Soulja Boy Sets New Digital Download Record

Soulja Boy’s smash single “Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)” made digital music history this week when it exceeded 3 million downloads. The song, with its accompanying dance, became somewhat of a pop-culture phenomenon during 2006, spawning endless spinoff remixes and prompting thousands of fans to upload self made videos to Youtube. The official “Crank Dat” music video and an instructional video for the dance have together logged over 50 million views on the video sharing site alone. “Soulja Boy has set the bar for what's possible in terms of breaking an artist online," said Steve Berman, President of Sales and Marketing for Interscope Geffen A&M Records. "He's been doing it since day one, before he was signed here, so I'm not surprised he's setting a record today. Soulja Boy is out there on the frontier, showing everyone else what's possible." In December, the 17-year old Atlanta native received a Grammy nomination for the single in the Best Rap Song category. His debut album, Souljaboytellem.com, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 chart back in October and has since moved over 658,000 units. “I can't thank my fans enough, without them all of this wouldn't have been possible,” the rapper said in a statement. “The support they give me is beyond incredible. I have so many Soulja Boy Tell'em projects ready and I will continue to givethem what they need in 2008. Yuuuuaaaa!!” The video for Soulja Boy’s new single, “Yahhh!,” debuted on BET and Yahoo! Music this week.