Crank That (Soulja Boy)

"Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
A man is holding a cellphone to his left ear. He is wearing a jacket with a matching beanie headpiece and black sunglasses with white lettering on the lenses that say "Soulja Boy". He is also fanning out mixed denominations of U.S. dollars. He has an expression of shock on his face. Centred to his top left in orange, capital letter graffiti-like font is the title 'Crank That'. Directly below the title in larger blue font is the name 'Soulja Boy'. The name features stars filling the gaps in the 'o' letters.
Single by Soulja Boy Tell'em
from the album souljaboytellem.com
ReleasedMay 2, 2007 (2007-05-02)
StudioStart2Finish (Kansas City, Kansas), Collipark Studio (College Park, Georgia)[1]
Genre
Length3:42
Label
Songwriter(s)DeAndre Way[4]
Producer(s)Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy singles chronology
"Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
(2007) 		"Soulja Girl"
(2007)
Music video
"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" on YouTube

"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" is the debut single by American rapper Soulja Boy Tell 'Em. It served as the lead single from his debut studio album, souljaboytellem.com (2007) and accompanies the Soulja Boy dance. The song is recognized by its looping steelpan riff. It caused what has been called "the biggest dance fad since the Macarena", with an instructional YouTube video for the dance surpassing 27 million views by early 2008.[5]

"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" spent seven weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in the fall of 2007, and was the number 21 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[6] The song received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song at the 50th Grammy Awards but lost to Kanye West's song "Good Life". On January 6, 2008, it became the first song ever to sell 3 million digital copies in the US.[7] In 2009 it was named the 23rd most successful song of the 2000s on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.[8] It had sold 5,080,000 downloads in the US by February 2014.[9] Outside of the United States, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

  1. ^ souljaboytellem.com (CD liner). Soulja Boy. Interscope Records. 2009.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  2. ^ "Soulja Boy - Souljaboytellem.com Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic. Retrieved May 21, 2023.
  3. ^ "Soulja Boy: Best to Ever do It". Pitchfork.
  4. ^ "Crank That (Soulja Boy) - Writing Credits". BMI.com. Broadcast Music Incorporated. Retrieved August 15, 2010.[permanent dead link‍]
  5. ^ Jurgensen, John (February 9, 2008). "But Can You Dance to It?". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 13, 2015.
  6. ^ No byline (December 11, 2007). "The 100 Best Songs of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  7. ^ Paul Grein (January 7, 2011). "Chart Watch Extra: Thank You, Daniel Powter". Yahoo Music (Chart Watch). Archived from the original on October 3, 2012.
  8. ^ "Hot 100 Decade Songs". Billboard.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
  9. ^ Paul Grein (January 5, 2013). "Chart Watch: Beyonce Soars To #2". Yahoo Music.