The great irony of becoming an instant viral-video sensation is that your inevitable next step—signing a seven-figure deal with whatever major labels are left—results in a protracted, year-long process of trying to stretch out the novelty over the course of a full-length album, and well past your Best Before date. So it goes with Bay Area MC Kreayshawn, whose proudly obnoxious 2011 earworm “Gucci Gucci” was notable because it rejected label-whoredom in favour of getting high, earned props from Odd Future, and featured at least one awesome diss of Arby’s employees.
At the very least, the gap between Kreayshawn’s first single and her debut album has allowed so much reactionary online venom to fester and accumulate, that answering all the haters practically gives this record a concept album–worthy sense of purpose. But the fact that she spends much of Somethin’ Bout Kreay comparing herself to far more notorious figures—including Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Amy Winehouse, Courtney Love, Patty Hearst, Lorena Bobbitt, Britney Spears, Slick Rick, Ivana Trump, Hugh Hefner, and, um, Ricki Lake—confirms there’s nothing about Kreay we haven’t seen before.
Favouring the sort of strobe-lit electro brat-rap that’s been popping club subwoofers since the early 2000s, Kreayshawn essentially comes off as M.I.A. with ADD (complete with a Diplo cameo)—just replace the geopolitical commentary with numbskull observations on joyriding in parking lots, ogling girls at the beach, and “snorting gold and eating Brussels sprouts.”
Which is all fine and good if you’re as stoned as she purports to be, but when Kreayshawn tries to adapt her one-dimensional nasal flow to sappy power ballads (“BFF (Bestfriend)”) or austere synth-pop (“Luv Haus”), you can practically hear Kanye and Jay-Z’s colour commentary: “That’s shit, Kreay.”
Playlist pick: “Gucci Gucci” (assuming you’re not already sick of it)
