Like many awaiting the new year, Soulja Boy hopes 2012 will be a fresh start. The 21-year-old rapper and producer has announced a new album, titled Promise, which he says will display growth and maturity after a tumultuous 2011.

"[The album is] just really showing the growth and maturity of Soulja Boy," he said in an interview with TheBoomBox.com. "It's going to be dope. It's going to be lot of great records on it, a lot of dope features, a lot of great production."

Soulja Boy's last album, 2010's The DeAndre Way, was considered a commercial and critical disappointment, selling only about 13,000 copies in its first week. This year, the "Turn My Swag On" rapper was mired in a number of controversies, including angering the U.S. military and its supporters with an off-color freestyle, and an arrest for marijuana possession. In the interview, Soulja Boy said he was grateful to still have the opportunity to make a difference with his music.

"I'm very thankful to be in the position that I'm in right now, just to touch so many people and be a role model for all the young people that's trying to come up in this world," he said.

Promise is scheduled to hit stores in early 2012.