October 2, 2011

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Quite a look: Her real name is Natassia Zolot; "Kreayshawn" is a play on the word "creation." The 22-year-old rapper of the moment has created her own look, for sure: cartoon-character tattoos up her arms, catlike eyeliner, two-toned hair and outfits that combine colorful cut-off shirts, heart-shaped glasses, Minnie Mouse ears and huge gold hoops. Though Kreayshawn stands only 5-foot-1, she's making her presence known in the rap community through her videos, collaborations and public feuds.

Gucci Gucci Goo: On Kreayshawn's tiny frame, those thrift-store ensembles look surprisingly stylish. After all, this is the girl behind Gucci Gucci, the YouTube hit about being "independent, in control of your life," says Kreayshawn.

In Gucci Gucci's catchy hook, Kreayshawn rambles off designer brands that are too mainstream to be unique: "Gucci, Gucci, Louis, Louis, Fendi, Fendi, Prada. Basic b------s wear that s--- so I don't even bother." The song recently prompted Adweek to refer to a "Kreayshawn quandary," the idea that when everyone wears an expensive brand, the clothing isn't so special.

YouTube sensation: The Gucci Gucci video that shows Kreayshawn and fellow female rapper V-Nasty shopping, smoking and partying around the Bay Area has garnered 19.8 million views and counting. Working with Canadian producers that she met on Twitter, Kreayshawn thought the video up one day and shot it the next.

When the video was uploaded in May, it got a few thousand hits in its first 48 hours online. "I was like, 'Wow, everyone's watching this video. Oh, my God,'" Kreayshawn says. Everyone including Columbia Records, the label that signed Kreayshawn days after Gucci Gucci became an instant hit.

Artistic beginnings: The artist was a "hyperactive loud mouth" who grew up in a rough neighborhood of Oakland. Kreayshawn's mom played guitar and sang for a punk band, so music was a constant in her life. So was film. Kreayshawn got her hands on a video camera when she was 10 and documented her raps. "I was always freestyling with my friends," she says . (One memorable video features a pre-teen Kreayshawn improvising about getting free lunch at the cafeteria.)

After dropping out of high school, Kreayshawn studied at the Berkeley Digital Film Institute for two semesters, dropped out, then moved to Los Angeles to produce music videos for local rappers. In 2010, she released the mixtape Kittys x Choppas, but didn't get mainstream attention until Gucci Gucci, which was subsequently released by Columbia. It's sold almost 300,000 downloads and was sampled on a recent Lil Wayne track.

Love her or hate her: Kreayshawn raps, and does it with a little girl voice, clever lyrics and street slang. In conversation, she convincingly says things like "It's crackin'" and "Drake's my homey, he'd be a good collab."

Many commenters have taken issue with Kreayshawn's style, posting on Kreayshawn's YouTube page, "Does she know she's white?" But none of that holds Kreayshawn back. Instead, she's busy causing controversy with artists like Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj, who have been offended by things Kreayshawn has said (or rapped) about them.

"Husselina": She's come a long way since her drug-dealing days. "It was at a moment in my life when I was making music and painting" but needed the money, she says. Back then, she was nicknamed "Husselina" (more or less a hybrid of "Thumbelina" and "hustler"). Now, Kreayshawn is doing what she loves: shooting music videos for artists like Soulja Boy (she got in touch with him through friends) and performing and recording her own music.

Original ink: She has numbers tattooed on her fingers to look like a cellphone dial pad. "No one else has that … I just thought of it," says Kreayshawn, excited about the digits on her digits.

Hanging with the Dogg … and missing her cats: Kreayshawn was nominated for best new artist at the recent MTV Video Music Awards and she just recorded the song Keep it Craccin' with Snoop Dogg, which has already leaked online.

She describes the Snoop song as "poppin'" and hopes to release that track and a CD in 2012. On Oct 22, she's opening for LMFAO in Houston and a week later she'll perform at Voodoo Experience in New Orleans. In the meantime, she's drinking whole milk (her favorite beverage), eating steak (her favorite food) and missing her cats. "One of my cats has a Twitter name, ThaRealChoppa," says Kreayshawn. He tweets that he misses his traveling mommy.