Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci” Video Sure Seems Gay

I just discovered my new favorite music video “Gucci Gucci” by Oakland rapper Kreayshawn. Not only is the song insanely catchy (“GUCCIGUCCI LOUIELOUIEFENDIFENDIPRADA”) but Kreayshawn also fits a lot of lesbian stereotypes. Then again, she could just be a hipster trying way too hard. I’m torn. You decide.

The Gucci Gucci music video begins with Kreayshawn (sporting an alternative life style haircut) strolling/swaying confidently down the streets of LA. In the background a bouncy track plays something about bad bitches. She comes across another alternative lifestyle wearing lady and is immediately intrigued by her tattoos and rat-tail. We can tell she is intrigued because she looks rat-tail up and down then dances around her in some type of Californian dyke mating ritual I am not familiar with.

Rat-tail, who bears a striking resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite, smiles because she’s into Kreayshawn’s swag. Note her feather earring and enormous clear glasses. Totes unique.

Much like the fabled pied piper, Kreayshawn’s ballad enthralls a swirling mass of followers. You see, Kreayshawn has street cred and knows street cred means black men bopping around in your trail at all times. Oh and yes, those are pink mini mouse ears Kreayshawn is wearing.

After smoking blunts with her crew and what not, Kreayshawn reveals what she sells to be so legit. Is it smack? Meth? Blow? Crack? Molly? Moon Rock? Ex? Acid? Shrooms? Speed? Pot, even?

“See me at your college campus baggie full of Adderalls, call me if you need a fix, call me if you need a boost”…. Really? Adderall. Reallllly? Who doesn’t sell Adderall? I’m drawing a blank.

Facial piercing super gay but that thing is gonna get caught in someone’s vag.

The video features a quick clip of two girls walking and holding hands while wearing beanies. So that’s pretty gay. On the other hand they both have designer purses and this song is about not being into designers. I’m not sure what to make of this bit.

There are several references to cats – our lesbian familiars – in Gucci Gucci. First there are random “meow” noises throughout the song. Second, she raps “My pearl handed kitty cat will even press your noodle back” and my personal favorite “I’m rolling in my catnip and shitting in your litter”. Presh.

Here she takes faux candid pictures in an urban setting of rat-tail/Napoleon with a non-digital camera. No doubt they will look excellent in her obscurely titled subtly faded facebook album.

So is Kreayshawn gay or just trying really hard to be cool? I don’t know. But I do know that GUCCIGUCCIFENDIFENDILOUIELOUIEPRADA will remain in my thoughts for a long time. Even she is straight, Kreayshawn is lovely and brimming with clever, original verses. After all, what other artist would rap, “I got the swag and it’s pumping out my ovaries”?

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90 Comments

  1. “As far as relationships go, it hasn’t really been on my mind. I can’t really speak for anyone else, but I’m not a raging lesbian, I can tell you that. I’m an occasional lesbian, but it’s more for me about a personal connection. I’m a creative person. I’m a busy person. I’m not seeking anything out be it color or gender or anything. I’m just out here in the free world doing the free thing.”

    I don’t WANT to love her, but I can’t stop listening to this song.

    • Seriously… I see where you’re coming from. I’m pretty sure my ex gf would agree with you.

      • What is this Odd Future? Why is it gross? Does this shed any light on “White Girl Mafia” and / or give me a reason not to immediately dismiss something calling itself “White Girl Mafia” totally shitty and lame? You know what I mean.

        • Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All – they’re a crew headed by Tyler The Creator (you may remember his name from the Tegan&Sarah drama a little while ago). They’re really really hyped, far more than they should be (in my opinion).

    • Don’t you just love white appropriation of black culture!?!

      It makes me feel like finally I can sit at the table but Gretchen Weiners totally bitches out and is like “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!?!”

      Oh, okay back to eating my lunch in the bathroom :/

    • You beat me to it! I was just about to link to that article. I’m really creeped out by her m.o.

    • Here’s another interesting article on a related issue: http://madamenoire.com/56270/white-girls-the-n-word/

      I think the points the crunk feminist collective article makes are really valid, but something in me is still oddly drawn to her. While I don’t necessarily agree that a woman of color doing the same thing would be labeled ghetto and made fun of (her fashion sense actually reminds me of Santigold and M.I.A), I understand that her whiteness is clearly a huge factor in her sudden popularity.

