Episode 017: I Could Have Signed NBA YOUNGBOY (Feat. Soulja Boy)

Yung DRACO aka Soulja Boy is our guest this episode.  Its been 3 years since Akademiks and Soulja Boy had a sit down and last time it was all shouting, name calling and pure hilarity. The tone of this entire sit down is notably different with both Soulja Boy and Akademiks complimenting each other on each respective's path to success. Soulja Boy recaps how life has changed for him in the last two years and what he learned from getting locked up after finding a new resurgence of his career in 2017-2019. He details the life changes he's made since and also how his probation officer authorized a raid on his residence on his last day of probation which then landed him into jail at arguably the worst time in his career. He details his time in jail and then coming back and refocusing on creating new moments, new music and new products. He talks about how Kanye West lied to him by pretending he was going to be on Kanye's 2021 LP, Donda. Soulja had the text messages to back his accusations up. He talks issues with Tyga and Akademiks tries to get him to apologize to Tyga and others he's wronged. He reveals he was the first to give Tyga a Cameo in the music industry and shows Akademiks proof of Tyga hopping out of a convertible in the 'She Got a Donk' video. He briefly recounts his issues with Migos and details the mindset he was in while going back and forth with rappers online. He also admits that the attention that was brought from those beefs got him more scrutiny from law enforcement. Soulja Boy talks trolling NBA Youngboy fans back after they started trolling him and reveals he's been in contact with Youngboy's brother OG3Three. He also reveals that Youngboy reached out to him when he was 15/16 and Youngboy could have been signed to SODMG. He talks about his label and focusing on signing artists in light of acknowledging that many artists he collabed with early in their careers became successful later. Soulja Boy gives Akademiks a business breakdown of why he chose the independent path instead of staying signed to a major label. He also shows off his extensive product line which includes Soulja Exotics, Soulja Lemonade, Soulja Pineapple Soda, Soulja Game, Soulja Headphones among others. He explains what really happened with Atari as fans saw their CEO deny Soulja Boy claim that he owned the company. Soulja Boy talks about his movie that he ended up scrapping and talks about the events that led up to him changing the type of music he made. The infamous shootout which involved Soulja Boy using a weapon to defend himself against home invaders put him in a state where making kid friendly music was no longer a viable option for him as he felt it encouraged people to try him.