After releasing his latest album, The DeAndre Way earlier this week, Soulja Boy has been doing extensive press. Sitting down with Complex.com, the former teen sensation opened up his iPod (or home CD shelves) to reveal his 25 favorite albums of all-times. Respectably, the Interscope Records star did not select from his own catalog, but spotlighted his artist, Lil B, for his 2009 album 6 Kiss.
While spotlighting albums ranging from Shawty Lo's Units In The City to Nas' Hip-Hop Is Dead, Soulja showed his range in the ranked list. Additionally, SB feels particularly impressed by this year, including releases from Curren$y, Drake and Eminem.
#25. Trey Songz, Ready (2009)
Favorite song: "LOL
" f/ Gucci Mane & Soulja BoySoulja Boy: “This album solidified Trey Songz as that dude in R&B, and he had me on it. And he toured with Jay-Z after that. The new R. Kelly? Hmmm. [Laughs.]”
#24. Michael Jackson, Thriller (1982)
Favorite song: "Thriller"
Soulja Boy: “I feel disrespectful putting this at No. 24. It should be No. 1, but [this interview] just came so last minute and it popped in my head. But Michael Jackson’s Thriller because all of the dance moves. The Lean Forward and the Moonwalk are legendary. The knife fight, the dance, and the red jacket and zippers from ’Thriller.’”
#23. Juvenile, 400 Degreez (1998)
Favorite song: "Ha"
Soulja Boy: “I was young as fuck. I was in the hood, living on Simpson Road in Atlanta, Georgia. In Zone 1. He was like, 'You lookin at them little girls ha.’ That nigga was snappin’ on ’em. I just really like the way Juvenile was flexed up. He reminded me of someone who was just fresh as fuck. My mama used to listen to him. My mama light-skinned and Juvenile light-skinned. Then he was already thuggin’ and he already be bumpin’. I could just super-relate to him. That was probably my favorite rapper at that point. Man, I used to love Juvenile. That nigga had the grill. Where you think I got that Soulja shit from?”
#22. Shawty Lo, Units In The City (2008)
Favorite song: "Dey Know"
Soulja Boy: “His swag. I can relate to him ’cause I was living in the same hood that he was rapping about. He was rapping ’bout Zone 1. He was rapping about Bankhead, but that’s still Zone 1. That’s like right by Simpson Road, but it’s still Atlanta, though. So I can super-relate to it ’cause even though I had moved to Mississippi, that’s all I listened to. I remember listening to that album when I was flying to Japan. From here to Japan I listened to the whole album all the way through the whole flight.”
#21. Three 6 Mafia, Most Known Unknown (2005)
Favorite song: "Stay Fly" f/ Young Buck & 8ball & MJG
Soulja Boy: “This is the one that they won the Oscar for. That blew them the fuck up! Nigga, they did a TV show: Adventures In Hollyhood.”
#20. Drake, Thank Me Later (2010)
Favorite song: "Miss Me" f/ Lil Wayne
Soulja Boy: “When I was in the hood unsigned and I ain't have nothing, watching TV, I saw [Drake] on Degrassi. I saw him get shot on the show. I saw him turn around and start running. Pap! Pap! I was watching that and after I got famous, sold 12 million with ’Crank That,’ did a million albums with Souljaboytellem.com, Drake came outta nowhere. And then niggas was like, 'Thats the same dude from that show, Degrassi.’ I was like, ’For real? I used to watch that show. That's the dude that got shot?' And then when I heard “Miss Me” I was in the studio with Bun B and we was working on Bun B's album. He was like, 'I'ma play this song me and Drake did. Check it out.' He played that bitch and that nigga said, 'Tell me what’s really going on/Drizzy back up in this thing, I’m ready, what’s hannenin’. ' I picked up the phone and I called Drake like, 'I'm in the studio with Bun B. I just heard that song.' He was like, 'Yeah man, I had to pay homage. I had to bring back a classic.' ’Cause you know [the song Drake got the line from] ’What’s Hannenin’ wasn't even big at all. That's like underground Soulja Boy. That's like 2006 no-MySpace Soulja Boy. That wasn’t on no album. That was off Soundclick. So that meant Drake was listening to my shit all the way back then. That song old as fuck. You had to be a Soulja Boy superfan just to catch that. That's what made that super-dope. The whole album was good. He can sing and rap, so it was over with.
