It has been nearly seven years since Soulja Boy had the streets flying like Superman with his viral smash “Crank Dat” but the pioneer of hip-hop’s digital revolution is still on that viral tip.
With the release of Soulja’s grown man anthem “We Made It” featuring Drake rippling through the Internets (Cam’ron recently dropped his own version too), the Chicago spitter hopped on the phone with VIBE to discuss future collaborations with Drizzy, if a reality show is still in his future and his advice to Justin Bieber for handling worst behavior.—Megan Saad
VIBE: How did the Drake collaboration come about?
Soulja Boy: Basically I just had this mixtape idea called The King and I was doing a whole lot of different records, producing a lot of different records, working with a couple of different producers. So I did that record as an intro record to the whole project. Once I put it out, Drake heard it and then he called me. I was like ‘Yo wassup’ and he was like ‘Yo I heard this song you did and I want to get on it. Could you send me the beat? I wanna write to it. I’ve got a crazy idea for us.’ I was like ‘Yeah no problem,’ sent that over and that was it. We put it out and it just started going crazy.
How do you feel about folks saying it’s more Drake’s song than yours?
That’s just going to come with collaborating with people. I just feel like a lot of the people didn’t pay attention to the record because they were focused on my other songs. Once they heard the song, they thought it was a brand new record. Once they started playing it on the radio and once he started performing it, they thought it was more of his record. But I just feel like that’s because most people didn’t hear about The King project. It ain’t nothing bad, Drake is the homie, it ain’t nothing to me, I know I’ve got so many records. Once the video comes out and people see the visual, they’ll get a better look at it being a collaboration and not just his song.
When can we expect the video for “We Made It” to drop?
Yeah, y’all can look forward to it coming real soon. In the near future, we’re dropping it.
Are you planning to collaborate with Drake again in the future?
Yeah I think we’re going to do some more records. I’ve got a lot of different beats we’ve been going over, so I think me and him will drop some more stuff.
A while back your boo Diamond mentioned you two doing a reality show on The Breakfast Club, have you got any updates for us?
They came at me with offers. You right though I am coming out with a show, we still working on it. We’re working on it right now. It’ll be coming out soon.
What kind of show is it going to be? More like T.I. and Tiny’s show or like Love and Hip Hop?
It’s not really going to be like that because we ain’t really got no family. It’ll be more focused about us than that show.
You’re no stranger to public scrutiny. What is your advice to Justin Bieber since he’s always landing in trouble these days?
Being young and successful comes with a lot of stuff. Justin Bieber experienced a lot real fast for his age so he’s just trying to grow up and he’s growing up in front of the public with a lot to deal with. If I could tell him anything, I would say just stay focused and do whatever makes him happy. Just try to stay out of the media attention because that’s what they want. That’s all, but he’ll be good though.
Check out Soulja Boy’s “We Made It” featuring Drake below and cop the King Soulja mixtape here.