The Oakland rapper Kreayshawn hit some major success during the launch of her debut album, before returning to the underground music scene during the past couple of years. One of her hits, 2011’s “Gucci Gucci” has seen revived attention on social media, however the artist is urging fans not to stream or buy the track, as she is in debt to Sony Music.
“Gucci Gucci” arrived at number 57 on the Billboard Charts at the time of its release, spearheaded by its music video which garnered three million views within the first three weeks. This led to her getting signed to a major label, Columbia, however she only released one record, Somethin’ ‘Bout Kreay, with the label.
The rapper stated that she does not receive any royalties from the track, stating that she doesn’t receive any royalties from the song and that she is $800,000 in debt to Sony, who owns Columbia. She mentioned that her contract was old, excluding any mentions of streaming royalties and was strictly discussions of albums.
P.S Don’t buy Gucci Gucci or stream it. I get 0$ and I’m in debt to sony for 800k. Stream or by my new project ;p https://t.co/Ygqof1CtaY goto my site and sign petitions and use linked resources if needed. Send more to add on there as well. Let’s get it.
— Kreay Van Halen (@KREAYSHAWN) July 21, 2020
“If any lawyers are bored and wanna look over my 60 page Sony/Colombia contract I can send lol,” she wrote on Twitter. “See what an ancient record deal looked like w/ no mentions of streams and all album talk.”
There’s even a mention of PHONOGRPAHS lmao!
— Kreay Van Halen (@KREAYSHAWN) July 22, 2020
The artist has since promoted an EP she released via Bandcamp this year, alongside with a couple of tracks that were written in support of the NAACP. She is encouraging people to buy or stream her new project instead and also promoted links to support defunding the police and Black trans women.