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Rapper first on the scene
By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com
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The Soulja Boy Tell Em concert Wednesday night at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum will establish not one, but two historical precedents when the lights go down at 7 p.m.

First and most significant: the fact that the concert will mark the 2-year-old venue's first musical event featuring a full-fledged rap/hip-hop artist, something that a very vocal segment of the concert-going public has been clamoring for since its spring 2006 opening.

The closest the venue has come to date was the recent show by Kid Rock, the white performer who mixes up rap and hip-hop with rock, R&B, country and the kitchen sink.

On a secondary note, the 17-year-old Soulja Boy Tell Em will become not only the Coliseum's first rapper but also its youngest star headliner to date.

Until now, the closest contenders for that honor have been bands and performers hovering in the late-20s-to-early-30s range, including John Mayer, Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace.

Soulja Boy has bested them all by around a decade and some change.

Because the Chicago-born rap prodigy has been out of the country on a European tour the past several weeks, he was unavailable for interviews to publicize the Coliseum date, which also boasts a pair of opening acts with Illinois roots -- fellow Chicagoans Bigg Phill and, closer to home, the Champaign-based SuavA.

The facts in the case of the youthful rapper's quick rise to prominence include his Chicago origins as DeAndre Ramone Way, and his eventual moves to both Atlanta, where his rap roots took hold, and, around three years ago, to Batesville, Miss., where his father provided him a recording studio -- which always helps.

So does being a child of the YouTube/MySpace generation.

Thanks to that latter status, Way was able to peddle his homemade musical wares on Web pages, including, most decisively, last year's career-making ditty, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)," which he first recorded a year ago this month.

Not only did Way upload his performance of the song, he also provided the music video of himself performing its accompanying dance, a crucial factor in the ensuing "Crank That" craze.

It began in earnest when people started posting their own video renditions of the song and dance, which eventually filtered its way to the top of the celebrity chain, with stars like Beyonce incorporating the "Crank That" choreography into their own live shows.

Along the way, his first independent album, the aptly titled "Unsigned and Still Major," was released.

But he quickly broke from the "Unsigned" part when he was signed by industry heavyweight Interscope Records. By May, "Crank That" was receiving radio airplay; by September it was at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart, as well as its Hot RingMaster chart.

The song held onto the No. 1 spot in the singles chart for seven nonconsecutive weeks through the autumn months and wound up working its way onto the soundtrack of the hit HBO series, "Entourage."

Thanks to the song's heavy teen appeal, its accompanying sexually suggestive lyrics have stirred up controversy along the trajectory, with reports of "Crank That" being banned from such public venues as skating rinks and assorted school dances across the land.

Meanwhile, the accompanying Interscope Records album, "Souljaboytellem.com," also found its way into the upper chart echelons, maxing out at No. 4 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, as well as the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.

The "Crank That" craze climaxed with its Grammy Award nomination as Best Rap Song of 2007 (it lost to Kanye West's "Good Life" at the ceremonies last month).

Adding one more level to the teen rapper's notoriety was a late-2007 development stemming from his stage name.

The Soulja Boy soubriquet was contested in court by another rap singer, William Lyons of the Home Dogs, who had already adopted the same name, albeit with the first part spelled "Souljah."

To avoid copyright issues, DeAndre Ramone Way's official stage name became, as of Dec. 9, 2007, Soulja Boy Tell Em.



At a glance



What: Soulja Boy Tell Em with opening acts Bigg Phill and SuavA

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday

Where: U.S. Cellular Coliseum, 101 S. Madison St., Bloomington

Tickets: $32.50.

Box office number: (866) 891-9992

Take a look
Teen rapper Soulja Boy Tell Em will go down in the record books as the first rap/hip-hop act to play Bloomington's U.S. Cellular Coliseum since it opened two springs ago. The concert is in the half-sized U.S. Coliseum Theater configuration at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
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