Soulja Boy put a real phone number in one of his biggest hits, and millions of fans actually called it. In 2008, his track “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” featured a working number directly in the chorus. It wasn’t a fake line for the song—fans who dialed it reached a promotional line connected straight to Soulja Boy. As the song climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the line exploded. Soulja Boy later claimed the phone number became so popular it was pulling in around $100,000 a month at its peak. Instead of just writing a catchy hook, he turned his lyrics into an interactive business model. For an artist who built his early career on the internet, it was another example of Soulja Boy mastering viral marketing long before everyone else.

Soulja Boy put a real phone number in one of his biggest hits, and millions of fans actually called it. In 2008, his track “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” featured a working number directly in the chorus. It wasn’t a fake line for the song—fans who dialed it reached a promotional line connected straight to Soulja Boy. As the song climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the line exploded. Soulja Boy later claimed the phone number became so popular it was pulling in around $100,000 a month at its peak. Instead of just writing a catchy hook, he turned his lyrics into an interactive business model. For an artist who built his early career on the internet, it was another example of Soulja Boy mastering viral marketing long before everyone else.