S. Samuel
Atlanta rapper Soulja Boy Tell Em's buzz has reached electronic mashup musician Girl Talk who finds the 21 year-old hip-hop star heavily misunderstood.
In Girl Talk’s eyes, hip-hop critics need to dig deeper into the inner laying of Soulja Boy’s music.
“This is a long conversation for me, but Soulja Boy. Maybe not most underappreciated, but definitely most misunderstood. It’s so surface level to say, “Oh, he’s a bad rapper.” If you delve into his mixtapes, you’ll find he’s a great example of someone who does what he wants to do. His stuff gets weird. I like people that are able to make accessible pop music, but are also not afraid to get nuts with it. He’s a guy who has had hits, who can be on the radio, but on these mixtapes he goes in like crazy.” (Complex)
The deejay, known for mashing samples together, also said he co-signs Soulja Boy’s often off-beat raps.
“I know he’s highly influenced by Lil B, a lot of that left-field stuff. You know, Soulja is the only person I follow on Twitter. All the time, people say, “Why do you follow the worst rapper in the world?” Daily, I hear that. I can’t even respond to that. I like music that’s dissonant; I like when he sings off-key, I like when the raps are sloppy. Because he’s not always like that; he goes both ways. He can deliver a hot single. It’s like the ’60s girl group the Shags. They couldn’t play their instruments but they still made interesting pop music. He came up as a kiddie rapper, people labeled him that. But now he’s coming into his own as a weirdo. Still, no one can see past the ring-tone rapper thing. But go into a club and put on “Pretty Boy Swag.” It’ll pop off.” (Complex)
Girl Talk’s buzz dates back to the early 2000’s with high energy sounds and performances.
Girl Talk is the pseudonym of DJ and remixer Greg Gillis. A Pittsburgh native who works as a biomedical research engineer during the day, Gillis channels his other creative energies into Girl Talk, whose sample-based dance tracks have made him the John Oswald or Christian Marclay of the mash-up generation: each of his songs are built on recognizable samples of recent hit singles, recontextualized into an entirely new piece. Not just a geeky studio boffin, Gillis is also a manic, intense live performer known for his high-speed exhortations into the mic and tendency to strip to his underwear on-stage while dancing circles around his laptop and DJ setup. (All Music)
Outside of music, Soulja Boy recently contemplated going to college.
“honestly what do you think about college? is it good is it bad is the system valuable? speak from experience.,” he tweeted August 26th.
“I want the experience of college but some people say i’ll be hustling backwards because I already made it financially. but…”
“I know people personally who I won’t mention (I have my reasons) who went to college 4 years got their degree and today are flat broke.”
“is it a good investment? I really need to speak to those people who have experienced college and can speak from real situations. thank you”
“so I guess it all boils down to this.. money or education? you go to school to get a job right? or do yo go to school to get knowledge?” (Soulja Boy Tell Em’s Twitter)
Check out some recent Soulja Boy Tell Em footage below:
