The Singles Jukebox

There’s the Kreayshawn we like….

[Video][Website]
[6.77]

Katherine St Asaph: A meme, reviewed in meme: At first I was like :D but then Kreayshawn got a record deal and grizzly-hugged the authenticity-debate beehive and dropped “Rich Whores” so I was like -_-
[4]

Alex Ostroff: Things that elevate “Gucci Gucci” above pure novelty: (1) The “one big room” vocal hook, (2) the contrast between the squelching bass and the whining treble in the beat, (3) “baggie full of Adderall” (a university-attending hipster’s drug-dealing anthem would sound a lot like this), (4) the way she drawls “leisurrrrre,” (5) swag pumping out of ovaries, (6) “Gucci Gucci, Louis Louis, Fendi Fendi, Prada” is, in fact, a lot of fun to chant. The fact that “Gucci Gucci” also included a line about shitting in cat litter, the clarifying “Trump” appended to “Ivana,” and the gratingly half-sung editor/director/own boss line should have been an indication that nothing good would come of this.
[7]

Zach Lyon: The chorus is catchy. The sentiment is grade-school Hot Topic bullshit repackaged in an even more useless California hipster context — just replace Abercrombie, Hollister, whatever the kids are wearing these days. The swag ovaries line is alright. And then there are maybe two other lines people have earmarked as having some sort of value, when they really just sound stale and representative of our collective lowered standards, if that wasn’t already clear from the fact that three notable lines apparently make a good song. “I’m lookin’ like Madonna but I’m flossin’ like Ivana/Trump” makes me think “Jean-Ralphio you gotta end on the rhyme!” The rest of this is just me going “why,” but I take solace in the fact that this seems to actually be a 15-minute situation. I hope the tone Michael Ian Black uses in this segment of I Love the 10s will be “shameful.”
[2]

Michelle Myers: I get why the gut reaction is to hate Kreayshawn. White hipsters have had a very bad track record when it comes to making rap music, but Kreayshawn is not MC Paul Barman. I really do believe she is sincere in her love of rap, Oakland and blunts. I think she’s trying to make hip hop for people who actually like hip hop, not for nebbish indie kids. Is she succeeding? Sort of. Between all the swag pumping out of ovaries and big rooms full of bad bitches, there are some pretty awful lines. But even awkward Twitter references can’t keep me from liking this song.
[7]

Hazel Robinson: Man, this woulda been a 10 if I hadn’t seen the video and realised it’s a bunch of vegan crunksters. It would take like half a glass of wine, though, to have me standing on my chair gesticulating wildly to the horizontal cheerleader taunt of the chorus, even if they’d never let my fat ass in their party.
[7]

Kat Stevens: I like this song both more and less after watching the video and seeing Kreayshawn. Less because I was imaging someone less scrawny and zoned-out, not a mini Gaga after a night on the roll-yr-owns; more because now she reminds me of the traits I like best in Avril Lavigne. Despite the laziness, there’s a full awareness of how much of a shitstorm is about to kick up and not a hint of regret or self-doubt about continuing said shitstorm. She also has the same cadence that Avril has in the middle eight of “Girlfriend” (in a second you’ll be wrapped around my finger…) and the snottiness to pull it off. I am sold.
[8]

Jer Fairall: I’d already thought “bitch, you ain’t no Barbie, I see you work at Arby’s, #2, supersize, hurry up, I’m starving” was pretty hilarious when I read it on Anthony’s blog without knowing the source. My gripe about her voice remains, though, and will constitute a serious roadblock to my future enjoyment of her, even if she eventually acquires less rinky-dink production and learns to sustain her smarter lyrical ideas for an entire song.
[6]

Jonathan Bradley: “Gucci Gucci” succeeds because Kreayshawn understands the utility of a sharp catchphrase or two; in addition to the ovaries line, there’s the laundry list of haute couture forming the hook, which works whether you disdain basic bitches or are one. Kreayshawn is not a remarkable MC, but she doesn’t need to be. Her job here is to display breezy self-assurance, lazy contempt and an utterly unearned sense of superiority, all with wicked disdain for propriety. People don’t like it when women act like this, but it’s a lot of fun should you happen to be on the right side of it.
[8]

Michaela Drapes: Kreayshawn shouldn’t ____________ because she’s white. Kreayshawn shouldn’t ____________ because she’s a girl. Welcome to Riot Grrrl, 2011 style. Only Kreayshawn isn’t fucking around with guitars in a basement in Olympia, WA — she’s fucking around with mixing software. She isn’t making zines, she’s uploading videos to YouTube. The latest in a grand line of other Oakland-based artists who seriously do not give a fuck what you think, Kreayshawn is rubbing everyone’s face in the reality of being upwardly mobile in the ghetto these days, and she ain’t doing it by being a Barbie. And if she’s pissing off so many people in the process, then she’s probably doing something right.
[9]

Anthony Easton: I know all the qualifiers about hipsters and race and tourism, but Kreayshawn thinks pretty hard about class. And she’s sort of an American Lady Sov, which is awesome.
[10]

Edward Okulicz: I wanted so badly to hate this, because as a rule any Internet sensation has to be bad, but was won over in about 20 seconds when it became apparent she was like Lady Sovereign if she rapped badly but was actually funny.
[6]

B Michael Payne: Dubstep is funny, and so are cats. This song is funny. Kreayshawn is funny, which is something that gets lost among the debate regarding her context, culture and credibility. (Discussion of her is proceeded by so many Cs that it’s incongruous she didn’t spell her name differently.) Some people think she’s not funny, but rather a joke, a cred thief or plain insulting. I disagree. I think of her as being like that Snow Crash reality of cross- and pan-cultural chaos engendered and augmented by constant hyper-connectivity. What separates Kreayshawn from someone rocking parachute pants and a skintight hockey jersey — listening to a dubstep remix of Justin Bieber, of course — is that she presents as simultaneously smart, vulnerable and arch. Others may disagree, but her instincts and attitude suggest star power to me.
[9]

Ian Mathers: Blessedly I have no stake in the whole furore over Kreayshawn, so I can enjoy “Gucci Gucci” for the occasional funny line (“I got the swag and it’s pumpin’ out my ovarieeeees” and “I’m rollin’ up my catnip and shittin’ in your litter” are classic, surely?) and a solid deployment of that ol’ wobbly sound in the background, and then never play it again.
[5]