Soulja Boy
DeAndre Way was seventeen when he self-released "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" through his own website and MySpace page in 2007, riding the track and its dance to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with essentially no label behind him. He became one of the first rap stars built entirely on internet virality, and his melodic, half-sung, ad-lib-driven delivery on records like "Turn My Swag On" fed directly into the sound a young Chief Keef would pick up a few years later.
Soulja Boy's musical influences have been traced to Atlanta snap acts like Dem Franchize Boyz, whose stripped-to-nothing, hand-clap productions are a direct ancestor of the bare-bones beats Soulja Boy built his own hits on.
listen forPlay "Lean wit It, Rock wit It" next to "Crank That (Soulja Boy)": both are basically a dance instruction set laid over a beat you could count on one hand.
D4L's "Laffy Taffy" is one of the Atlanta snap records that shaped Soulja Boy's generation, proof that a chanted, near-instrumentation-free hook could still take over the Billboard Hot 100.
listen forLine up "Laffy Taffy" with "Turn My Swag On": same trick of a chant-along hook riding a nearly empty beat.
The Ying Yang Twins' call-and-response, crowd-participation records out of Atlanta's crunk and snap scene are among the acts credited as an influence on Soulja Boy's own bare, dance-driven singles.
listen forCompare "Whistle While You Twurk" to "Pretty Boy Swag": both hand the hook over to the crowd and let a minimal beat do the rest.