Sometimes you gotta pop out and let ‘em know,” Sunny Gee, the 13-year-old rapper and songwriter, declared in a multimillion view YouTube video.
Gee, whose real name is Savannah, has let the world know who she is through her art. She has released eight singles, gone on tour, gone viral on social media, and is working on her debut album.
“Rhymes just come in my head,” Gee said, explaining her writing process. The world around her and her own experiences are what frame her work.
She had an experience with bullying in first grade, which inspired her tour. “I was riding on the bus, and these kids were sitting behind me saying stuff about me, and I didn’t have any friends on the bus,” she recalled. Being tormented on that bus, with no one to stand up for her, Gee realized that bullying needed to be spoken about.
“She came home and we had a discussion about it, and she said that she wants to tell people about bullying and get it to stop,” her mother, Sydney Giddings, said. “So, I asked her how she wanted to do that, and she said, ‘I want to do music.’”
Gee went on the Friends Don’t Let Friends Bully Tour to educate others about bullying. She visited elementary schools across the country with DJ Breezy Bri to spread a message to kids everywhere. The tour meant “making sure that people who are being bullied know they’re not alone and it happens to a lot of people, and there are different ways to fix it,” according to Gee.
“It’s what led her to go a little bit further with her music,” Giddings said.
The video that made Gee go viral, a parody of Kendrick Lamar’s “They Not Like Us,” began as a spur-of-the-moment decision while on the tour. It was made in partnership with Dumblit Studios in New Jersey. Her mother said that Gee had followed the studio for a long time on social media and had been a fan.
“We were already going to New York for her antibullying campaign,” Giddings said. “So, she said, ‘Well, let’s just stop there.’” Gee decided to stop in the studio with a recording clip and pitch herself to their team. The leap of faith paid off, and the studio wanted to film the video right away.
The video, posted on July 6, 2024, blew up on Instagram. It continued to receive engagement months later. “The traction is still going up,” Giddings exclaimed. As of October 2024, the video had received over 4.1 million views and 16 thousand comments.
Unfortunately, with internet fame comes plenty of hate. “For a 13-year-old girl, it’s tough to be able to decipher and not take that kind of thing personally,” Giddings said. “It can be very detrimental if you don’t have a strong base.”
Gee and her support base, composed of her parents and her team, work to keep the artist grounded. “Sometimes we will just laugh at it like it’s funny,” Gee commented.
Learning how to keep a level mind amidst hate is preparation for her future, according to Giddings. “Whether it’s good or bad, they’re still talking about you,” Giddings told her daughter.
People are definitely talking about Sunny Gee. From the virality of the video, Gee has started to work on her debut album, which will be released in early 2025. The album will be produced by Andy Alvarado of 3rdsiderBeatz, who produced albums for names such as Mary J. Blige and WanMor.
“She’ll make an impact on the industry,” Giddings said about the album. “Since the moment she was alive, she’s always been that bubbly personality.”
Sunny Gee’s career may be growing, but she’s also a normal teenager. She plays basketball, does cheerleading, plays the piano, and hangs out with her friends whenever she isn’t in school, or working on her music and following her dream as an eighth-grader.
“Just do what you do. If you believe something, then go chase after it—don’t matter what nobody else say, because they don’t know nothing about you or anything,” Sunny Gee said, giving advice to anyone with a dream.
To watch her viral video, find updates on her album, and follow her career, follow Sunny Gee on Instagram @real1sunnygee.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
