Usually, when rappers step their lyrical game up, it's seen as a positive move. For young Soulja Boy, that is not the case. Recently, he explained that he wanted to show better lyricism, but did not want to do it on his album because it may ruin his image and reputation. Frustrated with how he's seen and criticized, he is now setting off to attempt to legitimize his success.
 
"If I wanted to, [I could] go that route and be respected [not for] my success ... respected [for] my music and my lyrics or whatever," he told MTV. Ironically enough, he said he didn't want to do all of that on an album.
 
"That's why I did the mixtape that I did. I did a mixtape called 'Teen of the South' with DJ Scream. And I did that just to step my game up a little bit on that [lyrical] side. But I wasn't really going into no album and just full-fledge trying to switch my swagger and try to get respect from the game."

Why would he not really try to get respect?
 
"'Cause why would I show love to the game? The game don't show you love back. So I wasn't gonna do that and come back out and mess up my image and mess up myself. I was going on the strength that I want respect from people who probably don't like me anyway. So I'm gonna stick to what I do and stay being successful and I'll do some mixtapes and some futures, something like that."