In 2007 there was perhaps no one on earth more notorious than DeAndre Way, better known as Soulja Boy. His signature style of simplified, self-produced snap music swept the world as lead single "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)" quickly rocketed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and he made himself a multimillionaire at age 17, no small feat for a young black teenager from Georgia making beats in his bedroom. As his star rose, snarky critics pounced, decrying his success as the final nail in the coffin of both human intellect and music as an art form. Even as oldheads and crotchety critics collectively attempted to boo him out of existence, Soulja Boy kept racking up the Ws, and today boasts a net worth of over $30 million. On Make it Stop's penultimate episode of the season Heather and Mike do their best to reckon with the outrageous context in which Soulja Boy's debut album Souljaboytellem.com wormed its way into the public consciousness, and we try to suss out some meaning, some sort of pithy lesson, from its utterly vapid tracklist. Comedian Sean Rosa joins in as well. We do our best. And who gets to suffer through it with us? YOOOOOOUUUUUUUU! Part of the Pantheon Podcasts Network.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices