Cranking those rumors about Soulja Boy’s demise

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.