What is DeAndre “SouljaBoy” Cortez up to these days? I’m not sure anyone’s asking that in the Year of our Lord 2025, but if they were the answer would probably surprise them. According to his latest post on Instagram, the rapper behind the 2007 hit “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” is once again trying to hawk someone else’s retro handhelds under his own own made-up brand.
SouljaGame Flip appears to just be a Retroid Pocket Flip 2, except that it costs more than double ($435 vs $210) and will be shipped to you from some other warehouse. “Not a single gamer buying this. Especially at that price,” one person earnestly responded on Instagram. “Play some games on it. Where’s the gameplay? Is it an emulator??? Rather get a Steam Deck for less that does more.”
The Instagram post promoting the scalper performance art was spotted by Retro Dodo which proceeded to ask the company that makes Retroid about it. “I didn’t know about this,” a representative told the site. “This is not any kind of official licensing deal. He does not have permission to rebrand our products and sell them as his own. The Retroid Pocket Flip 2 is patented in the U.S by ourselves.”
This is far from the first time that Soulja Boy has pulled this stunt. In 2018 he started flipping other Chinese-made retro emulation devices, only for some of them to come installed with ROMs for Nintendo games. The infamously litigious Mario maker did not take it well. He claimed Nintendo wouldn’t sue. “I had to boss up, I didn’t have a choice,” he posted on X after being threatened.
But that hasn’t stopped him from returning every couple of years with a new fake Soulja Boy handheld. In 2022, he was pushing another stolen Game Boy knockoff. The retro handheld market has only gotten bigger in the years since. That makes getting in on the action more lucrative than ever, but also more likely to get called out.
“[Soulja Boy] has been rebranding consoles before Xbox did with the ROG Ally X,” wrote one person on Instagram.
Update; 11/3/2025, 5:11 p.m. ET: Soulja Boy has apparently backed off the price gouging but is still ripping off Retroid.
After this tweet came out, the “SouljaGame Flip” (which is just a drop-shipped Retroid Pocket Flip 2) was reduced in price from $436 to $200 with free shipping 😃 https://t.co/2XiC7CdqZk pic.twitter.com/CWxOVWzsRd
— Retro Game Corps (@RetroGameCorps) November 3, 2025
