"Soulja Boy Tell Em was born DeAndre Ramone Way on Jul 28, 1990 in Chicago, Illinois. When he was seven the young Soulja Boy Tell Em marched south to Atlanta, where he lived until he was 14, at which point he re-stationed in Mississippi with his father. Soulja Boy was influenced heavily by Southern rappers like Lil Jon, Master P and Crime Mob, and his musical ambitions were encouraged by his dad, whose recording studio Soulja Boy Tell Em used to develop a sound. When he graduated his self-taught recording boot camp, Soulja Boy Tell Em shipped out by way of the internet. He posted songs on MySpace and YouTube, including the track that would become synonymous with the artist himself, ""Crank That (Soulja Boy).""The internet videos for ""Crank That"" contained an easy-to-learn dance that went along with the song's lyrics. ""Crank That"" was first released on Soulja Boy Tell Em's sparsely selling debut album Unsigned & Still Major- Da Album Before da Album in 2007. It re-appeared on his next album, souljaboytellem.com, along with other chartable singles which were originally on Unsigned & Still Major, tracks like ""Booty Meat"" and ""I Got Me Some Bapes.""Critics were split on Soulja Boy Tell Em's first two albums, with some supporting the millions and millions of troops who loved to download his tunes and dance his catchy moves at clubs, and others decrying the songs for their oversimplified, sometimes nonsensical lyrics. But whichever camp you find yourself in, you can't deny a couple of facts. First of all, Soulja Boy Tell Em knows how to recruit fans who purchase CDs. Secondly, there's still plenty of time left in Soulja Boy Tell Em's career for him to make music that's more intelligent and meaningful. What will the future hold for this budding rap superstar? Keep listening to the radio to find out, because Soulja Boy Tell Em is bound to rap his way back to the top of the charts sometime very soon."
