Teen rapper Soulja Boy Tell’Em was a toddler when Michael Jackson sang his last No. 1 hit song “You Are Not Alone”.
But the “Crank That” rapper says the late Michael Jackson has always been his inspiration and is his only competition.

“As far as getting my inspiration for stage performance, it has always been Michael Jackson,” said the 18-year-old, whose real name is DeAndre Ramone Way. “I remember I watched the DVD… Michael Jackson came and stood onstage for 10 minutes. They was screaming the whole 10 minutes. I actually imitated that a couple of times in my show.”

It seems that every song Soulja Boy releases becomes a hit. His 2007 debut rap song, “Crank That” was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard 100 after his self-published version went viral on MySpace and YouTube to score him a record deal. Young and old, blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics, celebrities and regular folk were doing, or at least attempting, Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” dance and posting it on YouTube and their own MySpace pages.
Major League Baseball players are using Soulja Boy’s latest single, “Turn My Swag On” for their at-bat song. The young rapper’s previous release, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”, hit No. 3 on the Billboard 100.
The late MJ would be proud. The King of Pop reached the top of Billboard’s charts 14 times after his first No. 1 hit “Ben” at the age of 14.

Soulja Boy was 16 when he started the “Crank That” phenomenom, so he could become the music industry’s next king. Of course, he already thinks he is.
“I feel like I got my own lane, and I don’t have to worry about nobody,” he said. “Anybody I feel is competition, I gotta knock them out the box.”
It’s doubtful he will knock MJ out of the box. The King of Pop’s albums immediately became the top sellers on Amazon.com following news of his death on Thursday.
See videos and live performances of Michael Jackson’s 14 No. 1 hits.

By Teneshia LaFaye

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