Crib Notes

SOULJA BOY: Devourer of little children.

(Photo courtesy Interscope)

One recent afternoon, I was at a laundromat washing my clothes, and I saw these kids running around and generally being a nuisance. They kept repeating the phrase “Youuuu!” similar to how Soulja Boy chants in his ubiquitous “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” They didn’t bother reciting the whole chorus, just the “youuuu” part over and over again.

That particular sound is so memorable that Soulja Boy recycled it for his second hit single, the rising “Soulja Girl.” Near the end of last summer, I bet my boss Rodney Carmichael that Soulja Boy’s debut album would open high on the Billboard charts and then brick like so many others with a ringtone-certified hit have this year (Rich Boy, Mims and Shop Boyz can take a bow) … unless he could dig up a second single. It looks like “Soulja Girl” may be that song.

Musically, “Soulja Girl” is not much. It features a repetitive hook from i15, a boy band ATL producer Polow da Don is trying to foist upon the world, and that unmistakable “youuuu” sound kids seem to like so much. But that seems to be enough. “Soulja Girl” is ascending the Billboard singles chart, and its video is in constant rotation on MTV’s video channels.

Meanwhile, Soulja Boy has become an object of ridicule, much like D4L was last year. When I saw Psyche Origami open for Little Brother at the Earl last Tuesday, DJ Dainja, one of the group’s two DJs, cued up “Crank That.” The entire audience in the sold-out room booed loudly. “All that Soulja Boy shit is dead wrong, but we keep shit dead right,” declared Wyz, the group’s MC, as the DJs began playing the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Dead Wrong.”

Is Soulja Boy the nadir in the year of the ringtone? Perhaps. But you can’t stop the kids from bothering youuuu. For more on Soulja Boy as the pied piper of gullible children, read Mr. Carmichael’s story in CL’s Oct. 4 issue here.

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FOOD AND LIQUOR: The infamous summertime Dumpsterdive barbecues, where DJ Synthesis (right) held court, are now history.

(Photo by Zone 3)

Dumpsterdive Records is closing down. The 156 Forsyth St. store, record shop and second home to Atlanta’s backpackers will move to the Internet, where it hopes to evolve into an online retail store.

The funny thing is that Dumpsterdive Records just celebrated its second anniversary in September. When I interviewed DJ Synthesis (one of the DJs in Psyche Origami), who co-owns the store with DJ Spytech (who is part of the DJ crew Fader Ballistix), I asked him if the store would be open a year from now. (You can read the Aug. 29 story here.) He said business was slow, but assured me that Dumpsterdive was breaking even.

I don’t know why the Dumpsterdive location is closing, but I know that the small, closely knit indie-rap scene will miss it dearly. Even if it evolves into a successful Internet operation, heads will miss having an actual place to congregate, build, dig for vinyl and buy aerosol caps.

On Saturday, Oct. 20, the little store that could (and then couldn’t) will go out with a bang by throwing one of its infamous barbecue parties from noon-8 p.m. In addition to 40 percent off all merchandise, there will be DJs, beer and, in a nod to Crackheads Gone Wild, a homeless pudding wrestling contest.

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