      Also, this interview is pretty funny:
      http://www.thefader.com/2011/06/09/interview-kreayshawn/

      Not saying that excuses all of the appropriation stuff, but she seems real at least.

    • Exactly. I am not crazy about Kreayshawn’s cultural appropriation issues or usage of the n-word. She can kick rocks, yo…

    • I don’t know about her entire collection but I fucks with this song. People calling her racist, chill. That’s a long and arduous jump. The problem with calling everything an appropriation is it dismisses the fact that non-blacks can genuinely like and partake in “black” culture without it being exploitative. Unless you think that’s impossible which could be true.

      I think that a woman sticking to the guns of typical hip hop tropes could be nuanced in its own way without tarnishing the entire genre. As if this song is the worst thing that’s happened to hip hop? Or that the formula behind this song isn’t used and abused by black artists themselves? To suggest that she be banned from making a catchy song that brags about having bitches because she’s white is silly.

      This whole issue is a slippery slope. To put it simply, I don’t think this is something she’s doing to look cool. She’s from Oakland, that’s what she’s around, those are her supporters. To me the music and video fit contextually.

      • I get what you’re saying, but I think you really ought to read the link though because it explains it way better than I could. The problem isn’t really that she’s white, it’s a lot deeper than that.

        • The entire article is founded on her whiteness though. It’s saying she is exempt from being harmed by rapping over the sample (one big room, full of bad bitches) because of her whiteness and queerness. While I think hoe can be inherently a racialized term (see Don Imus Rutgers incident), I don’t think bitch is. Nor do I think being queer or white automatically precludes you from those groups as they are spoken about in hip hop. If anything, having white women or queer women as part of your supposed gang of bitches only boosts your perceived potency.

          Also, it seems founded on Kreayshawn receiving this attention when the writer doesn’t think she’s that talented. Obviously I would argue that’s not the case since I like the song. Now if she had jumped on this track and it was unadulterated garbage, I would lend myself more to the argument that people only give a shit cuz it’s a white girl swagging. But as it stands, I think she’s being scapegoated for the misogyny and degradation shown towards black women by black men in hip hop who do it unapologetically and without any feigned nuance or depth.

          Where is this discussion when Nicki Minaj says bitch? I assume the word still holds what the author says is a racialized tone then? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with a black woman using this language (a very famous and successful one at that) than this white woman who has a few youtube videos? Nicki too is surrounded by black men (Young Money). Do we leave her alone because she’s black? Or because we like her songs? Again, I’m just saying it’s easy to single people out and I really think she’s being singled out because she’s white and she’s doing something white people, especially white women aren’t supposed to do.

          • Hey gurl, hey!

            Seriously what I said above is more of a sarcastic “OMG white people doing ‘black things’ ahhhh!! panic, panic”. I do get it when others complain but I am more personally critical when other black people (behavior wise) do the same thing. I understand the context, the history, the fucking PSA, BUT in a philisophical “we are all the same,” REALLY? SHE IS THE PERSON WE ARE GOING AFTER!?!

            Then again I can be a raging misanthropist/man-hater but I just can’t fully be on this anti-Kreayshawn bandwagon.

            Am I a turn coat!?!

            Fuck no. She does not make me feel like if *I* personally dressed this way I would be seen as “ghetto” or my personal faves “hoodrat” because of my relative class privilege, fuck who people think. Which is a different convo, this feels like a tangent…

            long story short:

            I AGREE/THIS.

          • Did you read the other article I posted? It basically gives her props for her artistry but doesn’t let her off the hook for the n-word thing. I feel like that perspective and yours are closer to my own thoughts on the matter, but I guess as a white girl it’s hard for me to be defensive about things that clearly do come back, at least to some extent, to having white privilege.

