GQ in the Uk recently sat down with Kreayshawn for an interview and this is what transpired; "'I'm going to change my clothes when I get my first million dollars'" reads Kreayshawn from the latest issue of GQ Style. Heavily tattooed and gloriously foul-mouthed, the tiny, 21-year-old hip-hop polymath is sat in her record company's west London office perusing her friend Lil B's interview. Accompanying her is her manager Stretch, who throughout the course of GQ.com's interview will offer the occasional harumph. Given that Kreayshawn debut "Gucci Gucci" was watched 25 million times on YouTube (see below) and netted her an MTV VMA nomination, his protective presence is no surprise - this Californian rapper/director/provocateur is in great demand even though her as-yet-untitled debut album isn't out until next year. Here she talks to GQ.com about the underwear all men should avoid, why grime is dressier than hip-hop and why Bruce Willis really isn't her uncle…
GQ.com: Which lyric are you most proud of writing? Kreayshawn: "These clubs fulfil all my wishes / One big room, full of bad bitches" on "Bumpin' Bumpin'". It was sampled for "Gucci Gucci" and both Lil Wayne and Trey Songz have said it. It's such a mental image. Have you been in one big room full of bad bitches? You have to have been. You're the GQ guy.
Who is your best-dressed British man? Chipmunk is the man. So far the only guys I've met over here do rap and grime. They all dress really different from how rappers dress in America - they have their jeans up, a nice belt, a nice shirt, a beanie and maybe a [varsity] jacket. All of them are pretty hot.
Can you recommend a good book? Right now I'm reading Pimp by Iceberg Slim. It's got me wanting to put my foot in a hoe's ass for real. I read it before but not very thoroughly so I'm reading it now because I've just got a Kindle. I grew up in Oakland where a lot of pimping and underage prostitution went on so I can relate. I can put myself in that position, but as a pimp. It's a fantasy.
What's the strangest gift you've got from a fan? When I do shows a lot of people throw blunts at me. Sometimes I won't smoke 'em because they're from strangers, so you never know. But sometimes I look into someone's eyes who has given them to me, I kinda read them and I'll smoke it. I haven't had a bad experience yet.
What's your karaoke song? I always do "Jumpin' Jumpin'" by Destiny's Child. But people hate me when I do karaoke. Someone else will get up and they will suck and everyone will be shouting "Yay!" As soon as I get on, people will literally turn their backs.
Who do you think is the best dressed man in hip-hop? Kanye West does put a lot of time and effort into what he wears. He is always changing his style and I admire that - in hip-hop, when you think of what a rapper usually wears, you think baggy jeans and a T-shirt. Kanye is in the middle of businessman, rapper, entrepeneur and genius. Maybe I'll start wearing Kanyeclothes when his womenswear line comes out. If he had women's everyday blazers, that would be hot.
What do people get wrong about you? People always say that Bruce Willis is my uncle and that I grew up really rich. People get a lot of things wrong about me. They say "Kreayshawn came from a rich family", "Her Dad paid for the 'Gucci Gucci' video" and "She's driven a Benz her whole life and went to private school." It's completely made up. I'm the total opposite of everything they said: I'm a high school dropout, I don't know my dad and my first car was my stolen car. I've never even seen Die Hard.
What advice would you have on getting a tattoo? Tattoos are the only thing you can spend money on that last forever. You can buy a diamond ring for a million dollars but you still have the chance of losing it or pawning it when you're broke. Where I'm from in the ghetto, everybody wants their partner to do their tattoo for free. That's not the way to go, man. The one I regret the most is actually this one of my best friend's name. Two days after getting the tattoo, we got in a huge fight and we haven't been friends since that day. Instead of covering her name with a picture, I covered it with words. It says "Don't panic" but it looks like it says "Dante Piniqua". It's horrible.
Describe the outfit you're currently wearing. I'm a big anime/Hello Kitty Japanese culture freak so I've got these Sanrio Dr Martens on that have all the characters ever created. I got this shirt yesterday from Year Zero London - it says "Too Fast To Live, To Young To Die". I think I stole these jeans from my sister.
What's the last film that really impressed you? For a while I was kind of anti-Tyler Perry movies because I thought he was brainwashing people into what African-American culture is. But now I watched them and they're not bad at all - they're actually pushing Christianity and positivity. Plus all Madea's movies are hilarous - Madea Goes To Jail and Madea's Big Happy Family Reunion are pretty freakin' good.
What movie do you think is particularly stylish? The old-school Hairspray I can watch over again and again. My favourite scene has to be when Ricki Lake comes back in the roach dress and totally making fun of the fact that they thought she was some trashy chick. She came through stuntin'.
What's the strangest request you've had on Twitter? People tweet me about the craziest stuff. Because I have a song that begins "Can I spend the night…" I get a lot of people hit me up with "You can spend the night at my house!"
Do you get chatted up a lot? Online I do but in real life, no. Guys have been intimidated by me for as long as I can remember. One of my first boyfriends told me "I never wanted to talk to you because you looked bitchy and like you might stab someone." It's got even worse now that people know I'm way poppin'. I'll be walking around LA, I'll see a cute guy and he'll say "Kreashawyn! Can I have a picture?" I'll think, "Don't want my number?"
What kind of man do you go for? I'm going to be 22 this year and I like older guys. I like someone older than me I know who knows what they're doing. Not sexually, but in life. I don't want to be encouraging someone else because I'm f***ing busy.
Have you ever been fired from a job? The most recent one I can remember was when I was working at a tattoo and piercing place called Zebra's on Telegraph Avenue in LA. It was the best job ever - I literally got to help people pick out their piercing jewellery. When the fired me, my name wasn't on the roster for the next week but I thought it was maybe a mistake. I got there and I was goofing off, saying, "Why is my name not on the roster? What am I? Fired?"
What should no man have in his wardrobe? I don't like it when guys wear girlie underwear, like those regular brief that look like panties. I remember my ex had a pair on and he said, "These aren't girl underwear - they gave them to me in the military!". Deep V-necks are a no as well. The worst is when a guy has a chest tattoo and you know the reason their V-neck is so deep is that they want to show it off. No way, José.
What's the worst thing a critic has ever said about you? This one guy wrote about me and said I was "the new face of white racism". He totally overanalysed my whole career and made up all these crazy lies about me. My mom saw it online and found out that the guy who wrote it was actually friend of hers. He knew me as a baby but he had no idea that Kreshawyn was Natasha that was Elke's daughter. He wrote a whole bunch of bulls*** so that people would look at his website.
What was the best record in your parent's collection? My mom would always play Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the Specials and a lot of Tito Puente. She was a big Dr Dre fan and in 2000 I won a radio contest for tickets for her for the 2001 The Chronictour. Did she take me? No. It was too explicit…
How was meeting Tyler, The Creator for the first time? He's crazy. I was at the Odd Future studio: he walked in, looks around the room, looks at me and then walks out. Then he tweeted, "Kreashawyn didn't even say anything to me." I secretly think Tyler's super-hot so I said, "You didn't say anything? You looked like you were about to slap me?"
What's your abiding memory of hosting the VMAS for MTV? I always think of Chris Brown's performance. I haven't got to see a lot of live music anymore, but watching Chris Brown fly, I just remember being totally connected in that moment. I was filming it on my phone and you can hear me in the background going, "Ohmigod!" I almost cried.
How would you like to be remembered? A creative person - so if I died tomorrow, everyone would say, "She had so much stuff to do. She was going to make movies, she was going to write books, she was going to take over the clothing industry." It's all part of the plan. Unless I die tomorrow.
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