I like soulja boy because i grew up with his music.
I respect him for the fact that he is a marketing genius. He was the first artist ever to use the internet as medium to launch their career with. He set the trend for all the other soundcloud rappers.
You want to know how he got big with his first hit "cranck that"? This was in a time that Limewire was still a thing. (People used that service to download songs illegal without paying) So what he did was upload his song under other titles from popular artist. For example 50cent or Eminem. Those artists songs all got 100 thousands of downloads on limewire. People then download the song expecting some mainstream artist but it was soulja boy "cranck that" his song. Some liked it and then searched for the artist on google. Which made the ball go rolling. This was just free marketing for him on a big scale. It's a shady tactic not 100% ethical but it is smart form a marketing/business perspective. He was just a kid at the time, made millions with music. And his music is not even (that) good to be honest :p