded SouljaBoards attracted scammers who purchased $175,000 worth of product with fraudulent credit cards. According to the source, over 75% "of all orders associated with (Soulja Boy's) account were disputed after the fact." These type of scams aren't exactly out of the ordinary in the hoverboard market, as popular production house IO Hawk has amassed a Stripe debt of over $900,000 from fraudulent credit card purchases. Perhaps, Soulja should have chosen a different business venture?
Read the full story here.
When his visit to Compton backfired
In an effort to prove his street cred amid his beef with Chris Brown, Soulja Boy broadcast his visit to Compton on Instagram live. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and the last words we hear the rapper say are "They say Soulja ain't from the hood," before his phone drops and some kind of altercation takes place.
The stream ends awkwardly and abruptly, with initial reports suggesting that Soulja's phone was stolen. While that's not exactly what happened, it certainly wasn't the look he was going for. Naturally, Chris Brown shared his response to the clip on his own Instagram.
When he apologized to everyone he beefed with, only to get back to beefing the next day
Most of Soulja Boy's recent headlines have surrounded the many beefs he's been involved in over the last few months. From Yachty, to Quavo, to Shia Labeouf, to Chris Brown, Soulja sometimes seems like he's picking names out of a hat when he selects people to talk shit to online.
"At the end of the day, It's not about who starts the beef it's about who end them," said Soulja in an Instagram video, revealing that he'd just learned that his mother was in the hospital, and that while she was going to be ok, the scare had inspired him to put negativity aside. "I want to make music with Chris Brown, Yachty, Quavo everybody. So to all the media, to all the blogs, to all my homies from the hood who feel like I been on some hot boy shit, I apologize I'm back to the music."
However, the next day, Soulja was back to antagonizing Chris Brown by posting pictures of his daughter on Instagram, and once again promoting their boxing match. Later that week, he had new issues with 50 Cent. Before we knew it, he'd released his "Hit 'Em With The Draco" diss track and all hope for a beef-less Soulja Boy was lost.
When he announced he was going to be a father with a Google image sonogram
On February 7th, Soulja Boy once again made headlines when he posted a picture of a sonogram and announced he was "going to be a father soon." Given his recent behavior, people were skeptical enough of the announcement to fact-check it. Before long, someone had produced a Google Image search result that looked identical to Soulja's post. When fans began accusing him of lying about the news on social media, he deleted the post.
Soulja boy so lame for this 🙄 pic.twitter.com/HFIEa89wI4