4 questions with SOULJALBERTA

It seemed like a laugh: in 30 minutes or less create a track by sampling only Soulja Boy, the rapper behind “Crank Dat.” But the results were surprisingly good, and the finished compilation,

Souljalberta, is a fine showcase of the talents of young Alberta producers, including those working under the names of Hood Joplin (age 24), Sven K (20), Tendencies (19), and Bop Dylan (20). They sat down with Swerve Going Out editor Jon Roe for an interview over Skype from Edmonton.

What’s the appeal of Soulja Boy?

Joplin: What isn’t?

Sven K: He’s iconic, a legend. Joplin: To me, Soulja Boy is the first person ever to go viral. He is 100 per cent independent, and that’s a huge accolade these days.

Dylan: In junior high, the first thing to pop-off was “Crank Dat.” I was just in Grade 7, and it was the first real cultural thing I experienced.

Sven K: When we were in junior high, we had social dance that was part of the gym curriculum. “Crank Dat” was a huge song in the social-dance curriculum. I had one teacher that was super into Soulja Boy.

It’s kind of shocking how young Soulja Boy is, still, since “Crank Dat” came out when he was 17 in 2007.

Joplin: There’s a funny tweet that went viral that was like, “Sir Isaac Newton invented the law of gravity when he was 23.” Someone quote-retweeted and was like, “Soulja Boy invented ‘Crank Dat’ when he was only 17.” He did so much. He inspired everybody to the point where they think that they can do anything because of the Internet, which is kind of how we all became friends, more or less.

Sven K: He was one of the first Internet musicians. Everybody is an Internet musician now.

What’s the challenge of making music using only Soulja Boy samples?

Dylan: The hi-hat sample sucked. Sven K: The hi-hat sample really sucked but we worked around it. It was a lot of low-res samples. It was kind of like a raw tape, but it had a good sound to it.

What did you learn from this deep dive into Soulja Boy?

Joplin: That memes go way too far.

Sven K: Yeah, definitely. That people will go to weird lengths just for silly s---. Joplin: I think what I want from this—yeah, a lot of people are joking about it— but I want to showcase the artists that all collaborated. Everyone is awesome, we have tones of dope producers in Alberta. This project proved it for sure, because the constraints were so hard. The time constraint was mad hard.