It’s be a rocky couple of months for DeAndre Way, better known as Soulja Boy. The now infamous video with Kat Stacks alledging to his cocaine usage became an internet sensation and a stigma he has yet to escape. His tweeting attack against Fabolous was largely looked down upon. Knowing all this, VIBE decided to Soulja their first ever digital cover. In it, the rise of one of Hip-Hop’s youngest success stories is explored.

SOULJA BOY is boiling inside. Despite his building anger, he clings to his resolve as his father asks that same damn question. He’s infuriated, yet sits quietly, praying for a conclusion to his father’s preaching. That is until young’n’s invocation is answered, allowing him to answer.

“No, Dad” Soulja says. “I don’t do no drugs.”

Six years later, remembering that exchange is still uncomfortable for DeAndre Cortez Way, pka Soulja Boy. Even under the soft lounge area lighting of Doppler Studios, his favorite Atlanta recording studio, surrounded by a full comfort-zone cast of bodyguard, publicist, man- ager, engineers, artists and homeboys in the next room, the canary-diamond-bejeweled rapper gets caught up on memory lane, channeling his former 14-year-old self.

“My Dad was on me heavy about drugs,” remembers Soulja, slumped on a red two-seater couch, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. “He found a little sack in my bedroom, but it wasn’t from drugs. They came from some earrings that I bought. He and my stepmother kept asking if I do drugs. So I finally just said, ‘Look, I rap. I’ma be a famous rapper. My name’s Soulja Boy.’ And started showing them everything I was doing on the Internet— my MySpace page and everything.”

To read the rest of the cover story, head over to VIBE.