Rapper Kreayshawn Prepping Wide-Ranging Debut Album
Kreayshawn’s first full-length album, due out in 2012, will feature Jean Baptiste and Boys Noize as producers, the Los Angeles-based rapper tells Rolling Stone. Baptiste co-wrote Chris Brown’s woozy anthem “Look at Me Now” and has also written or produced for the Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna. Boys Noize, a German DJ known for his disco-dipped remixes of songs by Snoop Dogg and the Chemical Brothers, has worked with Kelis and the British rapper Kano.
Kreayshawn said that the still-unnamed album will cover more stylistic ground than her stripped-down, wobbling mega-hit “Gucci Gucci.”
“A lot of it is like different genres and forces, from Brazilian-type music to Indian freestyle to techno-type music,” she said. “There’s everything.”
For the last month or so, Kreayshawn has been splitting her time between studios in L.A. and Oakland. Fellow White Girl Mob member Vanessa “V-Nasty” Reece will appear on a couple of tracks, though she was coy about any other collaborations she has planned. “I don’t want to spoil anything,” she said.
She has good reason to be cautious – it’s been a very big year for the very tiny rapper. The “Gucci Gucci” video, which debuted in late May, has racked up nearly 28 million YouTube views. She’s toured exhaustively, sharing the stage with artists like Rakim, the Shins, Black Thought and Neon Indian. She signed a record deal with Columbia reported to be near $1 million. And when she walked into a Best Buy on Tuesday to buy a CD, a man told her she looked just like Kreayshawn.
She’s also feuded with Rick Ross. The experience, she said, taught her a lot about how to interact with others in the music industry.
“I could be talking to my friend, and the next thing you know the conversation ends up on the Internet,” she said. “It sucks, because things get blown out of proportion so quick. It’s all about maturing. I’m not doing anything but being more mature and taking note of what I’m doing.”
This time next year, she says she wants to have an album out, a couple of mixtapes in the works and maybe even a TV show. “I’m an artist, so I’m all crucial about my shit,” she said.