It is 4:59am, and I am on the phone to Kreayshawn, who is calling from ‘LA, California, United States of America, latitude five hundred and eight degrees versus – no, I’m just kidding.’ She laughs, and I suddenly feel much, much better. I’ve spent the last few months following Kreayshawn on Twitter, an unabashedly honest look into the life of someone who calls herself ‘faceless + RAPBITCH.’ Nominated last year as one of MTV’s ‘Best New Artists’ before she’s even released her first album, ‘Kreaykreay’s’ ‘#100thingILove’ include ‘sm0king p0t’, ‘cruisinggg on a Sunday afTerno0n..’ and ‘kittehz’. Suffice to say, I had no idea what to expect. What I found though, was someone with much to offer at this delicate opening stage of her career.
Kreayshawn, born Natassia Zolot, is a 3rd generation Russian-American representing Oakland, CA, who stands about five foot tall and looks like Amy Winehouse’s cuter younger sister, albeit with even more tattoos. (When asked how many, she laughed: ‘Like, a lot. I’m going to count – probably thirty?’) Propelled to fame by viral hit ‘Gucci Gucci’, with almost 29 million views and counting, 2011 has been Kreayshawn’s year. It was kickstarted by ‘making my New Year’s resolutions. The first one was to move to LA.’ Kreayshawn has no high school diploma, but had been offered a year’s scholarship to Berkeley, where she focused on making music videos. ‘I decided that I would make as many as I could, so that I could save up money and move; I had a homie who was working out here, and he said, “I can get you a job working on film sets; don’t worry, you’ll get paid.”’ To cut a long story short, she came to LA and there was no job. ‘So yeah, I was struggling.’
Fast forward a year, two cats (Kitty and Choppa) and a Columbia record deal, typical days consist of ‘waking up, going to the studio – I’m always running around town, but I don’t have a car, so have to bum rides!’
With two official singles released in the last six months, the album is now underway. ‘I’ve finished a whole bunch of stuff, and now is about the time that I have to figure out what I want to name it; I’m kind of scared to, because you can’t change it once you’ve named it! It’s a mix between a whole bunch of different sounds – just good, hot, fun music. It’s all about not caring. I’m a person who doesn’t really care about what other people think and I think that reflects in my music; it’s kind of rebellious. Techno, dance, fantasy.’
‘When becoming a rapper, first you start by writing poems – I’m pretty sure every girl writes poems!’ However, ‘It is really hard. Rapping wasn’t the first thing that I made a decision to do; I did it for fun, and it morphed into “Ooh, I wanna be a rapper.” Girls are more prone to being scared of their talents or of saying what they really think, and that might play a part. But a lot more girls are making videos of them freestyling, and putting them out – that’s cool to see, and it happens a lot more now.’
Musical inspirations include her mother, of garage surf-punk group The Trashwomen, and ‘the Spice Girls. I grew up listening to a whole bunch of crazy different artists – it’s all about taking inspiration from everything. Right now, I’m listening to a lot of late nineties, early 2000s rap, which is the best, and a lot of weird stuff – sometimes jazz.’
Part of a legion of careers launched online, this is due in no small part to her video direction. ‘I want to dip my hands in everything – I need to take a lot of time, right now, because I’m still trying to finish my album, and put out new videos, and everything’s still hella’ new.’ And the name? ‘I came up with that because – I locked myself in a room and I was painting and drawing and making music, making videos, and doing so much stuff, and I said to myself, I have to be creative every day, or I’ll die.’
It is 4:59am, and I am on the phone to Kreayshawn, who is calling from ‘LA, California, United States of America, latitude five hundred and eight degrees versus – no, I’m just kidding.’ She laughs, and I suddenly feel much, much better. I’ve spent the last few months following Kreayshawn on Twitter, an unabashedly honest look into the life of someone who calls herself ‘faceless + RAPBITCH.’ Nominated last year as one of MTV’s ‘Best New Artists’ before she’s even released her first album, ‘Kreaykreay’s’ ‘#100thingILove’ include ‘sm0king p0t’, ‘cruisinggg on a Sunday afTerno0n..’ and ‘kittehz’. Suffice to say, I had no idea what to expect. What I found though, was someone with much to offer at this delicate opening stage of her career.
Kreayshawn, born Natassia Zolot, is a 3rd generation Russian-American representing Oakland, CA, who stands about five foot tall and looks like Amy Winehouse’s cuter younger sister, albeit with even more tattoos. (When asked how many, she laughed: ‘Like, a lot. I’m going to count – probably thirty?’) Propelled to fame by viral hit ‘Gucci Gucci’, with almost 29 million views and counting, 2011 has been Kreayshawn’s year. It was kickstarted by ‘making my New Year’s resolutions. The first one was to move to LA.’ Kreayshawn has no high school diploma, but had been offered a year’s scholarship to Berkeley, where she focused on making music videos. ‘I decided that I would make as many as I could, so that I could save up money and move; I had a homie who was working out here, and he said, “I can get you a job working on film sets; don’t worry, you’ll get paid.”’ To cut a long story short, she came to LA and there was no job. ‘So yeah, I was struggling.’
Fast forward a year, two cats (Kitty and Choppa) and a Columbia record deal, typical days consist of ‘waking up, going to the studio – I’m always running around town, but I don’t have a car, so have to bum rides!’
With two official singles released in the last six months, the album is now underway. ‘I’ve finished a whole bunch of stuff, and now is about the time that I have to figure out what I want to name it; I’m kind of scared to, because you can’t change it once you’ve named it! It’s a mix between a whole bunch of different sounds – just good, hot, fun music. It’s all about not caring. I’m a person who doesn’t really care about what other people think and I think that reflects in my music; it’s kind of rebellious. Techno, dance, fantasy.’
‘When becoming a rapper, first you start by writing poems – I’m pretty sure every girl writes poems!’ However, ‘It is really hard. Rapping wasn’t the first thing that I made a decision to do; I did it for fun, and it morphed into “Ooh, I wanna be a rapper.” Girls are more prone to being scared of their talents or of saying what they really think, and that might play a part. But a lot more girls are making videos of them freestyling, and putting them out – that’s cool to see, and it happens a lot more now.’
Musical inspirations include her mother, of garage surf-punk group The Trashwomen, and ‘the Spice Girls. I grew up listening to a whole bunch of crazy different artists – it’s all about taking inspiration from everything. Right now, I’m listening to a lot of late nineties, early 2000s rap, which is the best, and a lot of weird stuff – sometimes jazz.’
Part of a legion of careers launched online, this is due in no small part to her video direction. ‘I want to dip my hands in everything – I need to take a lot of time, right now, because I’m still trying to finish my album, and put out new videos, and everything’s still hella’ new.’ And the name? ‘I came up with that because – I locked myself in a room and I was painting and drawing and making music, making videos, and doing so much stuff, and I said to myself, I have to be creative every day, or I’ll die.’
