Ice T slams Soulja Boy:

Soulja Boy mocks Ice T:

Ice T hits back:

This isn't about the music any more. Ice T is right; Soulja Boy is the Nickelback of hip-hop. "Crank That" (or at least the remix) is catchy, but his other work is either awful or forgettable. For example, his second hit "Yaah" is a belligerent, childish celebration of being rude.

But the quality of Soulja Boy's music doesn't matter. Ice T has revealed his age and his irrelevance. "Watch the YouTubes," he says, sounding as out of touch as Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens. Now the argument isn't over the Soulja Boy's talent but over his relevance. Ice T says, "you can't hurt my career 'cause I'm caked out." But all that means is that Soulja Boy can't hurt Ice T's career because it's over anyway.

By escalating the fight, Ice T just helped Soulja Boy keep his young career going. He gave Soulja Boy a chance to talk about Ice T's age (listing things that are younger than Ice T — like Wal-Mart — is a nice touch) and announce that "the game has changed, there's new n—-—s out, and nobody wants to hear that old shit no more." Soulja also earned the support of Kanye West, who blogged:

Soulja boy is fresh ass hell and is actually the true meaning of what hip hop is sposed to be. He came from the hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song. He had all of America rapping this summer. If that ain't Hip Hop then what is? A bunch of wannabe keep it real rappers that ain't even relevant, recycling samples trying to act like it's 96 again and all they do is hate on new shit?

On the one hand, it's pretty awesome to open your second big single's music video with a ringtone of your first single. On the other hand, it's a song about how to be a prick.