[10] Primarily by means of trickery and false advertisement, he executed various schemes to increase his brand name recognition, and soon expanded his artistic reach to MySpace and blogs.

[15] "Crank That"—as publicly titled upon major-label release—was self-produced by Way in the unregistered demo copy of FL Studio, utilizing only the software's most basic library of sounds.

[16] The song is musically repetitive and sparse, incorporating snaps, a steel drum pattern, centered around a meaningless chant: "Yoooouuuulll!

[20] The song grew in popularity steadily, attracting the attention of music producer Mr. Collipark, who initially balked at its unexpected recognition.

"[22] Inspired by recent dance crazes that had popularized some rappers from Atlanta, Soulja Boy (DeAndre Way) and his friends invented the dance moves that gave rise to "Crank That": As summarized by The Wall Street Journal, "dancers bounce back on their heels, ripple their hands, crank their wrists like motorcyclists, then lunge into a Superman pose".

[5] The music video (directed by Dale Resteghini) begins in the "ColliPark Residence" with Sincostan Ak Flame and J Fresh imitating the Soulja Boy dance.

His instinct is confirmed when he notices a number of people performing the dance, en route to meeting with Soulja Boy.

Digital Spy criticized the track, calling it "a mind-numbingly tedious pop-rap single: three minutes and 45 seconds of inane hollering over a simple steel drum melody, some nifty hi-hat and a finger-click beat".

[25] AllMusic named it a "killer pop-rap single", mentioning that it "combines a steel drum hook with a fat-bottomed Mississippi beat, but it's the bizarre lyrics that matter most as questions like "Why me crank that Robocop?"

[18][29][30] Music journalist Tom Breihan devoted a chapter of his 2022 book The Number Ones to examining the legacy of "Crank That", with particular regards to Soulja Boy's self-driven marketing and nascent online popularity.

But while most of us have scrambled to catch up to the disorienting pace of these changes, younger kids have launched themselves into the void, using the confusion to sail past gatekeepers and make names for themselves.