Is the Oakland-based rapper Kreayshawn an Internet conspiracy or an absurdist comment on the state of popular culture? With a penchant for warped beats, chirpy hooks, and colorful baubles that combine Harajuku with the hood, the 22-year-old born Natassia Zolot has confounded the same Internet that gave birth to her. She performs Saturday at Studio 8’s Anniversary Party.
The surrealist asexual swagger that she traffics in has drawn lame comparisons to Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, even Lady Gaga. She also shares the criticism that she’s being “weird for weirdness’s sake,” and if that’s not enough—alert the authorities—she’s white.
In the video for “Gucci Gucci,” a wonky, fiendish rebuttal to exhausted brand names and simple minds, Kreayshawn and her crew of delinquent white girls strut through West Hollywood, pointing accusingly and mouthing cuss words. Adorned in what can only be called ‘cartoon couture,’ Kreayshawn dazzles in a Minnie Mouse headband and a blinged-out Indian head hanging from a waist-length chain. Her waif in crime, ‘Lil Debbie,’ bops in the foreground wearing a jean jacket and thick, square glasses—prescription unlikely. It’s as if someone animated the entire line of Polly Pocket and fed them a steady diet of hallucinogens and rap music.
But it’s not her fashion sense, or senselessness, that’s got the world in a fix. Her rap sheet reads thusly: an accomplice, Vanessa “V-Nasty” Reece, liberally peppers sentences with” the N-word.” Nude photos of a supposedly underage Kreayshawn were leaked on the Internet, right after a very public and very comic spat with heavyset rap-don Rick Ross. Also did we mention she’s white?
The thing is: Kreayshawn isn’t embarking on a quest to’save hip hop. It’s not clear if that’s even her genre. Hyper-referential, flippant and a little darling, it’s ridiculous to watch as hip-hop purists launch a series of missives against what’s really just hyphy junior—unthinking sure, but fun, dammit, fun. Cindi Lauper fun.
Kreayshawn performs February 25 at Studio 8’s anniversary party. The party starts at 9pm.
