Who knows what the future holds for Kreayshawn? Maybe she’s the first earnest embodiment of a rapping Spice Girl, empowering women through her brash individuality and uplifting intentions. Maybe she’s the first female Vanilla Ice, the soon-to-be corporate face of faux-Hip Hop positioned for success strictly because the numbers make sense. Maybe she’s something somewhere in between. Maybe she’s something brand new.
With little more than a YouTube smash, a Sony deal still waiting for the ink to dry and a wide-ranging list of celebrity co-signs, it’s difficult to know what to make of Rap’s latest Internet obsession. The East Oakland representer doesn’t fit into any predefined box because she’s admittedly still tinkering with the foundation of her craft. Regardless of how polarizing rapid pop-notoriety is in Hip Hop, one thing is undeniable even at this early stage: Kreayshawn is an artist. Visually. Sonically. Creatively.
HipHopDX spoke with Kreayshawn about New York’s lack of “pussy-popping,” making Rap music that’s accessible to women, the difference between “White Girl Mob” and “Girl Gang,” and how she’s handling her newfound fame.
HipHopDX: How was your first New York City performance experience? I believe you rocked Highline Ballroom at the end of May.
Kreayshawn: Yeah, I did the Highline with Roxy Cottontail.
DX: How was that? How was the crowd out here to you?
Kreayshawn: It’s different because in New York, even in the club, it’s like, everyone will be rapping the lyrics and rapping their favorite song but you won’t see a bitch pussy-popping on the handstand. Or I haven’t yet. Well, I’ve seen a couple but for the most part, everyone is just vibing out. Everyone was vibing. Everyone was like, “Yo, you killed that shit!” And I’m like, “Are y’all feeling it? I can’t tell! C’mon, pop yo’ coochie!” [Laughs]
Home > News > Kreayshawn Discusses Sony Deal, Riding Around With "White In The Trunk"
Kreayshawn Discusses Sony Deal, Riding Around With "White In The Trunk"
by The Company Man
posted June 14, 2011 at 10:55AM EDT | 54 comments
Kreayshawn Discusses Sony Deal, Riding Around With
Exclusive: The East Oakland, California YouTube sensation reveals her past, her many influences, and why her million-views is not an overnight achievement, but years in the making.
Who knows what the future holds for Kreayshawn? Maybe she’s the first earnest embodiment of a rapping Spice Girl, empowering women through her brash individuality and uplifting intentions. Maybe she’s the first female Vanilla Ice, the soon-to-be corporate face of faux-Hip Hop positioned for success strictly because the numbers make sense. Maybe she’s something somewhere in between. Maybe she’s something brand new.
With little more than a YouTube smash, a Sony deal still waiting for the ink to dry and a wide-ranging list of celebrity co-signs, it’s difficult to know what to make of Rap’s latest Internet obsession. The East Oakland representer doesn’t fit into any predefined box because she’s admittedly still tinkering with the foundation of her craft. Regardless of how polarizing rapid pop-notoriety is in Hip Hop, one thing is undeniable even at this early stage: Kreayshawn is an artist. Visually. Sonically. Creatively.
HipHopDX spoke with Kreayshawn about New York’s lack of “pussy-popping,” making Rap music that’s accessible to women, the difference between “White Girl Mob” and “Girl Gang,” and how she’s handling her newfound fame.
HipHopDX: How was your first New York City performance experience? I believe you rocked Highline Ballroom at the end of May.
Kreayshawn: Yeah, I did the Highline with Roxy Cottontail.
DX: How was that? How was the crowd out here to you?
Kreayshawn: It’s different because in New York, even in the club, it’s like, everyone will be rapping the lyrics and rapping their favorite song but you won’t see a bitch pussy-popping on the handstand. Or I haven’t yet. Well, I’ve seen a couple but for the most part, everyone is just vibing out. Everyone was vibing. Everyone was like, “Yo, you killed that shit!” And I’m like, “Are y’all feeling it? I can’t tell! C’mon, pop yo’ coochie!” [Laughs]
DX: New York is a tough town. New York is highly critical about Hip Hop, but more than anything else, New York is too-cool-for-school, anyway. Hip Hop and everything else.
Kreayshawn: This is where it came from, really. So I see why.
Kreayshawn's Musical Style
DX: How would you describe your music? Do you consider it Hip Hop? Or is it something else and you’re rapping over it?
Kreayshawn: I mean, “Gucci Gucci” is definitely a different kind of Rap music because not a lot of Rap music can translate into something that everyone can listen to, you know what I’m saying? I think it has a whole bunch of different elements in it but it is, for the most part, it is Hip Hop. It has rapping in it. I’m not singing or harmonizing. It’s definitely a mix between a whole bunch of stuff.
