Soulja Boy delivers surprisingly solid sophomore effort

01/28/09 - In addition to being the same day that rappers Kaine (of the Ying Yang Twins) and Flo Rida were born, December 16 yielded yet another milestone in hip -hop with the release of Soulja Boy Tell 'Em's second album entitled "iSouljaBoyTellEm." I say milestone because, whether you like his music or not, Soulja Boy is one of the youngest rappers in the game and definitely one of the most successful. His debut album, "souljaboytellem.com," was an instant hit with songs such as "Crank That," which was the number one song on Billboard's Hot 100 for seven weeks and inspired thousands of kids to record themselves performing the dance that went hand in hand with the song, and "Bapes," which no doubt skyrocketed Bathing Ape's stock in 2007.

Just like any album that follows an album that was incredibly popular, "iSouljaBoyTellEm" had a great deal to prove and live up to. Soulja Boy, now 18 years old, had to really work hard to make this next album at least on par with the last so that he could maintain his credibility as a rapper and musician and to let the world know that he wasn't just a flash in the pan.

Right away my initial reaction after hearing the first 20 seconds of the CD was that this album had far better production values than the first. His debut album sounded much more raw and significantly less refined than this new release. I could definitely tell that more time and money had been put into this CD, which is always a good thing.

Soulja Boy's style of rap originates from the southern part of the United States, specifically Atlanta, and is fairly new relative to rap from New York and LA. It is known in the industry as Snap or Trap music, although many will say that the two are in all respects different.

Whatever one decides to call it, the music is characterized by a beat consisting of deep bass, a plethora of different percussion instruments and, most importantly, a human produced snap. This coupled with a repetitive hook makes up this increasingly popular form of hip-hop.

The first track, "I'm Bout Tha Stax," sets the tone for the rest of the album. Hard-hitting beats and in-your-face lyrics made it the perfect song to start off this highly energetic album. When listening to this first song I could definitely tell that Soulja Boy, now 18, has matured a little bit. That is not to say that writing a song describing your love of money is mature, but it is definitely more mature than a lot of other songs in the pop music spectrum.

I found the second song on the album to be the most interesting although I am not quite sure how to react to it. The name of the song is called "Bird Walk" and it basically is a new "Crank That" in that it is a song about a new dance that Soulja Boy has created. The only difference is that it its far less involved than "Crank That" and, unless you're Soulja Boy or a Blue Jay, anyone who tries to do it ends up looking like G.O.B. Bluth.

Another song I found entertaining- pretty much only because of who was in it- was "Gucci Bandana." Making an appearance in the song were Shawty Lo and the aptly named Gucci Mane. The combination of the three made, what could have been a boring song an interesting one, although repetition of beat and lyrics was still prevalent.

Shawty Lo and Gucci weren't the only artists to perform with Soulja Boy. Sammie, Yo Gotti and fellow young and talented artist Sean Kingston also made their voices heard on the album.

The last song of note on the album will definitely be his most successful due to the fact that it is appealing to almost everyone. Pop, Hip-hop, R&B, and general catchy song fans will all have "Kiss Me Thru the Phone" in their music libraries, and probably as their ringtones.

Generally I don't really appreciate that one song on a given album that makes it to the radio but in this case it was refreshing to hear anything that broke up the monotony of this album. The hook wasn't repeated 50 times and the beat was better than most.

All in all, I thought this album was okay. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I think one of the fundamental issues of this album is a confliction between the style of the music and the content. Not to knock Soulja Boy's street cred, but the music he is performing usually involves heavier, grittier lyrics and subject material.

Soulja Boy's age and background is both a gift and curse in this respect. He is too young to have the maturity level of Gucci and Jeezy, and definitely hasn't lived anywhere close to the same life. Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for the young rapper.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the album. At a party, in a club, in Coup DeVille this CD is great. The deep bass of the beat makes it very fun to listen to at a high volume.

Overall, I give "iSouljaBoyTellEm" a B. It isn't an A because the content didn't match the style of music and many times its repetitive nature could be tiresome. It isn't a C because of its entertainment value.