Soulja Boy, who first catapulted to stardom with his 2007 YouTube single “Crank That,” was declared dead Wednesday by the very Internet that made him famous.
The hashtag #RIPsouljaboy trended on Twitter today even though Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way) is apparently not really dead in real life.
The hashtag gained popularity with a tweet from @TheBlackSTEWIE (which is not safe for work), a prankster and hip-hop aficionado with over 100,000 followers, according to Topsy, a social media search engine.
Others quickly followed and yet another Twitter rumor began. Of course, not all rumors are a bad thing: Soulja Boy is once again making headlines.
Here’s a Storify showing the evolution of the story.