#19. Nas, Hip-Hop Is Dead (2006)
Favorite song: "Hip Hop Is Dead" f/ will.i.am
Soulja Boy: “He caused a lot of controversy with that album and I had to listen to it. I was like, 'Man, what the fuck, why this nigga said hip-hop dead? Lemme listen to this from beginning to end and get what I get from it.' And, I ain't really get no dis from it. I think he was throwin’ compliments on certain songs. I can't remember the whole album, but I do remember some of the things that he was saying. I just felt like he should've named it something different. ’Cause if you gonna name something Hip-Hop Is Dead, I'm expecting the first song to come on angry. He was on some deep shit. He was on some, ’The record labels....’ But that's a part of hip-hop. Like you open up that book and it's a chapter right there and you gotta read that shit if you gon’ be in this game.”
#18. Snoop Dogg, Malice n Wonderland (2009)
Favorite song: "Pronto" f/ Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy: “I was on that motherfucker with Snoop. A fucking legend from the West Coast that used to rap with Tupac. Don't you know I rapped with a nigga that rapped on a song with Tupac? He was bumpin’ [“Pronto”] like, 'Soulja, you snapped.' And I was like, 'Ah, fuck, I'm with Snoop Dogg.' His other album—I ain't gonna put it on there, but the album where his cover was a cartoon, Doggystyle, gets honorable mention. Classic. I just said this one ’cause I’m on there.”
#17. Crime Mob, Crime Mob (2004)
Favorite song: "Knuck If You Buck" f/ Lil Scrappy
Soulja Boy: “It finally let me hear two young bitches snappin’. And they was snappin’ harder than the niggas. I was like, 'Damn, these girls get me crunk as fuck.' They had a brand new flow. Everybody started rapping like them for a certain period of time. I really started rapping rapping after that. ’Cause if you go back and listen to the 30/30 Boys mixtape with me and Arab, that's basically the whole Crime Mob influence. And, then the whole influence wore off and after that niggas had to start rapping different again. But at that time, they had it, especially Lil’ Jay.”
#16. D4L Down For Life (2005) / Dem Franchize Boyz On Top of Our Game (2006)
Favorite song: "Lean Wit It" / "Laffy Taffy"
Soulja Boy: “When I heard the Franchise Boyz album, I think at that point I was rapping and I had just started to make beats. So when I listened to the album I didn't hear anything but the beat machine. I heard the kick and the snap. The same shit that I was using. The beats was real bumpin’. Today I go back and listen to both of those albums and I can see the whole pattern in my head because I'm a super-producer right now. If I listen to any one of them songs, I can see the whole pattern. Both albums had the same sound. It's hard to explain, but they started something. They popped off the whole new-school hip-hop shit. Them two together sparked Soulja Boy. When that shit popped, that was the creation of Soulja Boy.”
#15. Kid Cudi, Man On The Moon: End of Day (2009)
Favorite song: "Day N Nite"
Soulja Boy: “Kid Cudi's just dope, period. I was in the studio with him when I was in the studio with Kanye, and he plugged up his iPhone and was playing shit that's not even out yet that he’d recently recorded. I was like, 'Damn, this nigga bumping like a motherfucker.' The choice of beats and the way that nigga was singing, that shit just had me liking that bitch wild. Now I'm kinda mad ’cause I can't hear that shit no more ’cause he played it off of his iPhone so there ain’t no tellin’ when he gonna release the shit. [Ed.—This interview was done before Kid Cudi’s sophomore album, Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager, was released.]
