This will probably stir up some debate, but I wasn’t captain of the debate team at Yale for nothin’.

(Disclaimer: DJ Xplosive has no affiliation with Yale and is a pathological liar.)

Soulja Boy is nominated for the Best Rap Song at this year’s Grammy Awards. His competitors in this category include 2 highly-acclaimed releases from Kanye West’s Graduation album, a hit single from previous Grammy nominee T.I. and a single from the former Soundscan Killa, 50 Cent.

That’s tough competition. I’ll be the first to admit that the youngster is definitely the underdog here. So, let’s examine the other tracks and hopefully by the end of this column you will all be checking the box for Soulja Boy when filling out your Grammy ballots (…because I know most of my readers are on the voting committee).

Let’s start with TI. Tip has been one of my favorite rappers over the past few years, standing head and shoulders above his peers in the class of rappers that have come to define the “new south”. His nominated track, “Big Things Poppin”, was a good leadoff for a highly anticipated album. Unfortunately, the rest of the album didn’t live up to expectations, and while I won’t say it was a total disaster, this was definitely a rushed project and this single lacks any unique qualities that would lead someone to say “This was the best rap song to come out this year!”

It doesn’t win for 2 reasons:

1) The track wasn’t produced by DJ Toomp. Why was Toomp not on this album? If I’m a rapper and there’s one producer that always seems to be able to mesh with my style and helps me deliver classics…I’m sticking with that guy, regardless of how many tracks we’ve done together.

2) His legal problems. I hope Tip is able to beat the charges that have been brought against him, but I think that this will be a factor that Grammy voters will take into consideration, as they won’t be looking to bring more attention to his situation and will want to distance themselves from him for the time being.

Next up we’ve got Mr. Vitamin Water himself, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. While 50′s bank account had a GREAT year, 50 Cent the rapper did not. He went head to head with Kanye in the memorable Soundscan showdown of 9/11…and lost. To be fair, I won’t focus on 50′s up and down year as an artist and stick to the track. He is nominated for his collaboration with Justin Timberlake on “Ayo Technology”. This track was about as exciting as Major League Soccer. It was an attempt to be overly sexy, while still maintaining an urban edge, that just struck out. The sluggish rhyme delivery, accompanied by a painfully dull hook, combined to deliver a track that should have never seen the light of day. If the nominating committee was really that compelled to include 50 Cent in this category; couldn’t they have at least nominated “I Get Money”?

And then we have Kanye West. Kanyeezy has 2 records nominated in this category, the smooth and relaxed, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”, and the upbeat T-Pain assisted, “Good Life”. Both strong records and sure contenders. I know to the dismay of some, this is a hard statement to swallow, as an artist, Kanye can do no wrong in my book. The dude is a genius and making music that is incomparable to any of his peers in the game right now. The reason he doesn’t win in this category is because his dual nomination cancels him out. I know, it’s an unfortunate technicality for him, but he’s either destined for greatness in more prestigious categories or the Grammy people just like to nominate Kanye because his outbursts are known to draw higher ratings.

So that leaves us with Crank That Soulja Boy. Why should a song that will be remembered mostly for setting off a dance craze and Youtube parodies win a songwriter’s award? The answer to that would be because this song has only one writer…who was a 16 year old high school student when he made the record.

Sure, it’s not terribly complicated in its composition and the rhymes won’t have him competing for any lyricist trophies, but the song is brilliant in its simplicity. Soulja Boy wasn’t trying to make a record to compete with the top dogs in the industry. He was making a record that has just enough substance to catch your attention and gave his fans something to have fun with.

America took this record and ran wild with it to the point that next thing you know we’ll see President Bush Crankin’ That Soulja Boy.

Okay, I hope it doesn’t go that far, but you should see where I’m going with this. A 16 year old kid messing around with his computer and throwing together some phrases that really only made sense to him at the time, was able to single-handedly compose a record that would become an international phenomenon. How many other nominees can say that?