If you can get past the crunktastical beats and repetition, “Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em” isn’t a bad album. That’s not to say that it’s a great one either, but it is a solid effort.

I’m not sure why I expected more out of this album. I suppose because there was a lot of good buzz around it. He produced over half of the 14 tracks on his CD. With that said, young Soulja may have to go back to the drawing board. Just because you produce most of your album does not give you a pass to be mediocre.

Soulja Boy surprised me along with everyone else when he took the hip-hop world by storm with “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” What started off as a joke quickly morphed into a catchy, albeit annoying song and dance craze.

On the contrary, I think he has a lot of potential in terms of creativity. Take for instance the song “Sidekick” – it instantly brought on the laughter. With lyrics such as: “You can hit me up on 2-way/my Sidekick 3 it’s the same thing/If you got this phone then you ballin’ (no you ain’t),” the cackling never ends.

Any artist that can make me break out in laughter while cruising the streets of Downtown Sacramento is always going to get an ‘A’ for effort in my book.

And let’s not forget “Booty Meat.” That song title alone leaves Soulja Boy open for public scrutiny. OK I get it, these days it’s hip to talk about that voluptuousness of a young woman’s posterior but “Booty Meat?” Can you be any more vulgar? Listening to those lyrics come from a 16-year-old made me a bit uneasy.

With all that said and done I’m not going to leave out “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” because without this initial hit none of this would even be going on. I’m not going to focus too much on the song but what I will say is, for those of you who do not want to fork out the cash for the Soulja Boy album just listen to “Crank That.” Close to half of what he’s saying along with the cute catch phrases can be found throughout the album like the ever-popular “youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu” and “Pass It To Arab” which is actually a song on the album.

As fickle as the music industry is today, I truly believe that Soulja Boy is striking while the iron is hot. At the end of the day he makes appealing songs that people, kids and teenagers included, will listen to. Yet, that’s all that matters because once you have the “106 and Park” and “TRL” crowd, you’ve got everyone.

For all the Soulja Boy haters out there who say that he’s making music with no substance, please fall back. You can’t fault a 16-year-old boy for making catchy, hip-pop tracks for the club.

Not every form of hip-hop needs to be political and serious. Let the kids have their fun.

Oneika Richardson can be reached at [email protected]