In HipHopDX‘s most recent feature [click to read], Soulja Boy clarified his “shout out to slave masters” comments made recently.
“The dude Toure walked up to me and he said, ‘Hey man, can I get you for an interview?‘ And I was like, ‘Hell nah, man, get out my face.‘ Because, I seen an interview that he did before with Bow Wow [click to read] and Omarion,
and basically like he…I didn’t really take him serious as no real
interviewer because I seen the interview that he did with them. And I
seen an interview that he did with R Kelly, and basically he was just like trying to make a fool out of them,” said Soulja Boy of Toure, a 15-year veteran of journalism and one-time employee of CNN, BET and Rolling Stone.
Soulja Boy justified his controversial answer based on the question, saying that after management persuaded the “Crank Dat” star to participate, he felt otherwise. “As soon as I did the interview, the first question [Toure] asked me a dumb-ass question. He said, ‘How do I wanna die?‘ And I was like, ‘Aww man, see I said I didn’t wanna do [the interview] in the first place.‘”
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The author of Never Drank The Kool-Aid, novel Soul City and over six covers contacted HipHopDX to calrify his perspective of what happened with the young rap star. “At theRap Cityfinale I interviewed nine emcees and Soulja Boy, and I gave
them all part of the legendary Proust Questionnaire because it’s a fun
set of questions. I thought we’d be able to get at who they really
are, away from their image, and for most of the day we were able to do
that. People gave us really smart, sensitive answers and let us see
their humanity and it was really cool. The last question everyone got
was, ‘How do you wanna die?’ which is indisputably a really deep
question. I mean, it’s asking you to confront how you want your
journey on Earth to end! That’s deep. But I can understand how a
simple-minded person wouldn’t understand that,” Toure told DX.
He further added that while Soulja Boy complained about the question, other subjects praised the uniqueness of the interview. Toure added, “Everyone gave
me amazing answers to that question: Juelz Santana said ‘loved.’ Busta
Rhymes said in bed, surrounded by family. E-40 said, ‘prayed up.’ Not
one of the emcees complained about that or any of the questions asked.”
Toure also defended his right and reputation to ask the question to begin with. “There’s no way a journalist can ask a question that leaves you no
choice but to look stupid. If you’re smart or funny, you can always
find a way to say something cool. I’ve interviewed Jay-Z about 10
times and he’s never once played himself. But nowadays, people who say
boneheaded things blame the media instead of having the integrity to
stand behind their words or apologize to their fans.”
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As far as Soulja Boy‘s claim that he simply provided a stupid answer to a stupid question, Toure stresses, “Let me be clear: I was looking into Soulja Boy‘s eyes when he said, ‘Shout out to the slave masters. Without them we wouldn’t be here to
get this ice and tattoos.’ He wasn’t joking. That said, if he thinks
shouting out the slave masters who owned, whipped, and raped our
ancestors is funny, then that’s even more alarming. Either way he’s
clearly not mature enough for a serious conversation.“
