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Soulja Boy - iSouljaBoyTellem
| Allmusic |
| Short on new ideas and lacking in cohesion, Soulja Boy Tell Em's second official full-length finds the young upstart trying way too hard to re-create the bazillion selling "Crank That" and repeatedly coming up short. The mindless "Bird Walk" is the most obvious attempt, combining the same Southern-styled production, the same shouts of "Youuuuuu!," and the same silly dance instructions. Problem is, it comes with a much less infectious hook and no ridiculous "Why me crank that Robocop?"-type lyrics to savor. "Botty Got Swag (Donk, Pt. 2)" and "Wit My Yums On" are more of the same but it's the truly maddening "Hey You There" and its taunting of the "big fat police dude" at the mall that really takes the cake, with lyrics and melody that are juvenile beyond belief. Going in the completely opposite direction, "Shoppin' Spree" kicks off with G-Unit-styled gun shots before going completely gangsta with Gucci Mane and Yo Gotti flexing and posing. This unbelievable attempt to go hard will only sound vicious to the pre-teen set, and the inclusion of Gucci and Gotti suggests some crossover hopes and desire for hardcore rap acceptance, as if Soulja Boy could flip his squeaky-clean, daytime-television-appearing image with one rickety track. Parents stuck with a die-hard fan in the home can at least tolerate the free-form "Eazy," which gets fairly clever with the nonsense, plus the puppy-love swooner "Kiss Me Thru the Phone," which shows some improvement over the previous album's cavity-inducing ballad "Soulja Girl."...full text |
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| Vibe |
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There’s a reason Soulja Boy’s name is not Soulja Man. Despite being crowned “King of the Internet” for his smash hit “Crank That,” Soulja Boy has yet to understand what manhood really means. On his sophomore effort, iSoujaBoyTellem (Interscope), the YouTube legend attempts to sound all grown up, but for the most part, sticks to his rather unusual brand of hip-hop for the Google generation. From buying a Lamborghini in which he “didn’t need to cosign” to tales of hitting the club at 18 with no I.D. on “Gucci Bandana,” Soulja Boy let’s you into his world of restricted freedoms, one repetitive, upbeat track at a time. Don’t expect songs that dig deep. Even if songs like “Booty Got Swag (Donk Part 2)” have enough bass to put hair on a man’s chest, the elementary rhymes are almost pre-pubescent. If it were any other rapper with a song called “Rubber Bands,” you would already know what time it is, but Soulja Boy still uses words like “skedaddle”, thus proving he’s only trying to have fun. On “Turn My Swag On,” Soulja Boy sounds like a younger brother trying to be like his cooler, older brother with lines like, “Turn my swag on/look in the mirror /say what’s up/yeah, I’m getting’ money!”'...full text |
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| Rapreviews |
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It's a very onerous task for me to write an opening paragraph about Soulja Boy. Normally I try to share with the readers some relevant biographical or factual information about the artist in question, but in SB's case I just don't care. There's also the tried and true method of talking about the artist's success (or failure) on previous albums, but SB had only one retail album under his belt before this one. 9 times out of 10 I try to start reviews on a positive or informative note even if in the end I'm going to trash the entire album as being garbage. After thinking about it long and hard I finally came up with three positive things I could say about SB and his last album. Hip-Hop needed more steel drums in it and "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" provided some. "Soulja Girl" was a cliched but otherwise halfway decent quiet storm song. SB (or his ghostwriter) actually made me laugh on "Report Card" by parodying Rich Boy. That's it. Soulja Boy fans (and I know you're out there) may want to stop reading right now. Hit the back button on your browser. Click on the Google search bar and search for anything - free music, porn, directions to Wal*Mart, whatever. The words that follow will offend SB's fans as much as listening to SouljaBoyTellEm.com offended me. I have to get this off my chest before I can review his new album. When people said hip-hop was dead in 2007 they were talking about YOUUUUUU Soulja Boy. Your music is as painful to listen to as your dance is painful to watch. Nobody wants to hear you talk about how great your tennis shoes and your cell phones are for three minutes straight every song. The makers of Fruity Loops should be drug out in the streets and beaten with your Bathing Apes for ever giving you the ability to become a musician. If people told me they thought rap was moronic because they heard "Crank That" on the radio I'd have no good response. Spelling "soldier" wrong is not clever because the Bone Thugs family already did that over a decade ago. Last but not least Ice-T might be an old man but you should have a little more fucking respect considering that old man helped to create the industry you now make your (undeserved) living off of. I'd tell your young ass to grow the fuck up but I don't want to wait around three years until you're legally old enough to drink, so FUCK OFF. Kanye if you really think he's any good you can kiss my ass too. I feel much better. With that off my chest I'm willing to wipe the slate clean and give Soulja Boy a second chance. Maybe he's improved as a lyricist in the last year - after all Lil Wayne started off pretty mediocre and wound up being pretty damn good. It's good to see Soulja Boy brought in some outside producers this time instead relying so much on himself and his copy of FL Studio. In fact looking at the liner notes actually got me mildly interested in listening to his CD, which is a minor miracle in itself. I see several of the big names of 2008 in the credits - Drumma Boy produced "Rubber Bands," Polow Da Don produced "Yamaha Mama" featuring Sean Kingston and Jim Jonsin laced "Kiss Me Thru the Phone" featuring Sammie. Before we can get to any of that though we have to start with his self-produced lead single "Bird Walk":...full text |
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