What’s Your Excuse Soulja Boy?

From XXL.com Blogger

I may have to cut Brian “B.Dot” Miller a check. All our convos have been turning into blogs as of late.

While discussing B.O.B as part of the new era cats last week, B. Dot pointed out that he was only 19. Hmmmm! I’m not too familiar with his material, but taking “Cloud 9″ for example, B.O.B.’s content partially reflects what I was doing around the same age…getting high. Please don’t tell my mom. The good thing is she hardly speaks English, so I’m probably in the clear. But, basically the 19-year-olds I’ve encountered in my lifetime, me included, were all about girls, sports, hangin’ out, drinkin’, smokin’ and maybe school. Soulja Boy, not so much.

I’ve actually heard little more than his singles and various offering on the net, but from what I’ve gathered, dude’s music isn’t an accurate representation of a 17-year-old black kid in America, or at least the ones I know. Granted, times have changed, but my little cousins of the same age ain’t really trying to “Crank That.” SB may be more of the 17 year-old kid than I know, I just don’t hear it in his music. It’s almost like 8-year old kids relate to him more than high school seniors. Being a “role model” could have something to do with it as well.

See, when critics come down on Soulja Boy, there’s always a cop out that he’s for the kids or that he’s only 17. Ppfffttt! Wasn’t Nas only 17 on Main Source’s “Live At The Barbecue?” “Streets Disciple, my raps are trifle/ I shoot slugs from my brain just like a riffle.” Dude, this is coming from a teenager.

Granted, it’s not given to everybody to be a lyricist, but don’t tell me dudes, no matter what the sub genre, don’t strive to write the flyest stuff they can come up with. Shoot, even Soulja Boy comes off every now and then. Surprisigly, SB said, “you’re a prisoner from my 8 bars” on V.I.C.’s “Get Silly” remix. My dude Rob over here at XXL sent me “Marco Polo,” a song SB got with Bow Wow. Dude said something like, “This is not the Matrix/ but I am the oracle/do you wanna fuck me?/ the question is rhetorical.” Soulja Boy knows what rhetorical means? Considering that “haters get mad cause, I got me some bathing apes” is his most memorable line to date, not bad. Not bad at all.

Bottom line, there’s no excuse why SB shouldn’t come off more often. So what if he’s 17? Andre “3000″ Benjamin was 19 when Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik came out. “I’m only 19, but my mind is old,” Prodigy said on “Shook Ones Pt.2.” He was only 16 when Juvenile Hell dropped. Rakim? Dude was 18 when he penned “My Melody.” Lauryn Hill was 19 when she spit on that “Nappy Heads” remix. What about Shyheim or Lil Jamal from Illegal. Dude was nasty. You get the freakin’ point. Let Soulja Boy be your guilty pleasure if you want to, but don’t give him a pass when it comes to content. So, what’s your excuse DeAndre?