00:00When you think rapper runs for president, you think of Kanye.
00:03I have decided in 2020 to run for president.
00:07But Soulja Boy beat him to it. Four years before Kanye's VMA speech,
00:11Soulja was on his own YouTube show saying he'd fund a presidential run himself.
00:16Now he's posted Soulja Boy 2028. And this time, it might be the smartest play he's ever made.
00:22I've been relevant for the last 15 years and every artist that came out,
00:26when I came out, fell off.
00:27Let's go back to the receipts. It's May of 2011.
00:31Soulja Boy has his own reality series on YouTube called Soulja Boy TV.
00:36Yo, this your boy, Soulja Boy. You know I'm watching Soulja Boy TV on SODMG.com. Exclusively.
00:42One episode has a title nobody remembers, Soulja for president.
00:46A few years earlier, he self-released Crank That Online at 17 and wrote it to number one.
00:52But the craziest part was nobody had used the internet like that before.
00:55I done went viral before the word was viral.
00:59So 15 years ago, when someone asked if he was serious about running with his own money,
01:03he said yes. And honestly, it sounds on brand.
01:07They came. They brought me the iPhone.
01:08Steve Jobs himself came.
01:10Steve Jobs and Apple, the whole team said this is the first iPhone.
01:13Ooh, wah, wah, wah.
01:14Because he's the guy who built a career on being the first rapper to do anything.
01:20The first rapper to vlog. He invented the word dread. He was the first and probably only rapper to shout
01:24himself out on his own song.
01:26For Soulja, being first is currency. So first rapper president is just the next title.
01:32And he gets the headlines whether he makes a ballot or not.
01:35And when it came to being president back then, his platform ran on four words to change the world.
01:41Fast forward to October, 2026. Same guy, completely different packaging.
01:46He's calling it a new chapter and a bigger vision with four pillars, economic opportunity, criminal justice reform, education, and
01:54the future of technology and AI.
01:56His caption reads like a real political rollout. But the internet wasn't fully buying it.
02:01Which is wild because the last rapper who tried this paid $12 million for the exact same reaction.
02:07But not buying it doesn't mean ignoring it.
02:10Instead of debating policy, the comment section ran a credibility check.
02:14Some fans played along. One comment read,
02:16Make America crank again. Others went after the wording.
02:20Many mocked the polished PR language.
02:22And one joke kept coming back.
02:24He's the, quote, first rapper to have ChatGPT write his own candidate statement.
02:29And this is where it gets ironic.
02:31One of his pillars is the future of AI.
02:33And Soulja's been chasing that lane for a while.
02:35I was the first rapper on YouTube.
02:37The first rapper with his own star.
02:39The first rapper with the iPhone.
02:41And now I'm the first rapper to automate his voice with AI.
02:44So hip-hop's self-proclaimed AI pioneer got roasted for sounding like a chatbot.
02:48But under the jokes were real questions.
02:50People asked where he actually stood on foreign policy and domestic issues.
02:55Showing that even when the internet treats a campaign like a joke,
02:58it still vets the candidates like a politician.
03:01Which leaves us with a big question.
03:03Is he serious?
03:04Unfortunately, we don't know.
03:06And while you vote in the comments, here's what we do know.
03:09Legally, you're not an official presidential candidate
03:12until you take in more than $5,000 in donations
03:15or spend more than $5,000 on things like ads, staff, and travel.
03:20Hosting Soulja Boy 2028, that's free.
03:23Meaning there's no paperwork, just vibes.
03:26Rick.
03:26Rick.
03:27Rick and Morty.
03:28Rick and Morty.
03:29Rick and Morty.
03:30Rick and Morty.
03:31Now, compare that to Kanye.
03:33Always, I knew at the end I was going to tell people I'm running for office.
03:37I'm running for president in 2020.
03:39When Ye finally ran in 2020, he spent about $13 million.
03:44And nearly $12.5 million of that was his own money.
03:47Kanye did make the ballot in 12 states and got around 66,000 votes.
03:52Meaning Kanye paid about $200 a vote,
03:54while Soulja was getting the exact same headlines for free.
03:57But using a presidential run as a clout machine comes with a catch.
04:00The people want an actual plan, not just a slogan.
04:04I was the first rapper at Howard University.
04:07That's why the best comment wasn't a roast, it was advice.
04:10Asking the artist to actually use his voice and his platform
04:13to get his fans to vote.
04:15And that's the line between a viral bit and an actual bid.
04:19But Soulja Boy 2028 isn't a random new idea.
04:22Yeah, it's over with.
04:23Did I just tell you that?
04:24That's right.
04:25Don't make him repeat itself.
04:25And maybe the real first here isn't first rapper president.
04:30Maybe it's that Soulja called it before Kanye,
04:32and he finally figured out how to get the attention without paying the bill.
04:36But if Soulja's career has proven anything,
04:38it's that his superpower was never politics.
04:40It was being early.
04:42Maybe early to this too.
04:44So final question.
04:45Serious, stunt, or official trendsetter?
04:48Vote in the comments and subscribe to What's Trending
04:50for Business Behind Internet Culture.
