Soulja Boy is riding high off of the success of “She Make It Clap” which is one of the biggest songs on TikTok right now, if not the biggest. The rapper is preparing for the release of his upcoming project Dracoand has been making the rounds in the past week. The rapper recently chopped it up with HNHH for an in-depth conversation about his career from his work as a producer to touring with Young Money in ’09.
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While Soulja Boy might be regarded as an innovator these days, he faced some serious criticism at the early stages of his career. In fact, there was that hilarious feud with Big Draco and Ice T who said that the “Crank Dat” rapper “singlehandedly killed hip-hop.” The beef is water under the bridge at this point but Soulja believes that the West Coast OG was simply “confused” at the time.
“Man, I love Ice-T. Fuck all that shit. That shit was petty as hell,” he said. “He was just confused. He didn’t know what was going on! He didn’t know I was the truth. He didn’t know I was the GOAT. He didn’t know he was looking at the future in his eyes! He didn’t know he was listening to the wave. He ain’t know. You can’t fault him for that.”
However, Soulja Boy did reveal that his back-and-forth with Ice T taught him a big lesson: always stay in tune with youth culture.
“When you fall out the mix, you gotta keep your ear to the street. That’s why I’m in tune with my youngin,” he said. “Look, I got some youngins and I keep in tune with my youngins and I keep in tune with the streets. ‘Cause you gonna get lost in the sauce and end up beefing with the GOAT. That’s over with, man. You gotta show love to the younger generation and stand on your morals and principles. He was standing on his morals and principles. He didn’t like that type of music. You can’t do nothing but respect that.”
Peep our full interview with Soulja Boy here or press play below.