Louis Louis, Gucci Gucci, Fendi Fendi, Prada! One song, “Gucci Gucci,” by the then-unknown rapper Kreayshawn, became as ubiquitous as a hot brand name in the summer of 2011.
But like many other musical sensations before her, the artist was unable to fully capitalize on the name recognition the big song afforded her, and as soon as she lost control of the cultural zeitgeist, she disappeared from view. All of a sudden, it resembled Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, and nothing else.
Now that Kreayshawn has been on the charts for ten years, what has happened to her? Read on to learn everything PopCrush was able to compile on the rapper’s subsequent activities.
A Difficult Beginning and Going Solo…
Kreayshawn, who was born Natassia Zolot, was raised in East Oakland, California. While the aspiring rapper first began rapping at the age of 10, it turns out that music has always been in her blood: her mother, Elka Zolot, was the guitarist for the all-female surf punk band The Trashwomen from San Francisco.
What lacked in the younger Zolot’s blood, though? aspiration in education. She attended four different high schools during her teen years and was frequently expelled for significant truancy after missing courses for weeks on end or just leaving out. When she was 16, she relocated to the adjacent city of Berkeley to live with her extended family. There, she eventually completed a labor program to earn her GED.
After moving to Los Angeles, Kreayshawn started pursuing music as a career by directing music videos for other upcoming artists and posting films of her daily life on YouTube. She made friends with fellow female rapper V-Nasty while still in Berkeley. A few years later, she was performing with V-Nasty and another rapper named Lil Debbie as a member of the all-female group White Girl Mob.
However, the group’s internal dynamics were, to put it mildly, chaotic, and it finally broke up.
2010 saw the release of Kreayshawn’s debut mixtape, Kittys x Choppas, which included a music video for the song “Bumpin Bumpin.”
“Gucci Gucci” Gains Popularity
The official music video for “Gucci Gucci” was added to Kreayshawn’s channel on May 16, 2011. The music seemed like lightning in a bottle, perfectly capturing the cultural moment of the time from the perspective of a rising celebrity with its chant-along chorus, label-dropping chorus, and call out of “simple b—-hes” everywhere.
The “Gucci Gucci” video amassed nearly 3 million views in three weeks, and unsurprisingly, record labels began to swarm. As soon as Kreayshawn signed a contract with Columbia Records, his life appeared to take off. The rapper’s first Hot 100 success, “Gucci Gucci,” peaked at No. 57 and was given a Gold certification by the RIAA.
At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, where she also presented the red carpet, Kreayshawn was up for Best New Artist. The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song video was directed by her. She even started her first rap feud with none other than Rick Ross, and after her Twitter account was hacked, a naked photo was leaked.
Before she ever issued a follow-up to the single smash that first made her famous, she basically began checking off every box of 2010s celebrity culture as soon as she could…
A Letdown of a Debut Album
Kreayshawn’s major-label debut album, Somethin’ ‘Bout Kreay, was released by Columbia Records one year after the release of her breakthrough single. With “Gucci Gucci” as its first single, the album also included pre-release singles for the 2 Chainz collaborations “Breakfast (Syrup)” and “Go Hard (La.La.La)” and featured tracks from well-known artists like Kid Cudi (“Like It or Love It”) and Diplo (“Twerkin!!!” with Sissy Nobby).
The album only sold 3,502 copies in its first week, and it peaked on the Billboard 200 at a disappointing No. 157. This was not encouraging for Kreayshawn, and it didn’t help that reviewers were giving the studio set a very mixed reception and many were criticizing the rapper’s propensity for cliched wordplay. (Watch the music video for “Breakfast (Syrup)” if you need an example.
A new baby, an EP, and legal issues
Kreayshawn persisted despite the audience’s lack of response to her debut. The popular action movie The Heat starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy’s soundtrack included her song “Left E3e” in 2013. In the same year, she experimented with fashion by teaming up with OK 1984 to launch the Hella Cute choker collection. She also gave birth to her son, Desmond, albeit she later admitted that her label had let her go after the delivery.
After a few one-offs like “Pizza Song” from 2014 and a cameo appearance with DEV and Alisa Ueno on NERVO’s 2015 hit “Hey Ricky,” Kreayshawn made a comeback in 2019 with a full, independently released EP called T.O.B.M. The album featured corny rap songs like “Missing Kitty,” which had garnered little success on YouTube the year before.
Thanks to her active YouTube channel, Kreayshawn kept up a consistent online presence even while she wasn’t actively creating music. Since her co-host Chippy Nonstop was deported to Canada in 2014, she has been hosting a podcast called Lost in Thot. The former musician also experimented with Periscope and had her own radio show on Dash Radio, aptly titled “Kreaydio.” Nothing, however, stuck, and the IRS reportedly seized the celebrity’s bank account in 2015 due to failure to pay taxes.
A Comeback for Gaming, Vlogging, and Juggalos?
One thing has remained constant after “Gucci Gucci” over the years: Kreayshawn’s online presence. She also appears to have recently become more interested in gaming.
She urged her fans to follow her on the social media platform Twitch for her different gaming livestreams in July 2019 when she made the announcement of her Twitch membership via YouTube.
Although the most recent update to her channel—a walkthrough of the rapper playing Grand Theft Auto—was published in October 2020, she occasionally uploads livestreams to YouTube. There is also a video of Kreayshawn traveling to Indiana in 2019 for The Gathering of the Juggalos, which is rather interesting.
