Yahh Trick

Since I've been in such a rap mood lately I've decided to bring to you another hilarious rap video that I've come across. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of Soulja Boy. He's a young rapper from Chicago known best for his hit single "Crank That" in 2007. Now the most popular opinion is that he's a horrible rapper with god awful songs and annoyingly repetitive lyrics. PopMatter's Interviews Editor Evan Swadey says,

Though Soulja Boy can still crank out a good production here and there, he ultimately comes off as a less-imaginative Lil' Jon, relying more on the hook than the actual melody. The most grating aspect of the entire album is simply how Soulja Boy feels that a chorus can constitute of nothing more than a single spoke phrase repeated roughly 50 ties within the span of a three-minute song. Aside from the fact that every track on the album can be trimmed down by at least a minute, this repeated vocal sample technique is used mainly to distract from the face that as a rapper, Soulja Boy's talents are unbelievably weak.

I would like to branch away from that and bring up the fact that most rappers now a days are completely self absorbed and take themselves way too seriously. (Reference Gucci Mane in my previous post) Soulja Boy is a rare exception that I've found. Its most apparent in his songs and videos that he hardly takes himself seriously. Sure, some rappers rap about stupid things, and Soulja Boy definitely does, but his videos add a greater sense of humor and practical joking than one would find in most videos now a days. Even Swadey says "while it is predictably mediocre, few could have ever expected it to be so utterly bizarre. As a matter of fact, it borders on unintentionally hilarious."

Soulja Boy- Yahh Trick Yahh

In this video, Soulja Boys' obnoxious video game comes alive to help him talk about a new crude and audacious way of getting people out of your face. Soulja Boy and Arab walk around their town screaming " Yahh Trick Yahh" at all the people that try and talk to them. The two eventually end up at their school in their class room where they transition into a new song "Report Card." Report card starts off with the lyrics, "You Know When You Just Get Your Report Card, And You Have All F's On It? You Just Wanna Take It Back To The Teacher And Say To Throw Some D's On That Bitch!" The rest of the song doesn't really stray too far away from the main point. To make my point for me, Soulja Boy ends the song by adressing the viewers and saying, "I was just playing kids. Y'all know I made straight A's. Listen to "Soulja Boy tell 'em." Stay in school." This statement is finished off with the cheesiest of all cheesy smiles in existence.

I truly believe that this kid is just living and enjoying what life has given him while continuing to have fun doing what he does best: putting out another crazy, hilarious song. He has his own website and youtube.com page that he is constantly managing. He responds to fans and keeps them updated on his life.

Perhaps the most surprising of all is that Soulja Boy not only produced his album, Tell Em, himself, but he also did almost all of the production work. Personally, I feel that the few outside producers actually created some of the weaker points in the album. "Sidekick," produced by The Package Store, is one of the worst songs on the album. It serves as a repetitive and annoying advertisement for the Sidekick Cell Phone. Regardless, I do recommend this artist to you, the reader, and encourage you to look him up on youtube. I easily spent 30 min watching him do ridiculous things. His stream "Rich N***a Shit" is quite funny. There is even a Gucci reference in the first part.