#14. Eminem, Recovery (2010)
Favorite song: "No Love" f/ Lil Wayne
Soulja Boy: “He admitted that his last album was trash. And I was like, 'Yeah, I agree.' I can come to the realization now that you know my last album wasn't really, you know... I had success with certain singles, but he was man enough to come to that and admitted it in bars. So I was like, 'Damn, I have respect for that.' And then he came back and the new shit was way better. I mean, iSouljaBoyTellEm, I was impressed with the singles. Well, I won’t say the album [was disappointing], but I'm talking about the success of the album. So when he said, ’Let’s be honest, that last Relapse CD was eh.’ I was like, ’Yeah, I can agree with that.’ Recovery was better than Relapse. The first single [from Relapse] was like “WTF?” Him and Dr. Dre in the video? I didn't get that. Because at this point we hadn't heard from Eminem in a while and that was like his comeback. I was in L.A. listening to the radio like, 'Whoa, OK.' They was playing the hell outta him on the radio, but I was like, 'Nah.' And then he came hard with ’Love The Way You Lie’ and then that song with Lil Wayne.”
#13. Rick Ross, Teflon Don (2010)
Favorite song: "Free Mason" f/ Jay-Z & John Legend
Soulja Boy: “Give that boy his props. Let that fat man cook! And he’s from Clarksdale, Mississippi, right down from our hood. And he used to trap. Rick Ross is the shit. Amazing beats, plus he knows how to fucking rap. He's one of the best rappers out.”
#12. Jay-Z, The Blueprint (2001)
Favorite song: "Song Cry"
Soulja Boy: “It felt like something that was art. It was creative. It had an architectural feel to it. ’Cause it was like The Blueprint. Niggas get deep and read between the lines. It wasn't like I'm listening to an album just bumpin’ it in the park. This nigga got a concept that's well thought-out. Jay Z’s a beast.”
#11. Ludacris, Word Of Mouf (2001)
Favorite song: "Rollout (My Business)"
Soulja Boy: “This is before I was Soulja Boy. Still DeAndre Way in school. I don't know how I got this album. My mom probably bought it for me. That shit was bumpin’. I had my little CD player. I wasn't in Zone 1. I don’t know what Zone it was, but I was right by West End Mall. I was in middle school and [the first song, ’Coming 2 America’] comes on, 'The Royal Penis is clean, your highness.' [Starts singing ’Roll Out’] I knew that whole verse. You can't even recite that shit like I can recite that shit. If you remember, each verse off that shit was super-tongue-twisting. I used to get hoes off just reciting that shit in school. I used to know it word for word. I'm telling you, you gotta look it up and just listen. Like, he was really saying some shit. I can't remember none of that now, but back then when I was that age, I remember writing that shit, rewinding, write it, rewind it, write it, and then I’d get the whole thing and rap that shit all the way through.”
#10. T.I., Trap Muzik (2003)
Favorite song: "24s"
Soulja Boy: “That was T.I. in his prime. That was the perfect T.I. I was like, ’Damn, T.I.'s the shit’ when I first heard it. He was really from Atlanta. I could hear it in his voice. This is the point when I was still in Atlanta. His accent was just super-heavy. And it was when the trap music started to pop off and he was one of the ones who started that whole trap shit. After that everything became trap this, trap that.”
#9. Lil Boosie, Bad Azz (2006)
Favorite song: "When You Gonna Drop"
Soulja Boy: “That was Boosie’s breakthrough. That's when he finally got the recognition that I thought he deserved. I been bumping Boosie way before he got on TV. I made it before Boosie made it. Wait, Boosie made it before me because he had ’Zoom.’ Not [’Gimme Dat’] because that was really Webbie who blew up off that.”
#8. Lil B, 6 Kiss (2009)
Favorite song: "Birth Of Rap"
Soulja Boy: “It was just a good album. I listened to it a lot. The beats were just on a whole different level. The lyrics were really on point. It was an album that I truly listened to. If you asked me, 'Yo, Soulja Boy, what albums you listen to?' I truly listened to that album. They post videos of me on Worldstarhiphop, so I was on Worldstarhiphop and then I saw a video of him laying in bed talking to a girl on the phone and he was crying or some shit. I was like, ’Damn, that nigga crying.' It was on some deep shit. He was talking about races and he wanted black people and white people to get along. He was crying like he really meant what he was saying on the video. I was like, 'Who the fuck is Lil B?' Then they were like, ’He was Lil B from The Pack.’ So I thought back to the ’Vans’ song and that was way before I made it. They were on TV when I was still in school. So, I was like, 'Dude must know some shit about the game.' That was a big hit. They shoulda made some money off that. So I typed in Lil B and listened to a song and the first song I heard was ’Meet Young Bitch.’ And then I signed him to S.O.D.”
