Video Breakdown: Soulja Boy “2 Milli” (Watch)

Soulja Boy, internet phenom, pop culture phenomenon, ignorant youth. Some say cultural disgrace. The bottom line, however, is that he is a twitter maven, myspace junkie, and probably one of the most savvy internet marketers in the music industry today. Whatever your take is on him, the kids love him and he's at the top of the music game in terms of popularity and visibility. He recently dropped a video from his forthcoming album "The DeAndre Way" for the track "2Milli". Co-directed by Dale "Rage" Resteghini and Todd Angkasuwan, it's a cool look into the futuristic world of young playboy Soulja Boy.



Rage, a music industry veteran and mainstay, has been in the game for many years. He’s shot hundreds of videos for high profile artists in both he hip-hop and rock/heavy metal world. As his body of work increases, so does his talent and skill-set and if you follow these kinds of things, you should look out for him possibly making a power move into the world of features. In 2 Milli he creates an introspective and epic setting and ambiance for the video and for Soulja Boy, not the easiest thing to do for the artist that penned "Crank That" and the line "Superman that ho". Putting him in a different light, partly due to the lyrics, and the music, but also largely in part to the video, Soulja Boy might be slowly making the transition to a more mature and serious artist. The execution is solid and refreshing in that I can somewhat time Soulja Boy seriously after watching the video and listening to his lyrics.

The other half of the equation is co-director Todd Angkasuwan. I gotta give huge props to Todd. I know he most likely single handedly took care of all the visual effects work and the stuff looks great, especially for something one person did on their own without a team of CGI artists to work under them. It's also a progression from his previous work, which relied heavily on 2-D composition, as he begins to take his foray into the 3D visual effects world. The stuff can literally pass for work done on a Hollywood film like Tron, and I’m sure they had a fraction of the budget and time that those guys did.

Make sure you check out young Soulja Boy and 2 Milli as he and his people work towards taking their respective games to the next level. And make sure you shout out Todd on Twitter (@toddangkasuwan), good friend of mind and really good dude.