Any millennial could tell you Soulja Boy was influential to their teen years. From the oversized jeans and sunshades to the “Crank That” dance that swept the nation, the young rapper’s presence was undeniable. But did fans know that his marketing strategy was genius as well?
In an article published today (May 25) by HipHopDX, the first rapper to use FaceTime got candid about how he made bank on his 2008 hit single “Kiss Me Thru the Phone.” Soulja Boy admitted most of the profit didn’t actually come from the catchy track that featured Sammie singing the infamous “(678) 999-8212” phone number, but what the Chicago native chose to do with the digits after.
“That number so legendary, man,” the 32-year-old confessed. “It used to be my number. It actually was my number at a point in time. When I first dropped that song, that was my number,” Soulja said before going into detail. “Alright, let me tell y’all the real story. Boom. So that number was like a fan line. So every time somebody called that number, I was getting paid off of that s**t. It was like a subscription. You could text it or call it, so I was probably making like $100,000 a month off of that, just people calling that number,” the “Pretty Boy Swag” artist revealed.
More secrets behind the song? Soulja wanted to sing the chorus, but opted for another teen heartthrob. “I wanted to sing it myself, originally, but I was like, ‘Nah, I really wanna give it that extra feel.’ And now I see the success that it got, I feel like I was right,” he recalled. “I was trying to get Chris [Brown] on that motherf**ker. Chris was supposed to sing the hook, bro. I don’t know what happened, though. So that’s why I don’t even speak on it. Shout out to Sammie, though. You feel me? He killed it,” the “Donk” hitmaker acknowledged.
“Kiss Me Through the Phone” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.