#7. Cam'ron, Purple Haze (2004)
Favorite song: "Killa Cam"
Soulja Boy: “That was a classic-ass album. That shit was hard as fuck. I was just fascinated with the idea that there was a New York rapper that I liked so much. I was like, ’Damn this nigga straight from New York, but he got a fresh-ass swag.’ And then his beats be on some other shit and he be snappin’, and he had a fresh-ass flow. [Me being a fan] was like a solo thing. Nobody was listening to him from around my way. [I got up on Cam] from the ’Santana’s Town’ video. That video was fresh as hell and I was on the nigga Cam after that.
#6. Gucci Mane, Traphouse (2005)
Favorite song: "Traphouse"
Soulja Boy: “Gucci is just bumping like a motherfucker, man. I bought his first ever mixtape before he had an album out, so I felt obligated to buy it because he had finally made it when he was on 106 & Park for the first time with Young Jeezy for ’So Icy.’”
#5. Curren$y, Pilot Talk (2010)
Favorite song: "King Kong"
Soulja Boy: “That album was dope as fuck. That nigga’s flow, the choice of beats; that's all I can really say. The beats and the flow were just on point. I was playing that ’Breakfast’ video off YouTube. The whole video was tight and was like, ’Man, this dude can rap like a motherfucker!’ Then I was like, ’Ain't this the nigga that used to be with Lil Wayne?’ I ain’t really listen to him when he was with Lil Wayne, but then I saw his whole personality, swag, and J.E.T.S.”
#4. Kanye West, Graduation (2007)
Favorite song: "Stronger"
Soulja Boy: “That really solidified Kanye. That was one of his biggest albums. That was in the middle of his thing with 50. I just like his whole style and then the sampling. Plus, I got to perform with him at the MTV awards. So we was battling. You remember “Crank That” was No. 1 for seven weeks, then it would drop to No. 2 and “Stronger” was No. 1.”
#3. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III (2008)
Favorite song: "Mr. Carter" f/ Jay-Z
Soulja Boy: “That solidified Wayne as well. He sold a million the first week and ’A Milli’ was on there. That's what won me over about Wayne. I was thoroughly impressed. He had a heavy influence on me. It was like history in the making. Just watching him go on that whole run. All the mixtapes. There were so many. What impressed me was right into that album process how he kept snappin’ song after song. He was doing it for a long-ass time. You expect him to run out of stuff, but he just kept coming. And then after that Drake came.”
#2. 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003)
Favorite song: "Many Men"
Soulja Boy: ”50 Cent was the shit when he first came out. I felt that shit when he said, 'I'm the diamond in the dirt, that ain't been found/I'm the underground king and I ain't been crowned.' Then the video, that shit was hard as hell. He was just that guy. Then you see ’21 questions’ with Nate Dogg and he going at Meagan Good. Then you see, ’P.I.M.P.’ with Snoop Dogg. You gotta put that album on there. That album ended a rapper’s career. How does an album end a rapper’s career? Not too many people do that. You can't say that it was just any old rapper. He was the shit. Had songs with J. Lo and Ashanti. Ja Rule was a beast before 50 came.”
#1. 2pac, All Eyez On Me (1996)
Favorite song: "No More Pain"
Soulja Boy: “I can't even put that into words. 2Pac was just on some whole other shit from all other rappers. Ain’t no other rapper that was on the shit 2Pac was on. That album been remixed and remastered so many times. 2Pac, period. It ain't even about the songs, man. There still ain't no other rapper that gonna ever see 2Pac. That nigga was saying super-real shit. Like, look at these rappers today and look at 2Pac; there ain't no comparison. Look at a nigga like Ice T, not to bring the shit back up, and then look at a nigga like 2Pac. Remember that scene from Poetic Justice where 2Pac plays the song and Joe Torry hated on it and he said, ’Why you always got something negative to say, man? At least a nigga being creative.’ I felt like that nigga was talking directly about me. That’s some real-ass nigga shit to say. You up here hating, trying to knock a motherfucker.”