DX: I think it’s really interesting now with music, holistically speaking. There are a lot of different sounds fusing together and making kind of new sounds. Little Dragon or Ariel Pink, for example. Ariel Pink calls his sound “Retrolicious.” It’s difficult some times to pinpoint exactly what people are doing because there is a lot of creativity happening right now.
Kreayshawn: I think that’s what people are embracing now because I feel like everything started getting formulated. Everything was kind of being made for you to listen to and I feel like, now people are accepting artists and their individuality. That makes a lot of fusion genres because it’s not like, “This is girl is making Pop music and it’s about to be on the radio.” A fusion between different styles is being welcomed because people are tired of being told, “This is what Pop is. This is what Hip Hop is. Listen to this on the radio.” People are breaking out of that because the Internet’s there. You can go on the Internet and find different music now.
DX: You said something I felt was pretty insightful on your Tumblr. “There’s somethings I just want to do for the sake of doing. Like you live for these years. Just to look back on and be bitter about when your older. I wanna be bitter as hell. I wanna make my past the best by doing anything I can now to make it as colorful and exciting as I can.”
Kreayshawn: That’s basically something I’ve been doing since forever -- since I can remember -- is making music and doing videos just for me to have to document and look back on. Sometimes I’ll do something crazy like stand on a table and scream and be like, “Yeah, I was there last week and I stood on a table and screamed.” Making an impression. Once I started putting the music out and videos out, it was something for everyone to look back on and be like, “Oh, shit.” People are going to look back on “Gucci Gucci” in a couple months and be like, “Oh yeah, I remember that video. That shit was crazy. I was showing all my friends that,” you know.
Kreayshawn Explains Her Tattoo
DX: Is that what you mean by [your tattoo] “My Mind Exploded”?
Kreayshawn: “My Mind Exploded” actually came from this song by this singer named Tone. I’ll look for music on YouTube and click random links and there’s this song with her singing “My mind exploded once or twice” and that stood out to me. Your mind can explode from being so excited. It can explode from being so angry. It’s just like, I’m and over-analyzer type of person. Everyday constantly something is making my mind explode and I’m like, “Yo, what the fuck!” and so I had to get that tatted.
DX: How did this Sony deal come about in your opinion? Is this off the strength of “Gucci Gucci” or this more a product of the of combination your videography, one-stop-shop-artist haven you’ve created for yourself?
Kreayshawn: I think that’s how it is because a lot of people -- you can say 1.8 million people -- are seeing “Gucci Gucci” and seeing me for the first time. For a lot of people, that’s what it seems like or that’s what it looks like because people are going to see to the right of the page and look at all my old videos and old stuff. “Gucci Gucci” of course has caught the attention of everybody but the labels, they look back. They research. That’s one thing I loved about Sony [Records] is because they cover a whole bunch of mediums of things, too. So when they looked back and saw that I had films and videos, [that] I’ve shot videos for myself, stuff like that, that’s what really turned them on. I felt like if “Gucci Gucci” was like a one-time thing, it would’ve just been a viral video. I feel like it’s bigger and more than that just because I’m a one-stop artist person. They saw that I already had a vision. They didn’t have to make a vision for me. It wasn’t just like, “Oh yeah, this chick’s cute in the video. Let’s sign her and have her do this and have her do that.” They signed me and were like, “We want you to do everything you’ve already been doing from day 1.”
DX: Does that feel empowering? I know you have all kinds of friends and family -- your mom was in [punk band] The Trashwomen -- advising you on how treacherous the entertainment industry, the music industry can be.
Kreayshawn: Oh yeah, [my mom’s] been hitting my phone up all the time, trying to give me advice. I was like, “Man, mom, this is like 20 years later. Shit’s different!”
DX: Really? That’s interesting. So you’re forming your own path away from your mom’s advice.
Kreayshawn: Her thing was a whole different type. That was 20 years ago with underground Punk music. It’s way different from a video going on YouTube. If she was this age [today] and she did an all-girl Punk band, I could imagine it being even bigger than this.
DX: On the Hip Hop tip, people are always decrying or dealing with “haters.” There’s always a bunch of people who will challenge you and test you because Hip Hop has always been hyper-competitive.
Kreayshawn: That’s like the main thing of Rap. Things should just be normal, you know?
Kreayshawn Speaks About Her Street Background
DX: Have you thought about that? When Lil’ Kim or some new hungry rapper somewhere comes out and feels your the next one to target, similarly to what happened with Nicki Minaj for whatever reason or how Odd Future came out throwing darts at certain industry acts -- are you prepared for something like that on a lyrical level? Because that’s where these things are hashed out most times anyway.
READ FULL INTERVIEW @HIPHOPDX.COM
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