            I will say, however, that I was definitely that white girl in the CFC article getting mad love for rapping along with the entirety of I Like Big Butts (or any other hip hop song I happened to know all the lyrics to). Although, it wasn’t just from other white people, as I went to school in a diverse magnet school in Philly. I’d be interested in what the author thinks of that kind of situation, because in my experience, black people also aren’t really wowed by other black people’s knowledge of rap lyrics…

            MY ANACONDA DON’T WANT NONE UNLESS YOU GOT BUNS HUN ;)

          • I hadn’t read it because I generally don’t care what people think about the n word as I have heard it all before at this point. The n word is a whole ‘nother issue and I think that’s really about personal politics. I’ve been called the real n word enough times to not take offense when people say it in the matter she does in the tweet. I’m sure I’m in the minority on that but if black people are going to defend its use by saying it’s subverting the power and it’s basically just slang then it’s a tad hypocritical to get mad when someone uses it in the same way. Not that every white person in America should start throwing it around but if your vocabulary matches up word for word with mine and I accept you as an urban peer or some shit, why should this one word that I’m claiming is completely different from the one with the -er be off limits to you? Now truth be told, until college I went to schools where black students were overwhelmingly the majority and I recently acquired this stance on the matter as what I consider personal growth and clarity. So I’ve never been confronted with this actual situation as my white friends are a term that I am going to call for the purpose of this conversation, traditionally white. Would I find it offensive in a majority of situations? Yes. Do I think it’s automatically wrong for Kreayshawn to use it amongst her peers that are comfortable with it. No. I’m not gonna tell somebody else that they should be offended in a matter that personal. If she’s not directing it at you and she’s not using it in songs then mind ya business is how I feel about it.

            “Black doesn’t mean poor; it doesn’t mean ghetto; it doesn’t mean reckless.” I agree with all of that. I think that saying because she’s acting this way it has to be read as black is an internalized racism that gets brought to the forefront. You have to check yourself and ask why am I uncomfortable that a white person is doing something I read as both black and negative? And it’s because of that link with black being unsavory. That in a way black people are supposed to act that way and so if they do it, yeah it’s ghetto or however people are going to describe it but no one is surprised or offended. If people think that acting ratchet is somehow infringing upon black culture, they have some personal issues they need to sort through.

          • Thanks for the reply, I find your comments are really valuable. I’m a devil’s advocate by nature but it’s hard to look critically at people’s personal views on something so sensitive that I cannot relate to firsthand.

            As to the n-word article, I think that author isn’t really making an appropriation argument – that is, I don’t think she’s saying that Kreayshawn is acting “black,” but rather was making a point of black people giving passes to their “down” white friends w/r/t the n-word. In fact, she puts the blame kind of on those people, not the one’s who’ve been given the permission. I think that makes sense.

          • You have to check yourself and ask why am I uncomfortable that a white person is doing something I read as both black and negative? And it’s because of that link with black being unsavory. That in a way black people are supposed to act that way and so if they do it, yeah it’s ghetto or however people are going to describe it but no one is surprised or offended. If people think that acting ratchet is somehow infringing upon black culture, they have some personal issues they need to sort through.

            You make some really interesting points and helped me figure out my own point of view. I agree that I’m not up in arms over this one artist who isn’t being blatantly racist or trying to harm our community in any way. I think the things brought up in this discussion are part of a bigger societal issue among many societal issues that effect the black community. We can’t address any of those by attacking one individual especially an individual who isn’t a part of the community. That work is going to have to be done from the inside out.

            Have you ever read Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell? I’m currently reading it now. This discussion reminded me of the book, so I thought I’d mention it.

          • I haven’t but I’m adding it to my reading list. I appreciate the discussion everyone!

      • I don’t say that Kreayshawn is a racist, but I do think she’s a complete and utter idiot for muttering the N word on Twitter. That doesn’t get a pass and she gets no love.

        And neither does Nicki Minaj for lying about being bisexual. So I dislike them both.

    • My issue with the CFC take on Kreay is… what about Caucasians like myself who grew up in the ghetto and for whom hip hop and rap is a genuine part of the landscape of our childhoods? Am I supposed to forget that I spent a good number of my formative years as a music listener listening to black artists just because I’m white?

      Does my skin color somehow negate that history?

      Oakland is a fairly black city. If Kreayshawn is from Otown then chances are pretty likely that this is the culture she lived in. Is it really appropriation when it’s actually your own history?

    • Well not if anyone that mattered looked at you I sure your gorgeous.Well I’m a white man that doesn’t think or see or feel < (The feeling part has been awhile, but I have a dream. black women are amazing Never Let a few idiots…………..OK more than a few but you understand. If you ever need a good stalker I'm your guy.LOL Cheers xo

      PS I have an African Grey Parrot so, I've almost gone to the MotherLand..Take care.xoxo

  3. So she kind of reminds me of Jenny. As in Jenny from The L Word…

    is it just me??

