Soulja Boy Walked So Lil Nas X May Run

Written by Danielle Ransom

“Memes and viral go hand in hand. If you happen to get become a meme, you’re viral. If you happen to’re viral, then you definately’re a meme.” 

These have been the sensible phrases of DeAndre Cortez Manner a.ok.a Soulja Boy in a current interview with BET for the digital sequence “I Went Viral.” In recent times, Soulja Boy has coasted by on his social media relevance greater than his musical output. So his phrases may look like the sport plan of an influencer, which Soulja Boy form of is, or somebody capitalizing off traits as a substitute of music. To others, he may even sound like a sell-out. Positive, there’s nothing fallacious with musicians utilizing social media boards to maintain their followers engaged, however brazenly admitting to attempting to go viral is one other factor. 

 

It’s true that digital streaming platforms are delivering a demise knell to conventional income fashions throughout the trade, and perhaps that’s in charge. However there’s one other phenomenon that helped give boon to a brand new age of music, dominated by memes: Southern-led dance rap. 

And who has extra experience on this space, aside from Soulja Boy? Social media was in its infancy when artists like Soulja Boy, New Boyz, and DJ Unk have been developing, however they supplied a blueprint for artists to bypass the normal approach of breaking into not simply hip-hop circles, however the trade as a complete. 

When Southern rap first began effervescent up on the forefront of the scene, the lyricism was thought of missing by the outdated guard. However a key facet that carried this model of rapping into the mainstream was dance, entrance and heart, alongside catchy hooks and instrumentals, which was prime materials for going viral on YouTube.

After the hype round Southern dance rap died down, music skittered again to a extra conventional approach of working. Pop stars and prime acts caught with the standard template of drawn out roll-outs on par with the joy of a circus coming to city. However the factor is, these are largely musicians who grew up earlier than cellphones turned commonplace so that they have been following the blueprint that was established by acts within the 80s and 90s. 

That’s to not say that innovation stopped taking place or didn’t occur earlier than. Beyoncé broke the mildew when she surprise-dropped her eponymous visible album, which was then adopted by one other cinematographic opus, Lemonade. Jay-Z has just about been forward of the curve marketing-wise his entire profession. Run The Jewels has largely operated exterior of mainstream. However on the core, music has at all times been the impetus. 

This new technology of musicians, nevertheless, are both millennials who can nonetheless bear in mind when dial-up was a factor and have been youngsters when Southern rap dance was everywhere in the charts; or Era Z-ers who’ve largely grown up with the web at their fingertips. 

Southern dance rap did greater than present us with timeless cook-out bops—they formed how youthful generations eat their music. The preferred format? Memes. Apps just like the now-defunct Vine, WorldStarHipHop, Instagram and TikTok is the place music combobulated earlier than it was commonplace to see issues like Meryl Streep shouting out bars from Mike Jones’ “Nonetheless Tippin’.”

These apps have additionally helped rap songs like Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” and Drake’s “Hotline Bling” buoy to new heights or allow newcomers like Lil Pump (who went from SoundCloud rapper to in a single day sensation after dropping “Gucci Gang”) to interrupt onto the scene. Whereas Cardi and Drake most likely didn’t write their songs with the intention of going viral, Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang” was tailored for a social media obsessed technology. Even Lizzo’s “Fact Hurts” blew up after it took over TikTok. Social media is virtually Era Z’s model of American Idol.

Buzz is now not solely about who can get the most well liked collaboration or come out with a brand new model, à la Rihanna throughout her Good Lady Gone Unhealthy period. It’s additionally about what can generate buzz on social media by lyrics primed as social media content material.

It peer pressures even probably the most resistant of us into seeing what all of the hype is about through Twitter captions, Instagram playbacks and memes that pervade each nook of the web. Bobby Shmurda’s “Sizzling N*gga” grow to be an immediate phenomenon in 2014 when it took off on Vine. Bobby Shmurda had a stroke of luck and timing on his aspect, which is what increasingly acts not simply financial institution on, however attempt to engineer altogether. 

It most likely would not assist that artist growth has grow to be a relic of the previous with firms signing extra artists than they’ll presumably promote, and artists struggling to domesticate fan bases that received’t drop them when the subsequent largest hit steamrolls Billboard. Report labels can’t recreate the sensation and feelings that we get from songs, which is why hit songs can’t be manufactured so simply. But memes are second greatest, evidently.

Which brings us to Lil Nas X. 

Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” arguably walked in order that Lil Nas X’s “Outdated City Highway” may run, and run it has. Soulja Boy organically blew up with “Crank Dat” attributable to well-liked demand that didn’t come from any social engineering of his personal doing. From there, he did grow to be extra clued in to utilizing the web for advertising and as an extension to his profession. Now, the SoundCloud rat pack is utilizing the muse Soulja laid, with Lil Nas X main the way in which.

In lower than six months, Lil Nas X went from a school dropout to the only hottest star that America is presently obsessive about after his country-infused lure tune conquered the U.S.—and presumably the entire world.

It has hit new heights and damaged information in a approach that’s by no means been executed earlier than, which isn’t mere coincidence. He was signed to Atlantic regardless of not having some other music. In an interview with the Rolling Stone, Lil Nas X stated he purposely wrote lyrics for “Outdated City Highway” that could possibly be used as captions for social media.

“It was the primary tune I genuinely formulated,” he instructed the publication. “I used to be like, ‘I gotta make it quick, I gotta make it catchy, I gotta have quotable traces that folks wish to use as captions.’ Particularly with the ‘horses within the again’ line. I used to be like, ‘That is one thing persons are gonna say daily.’ 

Whereas Soulja Boy was navigating uncharted territory, Lil Nas X emerges a well-experienced navigator agilely browsing the channels. Lil Nas X has probably the most streamed tune of the 12 months by a landslide of some hundred million, whereas his precise album solely bought 77,000 models, of which solely three,853 have been precise album gross sales, in keeping with the New York Occasions. What’s extra, “Outdated City Highway” has formally tied the document for probably the most weeks spent on prime of the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart.

Lil Nas X used social media to show his tune from a meme into the nation’s largest document at the moment. Its catchy refrains, stylized beats, and easy lyrics are straightforward for Era Z-ers to catch on and relatable sufficient for older generations hip to the present musical local weather. 

Memes, or simply going viral, are social foreign money not deterred by boundaries similar to geographic location, time zones or language. It’s transient and always altering. 

Apparently, rap memes are bringing again the appearance of dance challenges just like the #woahchallenge and #hitthequan to the purpose that large names within the trade are partaking, similar to Beyonce’s #BeforeILetGo and Ciara’s #LevelUp. 

The 2 seemingly divergent lyrical types have come full circle. It’s a must to marvel: is that this the demise of pop stars as we all know it or will our subsequent icon come purely from social media? That’s a meme in itself.

(L, Photograph by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Photographs for Trend Media); (R, Photograph credit score ought to learn JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX/AFP/Getty Photographs)

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