Charles Hamilton vs. Soulja Boy: Stepping Up to Get Beat Down

I'm not going to get too deeply into the details of this supposed beef between Charles Hamilton and Soulja Boy so, if I'm unfair to Mr. Hamilton, I hope interested parties will correct me.

Apparently Hamilton said something on radio which got to Soulja Boy who apparently responded on video and so forth.

I haven't been keeping up with most blogs for a couple of weeks so, though I'm sure somebody's broken it down blow-by-blow, for the moment we'll use some of MTV's coverage.

Before I do, let me say that I think Charles Hamilton is a decent artist, one that I can see people getting excited about, including young women, and he's made some great moves online, for example, The Hamiltonization Process, a series of digital mixtape releases on prominent blogs.

Interesting cat on the rise.

By comparison, I don't need to tell you anything about Soulja Boy, just in case you don't already know, cause you already know.

According to MTV, Hamilton recently objected strongly to Soulja Boy comparisons, and he's right to do that.  They're connected by a larger cultural context and shared generational concerns but are clearly very different acts with very different attitudes about themselves and their work.

In an interview about his statement, Hamilton said:

"'It's because of Soulja Boy that the way I live, the 'Sonic the Hedgehog' sh-- that's dead real to me, is considered a joke,' Hamilton fumed. The MC, who is known for his love of the 'Sonic the Hedgehog' video game (he even released a mixtape called Sonic the Hamilton), said that the way he expresses himself is now viewed as a gimmick."

I'm not sure if he clarified who exactly views him as a gimmick but let's guess, just for argument's sake, that it's people in the music industry.

And let's assume that a lot of these people are older than Charles.

And then let's recognize the fact that anybody that didn't grow up on Sonic the Hedgehog is probably going to look at Hamilton's use of this iconic figure as a gimmick.  Similar to the response a slightly older artist appearing with Star Wars paraphernalia might receive.

I know it looked pretty ridiculous to me at first glance but now that I've checked him out a bit I recognize that Sonic the Hedgehog is an important part of Hamilton's cultural landscape and the fact that it seems rather childish and ridiculous to many adults suggests a rather unsurprising generational divide.

How Soulja Boy is connected to this, I have no idea, but Hamilton's comments as presented in this article followed by Soulja Boy's upbeat response, make Chucky look a bit whiney and even douchey.  Said Soulja Boy:

"I'd rather take the positive route and not get into beef, and just let you know that it's not my fault that whatever you got going on ain't going right...If my next album flops, do you think I'm going to be like, 'Man, it's Lil Wayne's fault. It's T.I.'s fault.' Nah, n---a, it's my fault."

In an audio clip (not sure where this originated) Hamilton claims, regarding the Soulja Boy comparison, "the only comparison is that I'm you last year with talent".

Problem 1: Crank Dat

Problem 2: Soulja Boy has talent.  It's just different from yours Charles.  His is more pop, so more people like him and his music and his little dance.

So why can't you just let Soulja Boy be Soulja Boy while you do you?

From the 10 seconds or so of something else I heard from a Hamilton video, he's also trying to diss Soulja Boy by saying he won't sell many records!

Gotta give the ProHipHop WTF?!? of the Week Award to Chucky Boy on that one!

Can you say 50 Cent vs. Kanye West?

Ok, the obvious problem there is that 50 Cent is a star equal to Kanye while I still have to explain who Charles Hamilton is but you get the connection to the mistake of pinning one's rep on future album sales.  That's a sucker move.

Not to mention that Soulja Boy's already said he can't top Crank Dat.

That makes him ahead of you, Charles, when you should be operating in alternate universes.

Soulja Boy took out former rapper Ice T and he's going to continue to publicly humiliate Charles Hamilton as long as he wants until something else catches his attention.  Actually, Soulja Boy seems to have moved on already.

Update:
Here are a couple of great posts via Miss Info.

The Smoking Section also calls this round for Soulja Boy.

Xplosive World makes a strong case for this whole exchange being an Interscope marketing ploy, which makes the most sense of all, and has video documentation of this little feud.

Update 2:
Just saw a clip with Jabari Johnson interviewing Soulja Boy who seems a bit over getting asked about it but also shows himself quite capable of making rather scorching points in an easy manner.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Charles Hamilton: Loser Music Video

Comments

[Slav]

These guys are waaaaay more alike than they're different.

All in all, thanks for linking to my blog, Dr. Smith!

[Adam B]

How is it that Soulja Boy keeps coming off as more mature than a lot of supposedly full grown adults? I don't think I'll ever dig his music, but I'm starting to really respect him as a person. He's killin em with kindness and it's making Hamilton look bad.

[KirbyTheAlmighty]

ON a similiar note, Soulja Boy sold around 35,000 for his first week. Haha.

That's what i heard, anyway.

[Clyde Smith]

Billboard said 46k:
http://www.prohiphop.com/2008/12/album-debuts-pl.html

But, still, that's not all that hot given his overall status.

It will be interesting to see how the label handles that.