Crib Notes

Could this be the slice of irony Soulja Boy intended?

From the Eyedrum website:

About Niggaz With Gratitude
We are Niggaz With Gratitude. Based in Atlanta, Ga, we combine Hip Hop, Punk, Rock, Jazz and a few other genres to culminate our sound. Why name a group of black rockers, Niggaz With Gratitude? Because we are united as a band to say out loud, in our songs, that we are proud to be African Americans. We are forever thankful to White people for bringing our Black ancestors to this wonderful country of America. It is truly the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. As long as you pay your taxes of course… Seriously though, If our ancestors weren’t stolen and enslaved into this country we would still be in Africa. We’re happy to not be there. HIV, poverty and Maleria would be our only options. Here we have everything. And it’s because of White people that we do. We know our message might be a little unconventional, but every African American says what we say to themselves. We just have the balls to say it out loud! If we come to your town you will get ROCKED! We are on a mission from God to take rock music back for the people.

www.niggazwithgratitude.com

(note - this show is actually a film shoot for a satire mockumentary)

Surely, last week’s presidential election stole some thunder from their punchline. Shame on you, Barack Obama!

Niggaz With Gratitude perform and shoot mockumentary at Eyedrum. Donations requested. 9 p.m. Tonight. 290 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. 404-522-0655. Visit the band’s MySpace page to hear music.

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IGNORANCE IS BLISS

Apparently, CL’s BET Hip-Hop Awards wrap-up, Too Bootleg for TV, wasn’t the worst of the red carpet. BET correspondent and former Rolling Stone contributor, Toure, asked Atlanta rapper Soulja Boy what historical figure he most hated.

His response:

“Oh wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them we’d still be in Africa. We wouldn’t be here to get this ice and tattoos.”

As CL contributor Jacinta Howard summates on her blog, 4 Cryin Out Loud:

See, this what ya’ll get for constantly defending this little dude.

“Oh, he’s only 17!”

“Oh, he’s only for the kids!”

“Oh, stop hatin! He’s smart, he knew how to work YouTube!”

Like I’ve been saying— Soulja Boy’s age is no excuse for the coonery…. Hell, even Will Smith was a teenager when he came out. “Parents Just Don’t Understand” — now that’s a song “for the kids.”

This kinda shit is what happens when you consistently excuse people’s coonish behavior….

Read her full post here.

(Photo by Tara-Lynne Pixley)

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Hip-hop heads are often baffled by rock acts and all that “crazy rocker shit” they do, like supposedly eating bat heads, pissing on stage, writing songs about Yellow Submarines, romancing dead boys, shooting up heroin, and moving to Berlin.

Perhaps because people accept the harsh reality put forth in many rap songs and the behavior of these weird dudes who can’t get jobs as the rule rather than the exception, they neglect how psychotic and insane most rappers are.

As I write this, I am trying to bypass shock and just try to look at abnormal behavior for what it is. I grew up in the ’90s and early 2000s and pretty much still have plenty growing to do, but as a result of living in these times I have come to accept a lot of ridiculous things as normal so forgive me if I overlook anyone.

Here are some of the strangest artists around and brief explanations as to why I’m so weirded out by them.

Bizzy Bone
DRUNK THUG ANGEL

He was the most controversial member of Bone Thugz N Harmony — possibly the strangest and highest selling rap group ever. They had strong Christian undertones yet dark horror film imagery (grim reaperesque wraiths wielding scythes were featured prominently in their artwork) and the structure of their names resembled the seven dwarfs (Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Layzie, Krayzie, etc).

He claims to come from a background of “thugism” (whatever the hell that means) and was even abducted as child and featured as an adult on an episode of “America’s Most Wanted,” telling the story of his childhood abduction. He was kicked out of Bone Thugs over money disputes, but his expulsion from the group also seemed to coincide with a strange explosion of his already overly-religious tendencies.

Now he rolls around with weird Mortal Kombat henchmen (as seen in this video), gets more effeminate by the day, and seems to have no problem reconciling his reckless alcohol use with his love for Jesus. He’s integral to the foundations of the tongue-twisting style of rapping but now he tongue twists in tongues!!!

Bjork
SHE IS NOT AFRAID OF YOU AND WILL BEAT YOUR ASS

(more…)

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YEAR OF THE RINGTONE RAPPER: Yes, it’s Soulja Boy again.

(Photo by D. Hill)

SoundScan, the technology that tracks music sales, released its final numbers for 2007. The good news is, contrary to popular belief, the recording industry sold more units — CDs, vinyl, digital downloads, ringtones, etc. — than ever before. Consumers made 1.4 billion music purchases, an increase from 1.2 billion in 2006. The bad news is that fewer of those purchases include full-length CDs: Album sales plummeted 15 percent.

As previously noted, 2007 was something of an off-year for Atlanta’s music industry. No local artist landed an album in the year-end top 10, not even T.I. with his platinum-certified T.I. vs. T.I.P. Teenage pop-rap phenom Soulja Boy’s “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” was the year’s best-selling digital song, however. Plus, “Crank That,” Shop Boyz’s “Party Like a Rock Star” and Akon’s “Don’t Matter” all landed on the top 10 mastertone ringtones list. (To learn more about mastertone ringtones, check out the Wikipedia entry on Truetone.)

Here are the lists for 2007’s best-selling albums, digital songs and mastertone ringtones.

(more…)

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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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