Soulja Boy’s Presidential Run Is the Clout Strategy Kanye Spent $12 Million On

When you think rapper runs for president, you think of Kanye. I have decided in 2020 to run for president. But Soulja Boy beat him to it. Four years before Kanye's VMA speech, Soulja was on his own YouTube show saying he'd fund a presidential run himself. Now he's posted Soulja Boy 2028. And this time, it might be the smartest play he's ever made. I've been relevant for the last 15 years and every artist that came out when I came out fell off. Let's go back to the receipts. It's May of 2011, Soulja Boy has his own reality series on YouTube called Soulja Boy TV. One episode has a title nobody remembers, Soulja for President. A few years earlier, he self-released Crank That Online at 17 and wrote it to No. 1. But the craziest part was nobody had used the internet like that before. So 15 years ago, when someone asked if he was serious about running with his own money, he said yes. And honestly, it sounds on brand. Because he's the guy who built a career on being the first rapper to do anything. the first rapper to vlog he invented the word drip he was the first and probably only rapper to shout himself out on his own song for Soulja being first is currency so first rapper president is just the next title and he gets the headlines whether he makes a ballot or not and when it came to being president back then his platform ran on four words to change the world fast forward to October 2026 same guy completely different packaging he's calling it a new chapter and bigger vision with four pillars economic opportunity criminal justice reform education and the future of technology and AI his caption reads like a real political rollout but the internet wasn't fully buying it which is wild because the last rapper who tried this paid 12 million dollars for the exact same reaction but not buying it doesn't mean ignoring it instead of debating policy the comment section ran a credibility check some fans played along one One comment read, Make America Crank Again. Others went after the wording. Many mocked the polished PR language, and one joke kept coming back. He's the, quote, first rapper to have ChatGPT write his own candidate statement. And this is where it gets ironic. One of his pillars is the future of AI, and Soulja's been chasing that lane for a while. I was the first rapper on YouTube, the first rapper with his own star, the first rapper with the iPhone, and now I'm the first rapper to automate his voice with AI. So hip-hop's self-proclaimed AI pioneer got roasted for sounding like a chatbot. But under the jokes were real questions. People asked where he actually stood on foreign policy and domestic issues. Showing that even when the internet treats a campaign like a joke, it still vets the candidates like a politician. Which leaves us with a big question. Is he serious? Unfortunately, we don't know. And while you vote in the comments, here's what we do know. Legally, you're not an official presidential candidate until you take in more than $5,000 in donations or spend more than $5,000 on things like ads, staff, and travel. Posting Soulja Boy 2020, that's free, meaning there's no paperwork, just vibes. Now, compare that to Kanye. Always, I knew at the end I was going to tell people I'm running for office, I'm running for president in 2020. When Ye finally ran in 2020, he spent about $13 million, and nearly $12.5 million of that was his own money. Kanye did make the ballot in 12 states and got around 66,000 votes, meaning Kanye paid about $200 a vote, while Soulja's getting the exact same headlines for free. But using a presidential run as a clout machine comes with a catch. The people want an actual plan, not just a slogan. I was the first rapper at Howard University. That's why the best comment wasn't a roast, it was advice. asking the artist to actually use his voice and his platform to get his fans to vote. And that's the line between a viral bit and an actual bid. But Soulja Boy 2028 isn't a random new idea. Yeah, it's over with. Did I just tell you that? That's right. Don't make him repeat himself. And maybe the real first here isn't first rapper president. Maybe it's that Soulja called it before Kanye, and he finally figured out how to get the attention without paying the bill. But if Soulja's career has proven anything, it's that his superpower was never politics. It was being early, maybe early to this too. So final question, serious, stunt, or official trendsetter? Vote in the comments and subscribe to What's Trending for business behind internet culture.