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DeAndre Cortez Way, aka Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em (or simply Soulja Boy) is a Grammy Award-nominated American rapper and record producer.

Born 28^th July 1990 in Chicago, Illinois, Way moved to Atlanta, Georgia at the age of six. He soon became interested in hip hop music and, despite moving away to Batesville, Mississippi in 2004, continued to write and perform raps. His father built him a recording studio to help him achieve his ambitions.

Way immediately recorded a number of original rap and hip hop songs. In late 2005, he posted several of these on the music social network SoundClick, as well as establishing pages on YouTube and MySpace. In early 2007 he published the single Crank That (Soulja Boy) on the various sites and quickly gained a horde of admiring fans. This encouraged him to release his first independent mixtape – Unsigned & Still Major: Da Album Before da Album – later that year.

In just a short time Way had attracted a considerable amount of industry interest and signed his first professional recording contract with Interscope Records in April 2007 – at the age of sixteen. Crank That (Soulja Boy) was re-recorded and released in May, shooting to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying there for seven weeks – making Way the youngest person ever to write, perform and produce a number one single. This was followed by his debut album Souljaboytellem.com, which reached the Top 5 in the US – producing the further Top 50 singles Soulja Girl and Yahhh! and earning the singer his first Grammy Award nomination.

Way released his second album iSouljaBoyTellem in December 2008, along with the singles Bird Walk, Kiss Me Thru the Phone and Turn My Swag On. His third album Dre followed in June 2010 and has, to date, produced one Top 40 single: Pretty Boy Swag.