Soulja Boy is the Swag Daddy

Soulja Boy, the once adolescent rapper behind hits such as Crank Dat and Kiss Me Thru the Phone, is back to claim, or reclaim, his “swag” status by way of a new music video for the song, Swag Daddy, released to the Internet world on August 4.

The beginning of the video has a documentary feel, with Soulja Boy as director musing over a liquidated bottle of Vitamin Water (probably as an ode to his mentor, 50 Cent) and repeating the epithet “swag” over and over again. He then antagonizes both his friend and sleeping brother from behind the camera before cutting away to the actual song. However, the rest of the music video proceeds in the same casual and badly directed fashion, with Soulja Boy performing Jackass-style schoolboy antics with his friends. There is no production value, save for the half-arsed attempt at choreography, only an embarrassing highlight reel of Soulja’s Boy’s unguided decline into rich kid decadence.

The song itself doesn’t do a good job of redeeming the video, either. Whereas Crank Dat’s boyish charm hinted at burgeoning hormones, all the while giving allusions to what the rapper was really talking about, Swag Daddy’s lyrics are vulgar and leave nothing to the imagination. The song’s nearly seven minutes are merely a repeat of the word swag, just like in the video’s opener, interrupted by a recount of all of Soulja’s material possessions and the advertisement of his newly formed Ocean Gang clan.

It’s not even possible for one to dance to the song and pretend that he or she doesn’t know what the cheeky rapper is hinting at. The song is pure arrogance.

"10 chains, five rings, I’m the swag daddy,” raps Soulja Boy unapologetically.

It was recently reported that Soulja Boy, who initially was rumored to have indulged in a $55 million jet, owes more than $26,000 in back taxes to the state of California instead. Because of that, this latest offering seems hastily made, as if Soulja’s looming financial troubles forced him out of semi-retirement and into the studio to make another one of his radio-friendly and girl-giggly elementary school hit songs. Rather than accomplish its goal, however, Swag Daddy sadly exposes yet another young talent who failed to escape the child-star-who-grew-up-too-fast tragedy. Soulja Boy has been given too much money, too much fame and too much power in too little time, and his lack of media guidance has resulted in the production of mediocre videos (such as this one) that display an overestimated braggadocio.

To be fair, success hasn't completely gone to Soulja Boy’s head. In a rare display of prudence, he recently tweeted that he was removing his face tattoos.

"just woke in new york its a good day bless everybody reading this tweet live it up. i'm getting my face tattoos removed today," he tweeted.

Watch the Swag Daddy video here.

"Soulja Boy is the Swag Daddy" was originally published to Soulja Boy on KOvideo