Souja boy, a true Web2.0 success story!
About 8 months ago, the name Soulja boy never really existed , DeAndre Cortez Way was just an average guy, doing routine stuff like going to school, chilling with his friends, minding his own businesses, … basically living the ordinary teenage life.
It’s not up until one day, while riding in his car with his friends from school that he had “this”hip-hop beat at the back of his mind. Soulja Boy desperately wanted to get it out .
And so he did — with the help of Fruitly Loops studio, Soulja Boy created his own beat. He then laid some basic lyrics to it… and there he was . Also, He invented a new dance style to add to it , later , the song was culminated with a low budget music video he recorded with the help of his friends .
He then proceeded by releasing the song on Youtube for feedback in true web2.0 style.
The response was tremendous! In just a few days of the release his single ” Crank That” on Youtube, The song had already gotten millions of views , so much so Youtube servers almost crashed. (Okay , not up to crashing point , but like heavy traffic.)
The name Soulja boy was an instant hit!, the song started getting air plays in the states on various radio stations, and everybody kept wondering who this“Soulja boy” was. Interscope records jumped onto the scene and signed Soulja Boy onto their record label. They then re-done the song with a decent music video, later they released His self titled album, and Soulja Boy went on a Tour.
Now, Thanks to Youtube, Soulja Boy is famous, got his own clothing line, shoeline, he is a millionaire and yeah— he got his own blog too.
So, what exactly can we learn from Soulja Boy’s story? — Two things.
- The importance of Crowd Sourcing and
- Web2.0 investments indeed can bring some huge returns.
The rest we live it to you to analyze and make some conclusions and give feedback too.
Here is the Nigerian verison of Soulja Boy, Naija Boy.