Last Friday, Soulja Boy received a not so pleasant surprise at a concert for college students. According to AllHipHop.com, the “Crank Dat” hit-maker, who was scheduled to perform a show for students at the University of Minnesota Duluth, was met by a small group of students who staged a protest against what they called “degrading lyrics” towards women.
Protest organizer Arielle Schuner believes that the UMD Student Entertainment Committee’s decision to book Soulja Boy was not only ill advised, but that it was based on budget, and the popularity of the artist among students of the college demographic.
“This isn’t okay for this to happen,” Schuner said to the Duluth News Tribune. “To bring in an artist that degrades half the student body as sex objects and the other half as sexual assault perpetrators; that form of degradation is not acceptable.”
Schuner made reference to one of Soulja Boy’s songs, “Pimp Slap Dat Hoe,” as an instance in which the content of the artist’s music objectified women. The song includes lyrics like, “Pimp slap dat hoe man/Show her what you know man/Give her what she need man/Right side her face man.”
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“The issue with the Soulja Boy concert is that it’s happening at UMD and UMD is an institution of higher learning,” Schuner continued. “His lyrics are not conducive to an atmosphere of enlightenment and education.” Protesters gathered outside of the school gym held a separate concert that featured local groups and artists.
Soulja Boy, who was paid a reported $25,000 with student fees to perform, apparently did not expect the group of protesters.
“WTF I’m in minesota (sic) its a group of mafuckaz prtoesting (sic) my show this sh*t on all the news!!” he said via his Twitter page. “Mann these people better get the fuck on! I could have been In New York new jointing Turn My Swag On!!!!… They say I’m breaking a record for the people attending the show tonight, umma act a fool!!!!”
Although unexpected, the protesters seemed not to have deterred the confident rapper.
“Just got off stage!!! I shut it downnn!!!!” he said through Twitter after the concert. “That was like the best show I ever did umma put A Bonus DVD that show in my reloaded album release. I just wanna let every1 who came to my show tonight kno I had a REAL GOOD time here! Thanks for the love, best time I had on tour in a while.”
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Soulja Boy’s latest single “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” has reached #4 on the Billboard charts, and comes off of his newest album, iSouljaBoyTellEm released late last year.
