Do you remember Soulja Boy? If not. Well.. let’s just say that he was Justin Bieber BIG before Justin Bieber was big.
Come on.. You have to remember the “Crank That” song and dance. It was only the very first time rapper utilized social media to break records. Well.. if you ask creative director and marketing genius, Kiarash Behain, he’ll tell you that he remembers it very well. In fact, Kiarash Behain’s first viral collaboration happened in 2010 with Soulja Boy right as the young rapper was experiencing massive success from his hit single.
Check out this decade old freestyle from Soulja Boy produced and directed by Kiarash Behain.
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The duo produced multiple assets that went viral on the Internet.
Ironically, Kiarash initially connected with Soulja Boy through a series of internet beef tweets on Twitter, leading the rapper wanting to fight Kiarash, who was posing as his entertainment brand alias “The Rundown” at the time.The two later settled their differences and began to collaborate.
“There was a miscommunication and everything was settled,” Kiarash says. “Soulja is my guy and will forever be a legend in my book.”
Kiarash said when he and Soulja finally met in person, they had nothing but respect for each other.
“Because Soulja did not know what I looked like… I randomly spotted him and his people in the parking lot of a movie theatre,” Kiarash recalls.
“I got out of my car, walked up to him, shook his hand and gave him my business card. He immediately recognized who I was and it was respect from there.”
Kiarash’s work with Soulja Boy eventually landed him more viral collaborations with other celebrities like Sean “Diddy” Combs, Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Tyrese Gibson, Akon, Quincy Brown and many others.
Today, Kiarash Behain is the CEO of his company Rundown Media—who helps many influencers and brands, big and small, make an impact online.