Crib Notes

Despite his rap name, Soulja Boy is too young to fight for his country in Iraq. But he’s just the right age to start a YouTube dance craze. And that’s exactly what the Mississippi-bred, Atlanta-based teen did over the summer with his song “Crank That” and dance, alternately known as the “Soulja Boy” or the “Superman.” You can read more about the MC/dance instructor and others in Mosi Reeves’ A-Town summer wrap-up this week. The Soulja Boy dance, however, must be seen to be appreciated — or hated. Whether you like it or not, it proves how powerful visual elements are in selling popular music today. If you can create a dance craze, your song is an instant hit, no matter how bad it is.

Here are a few video clips just to give you a sense of how far and wide a kid can travel over the summer break with a video camera, an Internet hookup and ants in his pants.

Here’s the video, currently in heavy rotation on BET:

You, too, can “crank that Soulja Boy” by watching his instructional video. What kid has the foresight to create an instructional video for his dance, I ask you? And yes, that’s an empty indoor swimming pool they’re dancing in:

Pretty soon, he even had white boys doing it:

(more videos below the drop) Apparently Barney the dinosaur even knows how to crank it:

If mimicry is the best form of flattery, Soulja Boy is somewhere blushing his cheeks off right now. Ladies and gentlemen, “crank that Spiderman”:

… and that jump rope:

We won’t bother to show you the Donkey Kong, Forrest Gump, Spider-Man, RoboCop, Pac-Man or Roosevelt. You get the idea.

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