Soulja Boy Console
Soulja Boy has claimed to sell his own products, but is it really his items he’s selling?
The SouljaConsole is the first product being sold by Soulja Boy, to be off the counter due to copy strike issues.
Soulja Boy, a famous American rapper, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He’s famous for his hit songs such as “I’m so important (came out the waters part II),” Zan With That Lean,” and “Pretty Boy Swag.” However, he’s been going adventurous and released many brands that were named after him. Some of these products included Soulja Pads, Soulja consoles, Soulja pods, and Soulja watches. They were knock-offs of popular products that were sold elsewhere, such as Nintendo Switch sold by Nintendo, Air pods sold by Apple, Ipads sold by Apple, and Apple Watches sold by Apple. The prices, however, were cheaper and thus more affordable, which brought customers to actually buy Soulja Boy’s products. Kristine, a Warhill Junior, expressed certain reservations however, saying, “I don’t think that these products are actually gonna work. I mean just by looking at it looks so shady.”
All seemed to be going great for Soulja Boy at first, with many fellow rappers supporting his idea of selling his own products to the people. Some of these supporters including Snoop Dog, King Bach, Kazeem Famuyide, Daniel Hardcastle, Chris Brown, and many more. People, however, started to question how and where Soulja Boy was getting his products, and started digging around. It turns out that Soulja Boy just bought products from cheaper brands and relabeled it as his own, at times even selling it at a higher price. Youtubers started to make videos on this to expose Soulja Boy’s actions, and those who saw it started to become more offensed by Soulja Boy, who still claimed everything as his own.
He made various comments on Twitter about to the effect of saying everything is his and no one can stop him from doing this due to how “law works.” As this controversy started to grew more and more facts about these products “made” by Soulja Boy were released as well. It seemed more and more like a scam as time went on, and it became obvious that everything he was selling was ripped off of actual products. What’s worse is the fact that Soulja Boy didn’t even make the products that he’s selling, but buying it from other knock-off companies cheaply and selling it at a more expensive price with his tag on it on his own website, Souljawatch.com.
Most controversial of all are the consoles that he has “made.” These include games from Nintendo and PlayStation that have not be licensed and are being used illegally. The console version design resembled an Xbox One S. It also was known to include Linux 3.0, 800 classic pre-installed games, support for PlayStation 1, arcade, and Game Boy Advance games. The console also had “ultra-large capacity” that wasn’t clearly defined. The controller resembled the PlayStation DualShock controller design as well. He also put in a lot of “statistical data” that didn’t have any backings to it and was there to make the products seem more legitimate. Suzy, a freshman at Seoul University, said, “Although what he claims is really good, it is not proven at all so in what aspect can we trust his data?”
Even though he was taking part in illegal matters, he told his followers that everything was licensed and even tweeting, “brought tears to my eyes. Tears of joy!” when the first SouljaConsole was sold.On Twitter, he vowed to his followers that he will “continue my tech company and evolve it in the gaming world. I’m just a kid with a dream.” Despite all these promises, Soulja Boy has run into multiple problems that were bound to follow him, mainly copyright issues. Soulja Boy was forced to discontinue the knock-off consoles, with his website now directing people to Nintendo’s 3DS store. He had violated the Trademark Counterfeiting Act, and was forced to no longer sell the counterfeit consoles. Soulja Boy summed it up in one of his tweets, “I had to boss up, I didn’t have a choice.”
Even with all the chaos, he is still selling his SouljaWatch, SoujlaPad, SouljaPod, SouljaHeadphones, and SouljaPhone. He supposedly made millions on these products already. The illegal selling of the consoles, though forbidden now, also brought Soulja Boy millions in profit.
It is questionable whether it is really worth ruining and tainting one’s “childhood dream” over money, but that’s what Soulja Boy did. Jarel White, a Lafayette High School Senior, said “Soulja Boy is only out there to make more money man. He’s not doing it for dreams, it’s only for money.”