  7. Raittail is making me feel uncomfortable, I duno if her awkward dancing, prentending to know th lyrics or just her face.. This video makes me feel weird!! #dislike

  8. I know a girl that looks EXACTLY like Kreayshawn’s video vixen IRL. And that girl is a raging hipster lesbian. Also, this has been my pre-summer jam since the day it came out.

  9. I am so mad at you for making this my new favorite thing. Why do I love stuff like this so much? She looks so much like one of my exes mashed together with Sara from the real l word. omg, it’s uncanny.

  10. I’m having a really hard time remembering her lyrics. I wish she would like, repeat them a million times or something.

  11. OMG THANK YOU AS READERS for coming out in droves against this AND for posting a link to Crunk Feminist Collective.

    I can leave this post in peace now. You’ve said all I wanted to say…period.

    Also,
    the article itself was well written!

  12. if this is the future of appropriated rap music, i’m burying my bamboo earrings now.

  13. Songs about girl-on-girl label-based crime perplex and trouble me. #takingittooseriouslyiguess

  14. I’ve never been on this website before but that was an incredibly homophobic article.

    • Can I ask you what you think is “homophobic” about this article? You can’t just say that without tell us why you feel this why.

    • I am bisexual and this article is hilarious! you obviously missed the humor in the article…

    • You do know that calling something “gay” when it’s actually in a homosexual context is legitimate and NOT homophobic, right? Oh wait, no, you don’t.

    • 1. Ok, that’s fine I don’t know what the vibe on this website is I just I ought to make it clear that I came here on a google search before I said anything.

      2/4. My problem is calling people who are straight, gay as if there’s something wrong with it. I don’t know, maybe the girl(s) in Kreayshawn is/are gay but the article is made to seem like it would be less than respectable to be so.

      3. Ok, maybe I am missing the point, I do tend to find actually content and wit to be humorous rather than making accusations about other people’s sexuality that can’t hold up.

      • I can get that outing someone would be rude, although since Chloe concluded that it is hard to tell if it’s hipster chick or not, I think that didn’t happen here. At the same time this is a website about girl-on-girl culture and gay is most definitely not an insult. Here, it’s more like an invite to the not-so-exclusive club of honourary autostraddlers, like EVAN RACHEL WOOD BISEXUAL.

      • this is a gay website, just about everyone who writes for this website is gay including the person who wrote this article

  15. This makes me want to go back in time to the second Gwen Stefani recorded “Holla Back Girl” and delete every possible copy of it.

    She started this sh*t. Now look at what her spawn is doing to rap music…

    Also, Fergie had something to do with this too…

  17. Kreay is a good friend of mine and she’s definitely more concentrated on her career than who she’s taking home at night. This was just a fun catchy song that some people take way too serious

    The “video girl” is her DJ/Stylist, Lil Debbie

    Oh, and this video was done in LA, not oakland

    • Thanks, I’ll try to have it corrected to LA in the article.

      For the record:
      I like Kreayshawn & love this song.
      I think it’s great that rap music is crossing gender and racial lines.
      This article was written with the intention of good natured joking, not insulting or degrading anyone or anything.
      And I’m a homosexual, not a homophobe. There is a large difference.

      • this article is hilarious. pics+captions= perfections. you’re writing is on point, homie.

        but this chick, i just i don’t know man. i saw an interview with her and I just can’t take her seriously as an artist, yet.

        that being said, kreayshawn did say “that her dude, Shakespeare, was a huge influence in her life” in a random youtube video i saw of her.

        so if she keeps mobbing with shakespeare in her heart, then maybe one day she will find herself and be as amazing as every one of his sonnets and plays.

    • Tell your good friend not to appropriate blackness (at the expense of mostly black women) to be fun and catchy and instead to use her talent, which she definitely seems to have, to make music with substance in absence of the whole hipster bullshit vibe.

      Mmkay?

      Cool.

      Rap music needs a makeover, not a makeunder. The girl has flow, leave the other shit behind. There’s a growing number of white artists who can flow without having to put on a certain type of swag that they think will get them listeners of color, especially black ones. See Macklemore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdVRlM-kSx8

      peace.

