One of the more ubiquitous pop songs of the past month was Soulja Boy’s rap hit “Crank Dat Soulja Boy.” The song, heard primarily on radio and basic cable television in its edited version, is a self-aggrandizing hip-hop track that cares to offer little to the listener beyond the beguiling dance hook. It is in fact an empty song. The repeated refrain of “Superman dat hoe” (“superman dat ‘oe” in its edited version) is seemingly (if only) nonsensical. The remainder of the lyrics lack any reason beyond their rhyme. Soulja Boy does not pretend to be a rhymesmith , repeating a handful of grammatically garbled phrasings through the course of the song. But what is said is stunning in its vulgarity once the song is studied closely.
Soulja Boy typifies a stereotypical young, black archetype in his posturing as he espouses his undisguised misogyny. The popularity of the song suggests an affinity between its messages and the public’s ideological viewpoint. Soulja Boy represents the noveau riche young, black, rap superstar, particularly in the way he unironically makes his claim to fame before his fame even came. A common trope for this style of rapper is the vocal pronouncement that the he is without flaw and worthy of the listener’s full attention, respect, and jealousy. He’s “jocking on them haterz, man.” Like most unknown pre-superstar rappers, he has his share of haterz. This presumptuous swagger seems to be drawn from the urban world from which most rappers are drawn, where a man needs to puff out his chest and voice his demands if he wants to make it. It also reflects the cultural importance of money, power and respect. Interestingly, Soulja Boy doesn’t just hype chains (“they be looking at my neck”, he notes) and the like, but also his Bathing Apes, the high-end Japanese clothing and shoe brand. For this, “haterz get mad.” And that’s something the stereotypically materialistic black man can take pride in.
This openly dumb, materialistic, machismo-laden posture borders on buffoonery. Soulja Boy is non-threatening and somewhat comical. This image calls up a stereotype of the young black man as heathen fool that dates back to
The song for all of its goofiness is a shout-out to the sexual degradation of women and the treatment of the female form as a play-thing for men. The seemingly benign innuendo “superman dat hoe” refers to a very specific sexual act. The act utilizes bodily fluids to adhere a bed sheet to the back of a sleeping woman. Through the verses the line morphs into the alternate, more pointed “supersoak dat hoe” before concluding the song as “superman that bitch.” This last line is repeated five times for maximum effect. This is not the only instance of the juvenile objectification of women. In the first verse Soulja Boy threatens his hater not only with “jocking on [his] bitch ass” but later with “cocking on [his] bitch” in an apparent attempt to cuckold and emasculate his imaginary opponent.
The song, while festive and jovial in tone is drenched with self-important masculinity. The rapper plays into the minstrel stereotype of the young, virile, comically non-threatening black man while openly denigrating and objectifying women. Both black men and women become victims to an overbearing ideological worldview that presents such a song as innocent entertainment.
Crank Dat.
