By Odeisel

It’s been three years since Soulja Boy Tellem dropped “Crank Dat” and had the world Supermanning hoes. While the old guard decried the song as trash, its energy was infectious and undeniable and there was a wait and see approach to whether you could take it seriously. Three years later he’s almost 21, and the growth that could have been, didn’t really happen. His latest release The Deandre Way a play on his real name, with a few exceptions, is more of the same music.

“First Day of School” is baby rap, with Soulja Boy truncating the ends of his stanzas Juiceman style, sounding really goo goo gaga amid piano work and surprisingly precise string work. The Lex Luger school or production is in full effect with snare drums, synth keys, revved up noise, tubas and double time drums on “Touchdown.” Mr. Way continues his unintelligible verses, proudly rapping “like Gucci Mane.”

Fellow one trick pony Trey Songz shows up on “Hey Cutie.” Slow R&B production x powers the track while Tre does his R.Kelly lite crooning in the worst of both worlds. Dad mad glad rapping is prevalent but Soulja Boy’s diction mid verse sneaks out and you see that the ignorance is all an act. That knowledge only makes the song worse.

He abandons the Gucci Mane/Juice Man cadence for one of the few bright spots on the album, Speakers Going Hammer.” The flow he displays on the track puts the lie to his being incapable of that kind of skill. The story is one you’ve heard before: when I had nothing no one supported, now that I got it going on everybody show me love. By now you had to have been infected by the mania of “Pretty Boy Swag.” While no one takes it seriously, you will find your ass caught up jamming to this even if you are trying to be funny and parody it.

“30 Thousand 100 Million” unites SB with phenom Lil B over a haphazard beat fraught with hand claps, low bass, and silly lines like “my dick taste like ribs” and “hoes on my dick cause I rock like Mick Jagger.”It’s like giving your teenage nephew Garage Band for Christmas and listening to the outcome of him and his homies after a 4Loko bender. The muscular “Mean Mug,” featuring 50 Cent is also a highlight. While SB is hard to take seriously with tough talk, he does a nice job showing another aspect of his skill set, only magnifying how bad the baby rap is.

Synth strings and autotune combine two of the most cliché pop elements of pop music along with “AAAAAY” to produce the putrid “Blowing Me Kisses.” Not one element of the song is original, including the melody, chorus, lyrics or sentiment. “Fly” takes the album in a drastically different direction. SB drops a new flow to an electric guitar-tinged high paced drum track. While not lyrically expansive he at least attempts to showcase growth in his music. Esther Dean assists on the closeout song “Grammy.”

A key line in the track “I understand the fans-supply and demand” speaks to Soulja Boy’s approach to music making: appeal to whatever the fans want. That approach has given SB’s career much longer legs than anyone would have thought. That’s The DeAndre Way.  Right now, SB is Zack Morris, Denise Huxtable, Jughead or Will From The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire. There is enough talent to believe in them and be maddened by their shortfall in potential. You just don’t know if he’ll ever deliver. As long as his fans are satisfied, however, he’ll continue to get his way.

Pretty Boy Swag 05-soulja_boy-pretty_boy_swag

2.25 out of 5

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