  18. “See them other chicken heads? They don’t never leave the coop
    I’m in the coupe cruising, I got the stolen plates
    Serving all the fiends over there by the Golden Gate
    Bridge, I’m colder than the fridge and the freezer
    I’m snatching all your bitches at my leisure”

    I think it’s a little of both (+trying too hard), I can’t survive the video again but i’ll be listening to this on replay for a while longer.

  21. I dig this – f-ing fun, funny, fresh. Certainly something i’ll be playing with le windows rolled down this summer.

  23. “I got the swag and it’s pumpin’ out my ovaries.” If I had a dime for every lesbian whose told me that…

    • I know, and it made me lose concentration for awhile so I don’t even know if she used Arbys for some kind of rhyme, and I don’t know why these kind of things distract me.

  29. i’ve had the youtube vid on tabs for 2 days…I think it’s time to make the purchase

  30. Ok, being from East Oakland myself, I can tell you the music video is NOT set in Oakland. Oakland looks nothing like that. The music video is filmed in LA where Kreayshawn moved recently to continue her career, blah blah. Fendi would be making a bad economic choice by opening a store here.

    Anyway, surprise, Kreayshawn does like girls. We’ve got mutual friends and upon finding, this little fact out I immediately developed a small crush on her. Why? Who knows.

    The most obvious line in the song by far is “I’m stealing all your bitches at my leisure”.

  31. As someone who doesn’t like hip hop and invariably gets offended by rap videos / lyrics for their misogyny, I actually thought this was the least offensive and most entertaining rap video I’ve watched in the last few years. I even liked the song itself. It’s refreshing! I hope she continues to pump things out her ovaries for bitches.

  32. When hip hop is good, it’s fucking incredible, but when it’s bad, there is nothing worse.

  33. I can’t untangle the more subtle and intersecting cultural and class appropriations/and/or/genuine expressions Kreay is working into her image here. All I can say – as an upper middle class white girl – is that as catchy as the song is, and as refreshing it is to see a non-sexualized female MC…I feel it’s foundations are on the hipster sneer.

    I think that’s what makes me ultimately disappointed and repulsed by this rapper’s image – that grabby entitlement, that shitty attitude that YOU make “lame” things cool just by placing them on your magical body. I got a sick lurch in my stomach when her most blatant cultural appropriations came on screen – her “Bollywood” facial piercing and “Indian Brave” stash necklace. I’m actually surprised that none of the articles mentioned these!

    • The “Indian Brave” is a Chicago Blackhawks pendant. So that issue would lie more with the hockey team/professional sports teams that use those type of mascots than her.

      • That’s a very good point – I didn’t recognize that image as a sports mascot. That does definitely shift the way Kreay incorporates the “brave” into into her image. Like you said, it’s the conglomerate behind the team that’s to blame for making an “Indian brave” into something that can even be used as a mascot in the first place. Thanks!

  34. I JUST got this song out of my head a week ago.

    FYI: Unless it’s foggy, the sky in the Bay is always blue, not smoggy like LA. If you can’t tell from the buildings, you can at least look at the sky and see that the video is not in Oakland.

    I unfortunately have nothing intelligent to say about this video due to the fact that the song being stuck in my head since it was posted in a comment about the Beyonce video has turned my brain to nacho cheese.

  35. Lemme guess…this video is NOT set is Oakland! :) You guys and your astounding knowledge of California geography is impressive.

    The post has been updated! Thanks for keeping us on our toes.

  36. GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS
    I AM CONVINCED I JUST SAW KREAYSHAWNN’S LADYFRIEND FROM THE VIDEO IN THE REAL L WORD. WHEN THEY GO TO THE DOG PARK IN MATCHING SHIRTS? I SWEAR SHE WAS IN THE BACKGROUND.

  37. If Kraeyshawn and Ke$ha made a song it will be a white girl takeover! And I likes me some white girls :-)

  38. The other girl in the video is kreayshawn’s sister, also kreayshwan isn’t coming up out of nowhere. She is a video director, rapper and dj. She also was a former film student at UC Berkley

  39. you forgot “I’m snatching yo bitches at my leisure”. I am pretty sure women do not refer to guys they are interested in as “bitches”.

  41. To me, the N-word is just like “faggot”, “slut” or any other slur–it’s more about HOW it’s used than WHO uses it. Saying it doesn’t automatically make you racist (although you might be perceived as ignorant or a poser depending on your background). People nowadays get too offended by single words while totally negating the context in which they’re used. My $0.02.

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