Saweetie has been buzzing since her first single, "Icy Grl," went viral in 2018. But in the years since, the SoCal rapper has proven to be much more than a fleeting viral star.
Born Diamonté Harper, Saweetie has been grinding nonstop — and it has paid off. Along with releasing multiple EPs, she's landed several Billboard Hot 100 hits (and three No. 1s on its Rhythmic Airplay chart), and teamed up with the likes of Dua Lipa, Jhené Aiko, and Tyga and YG.
She's making sure she builds an empire beyond her music, too. In 2021 alone, Saweetie made her TV debut on the Freeform sitcom grown-ish, hosted a Netflix comedy special called Sex: Unzipped, and secured brand partnerships with McDonalds, Sinful Colors and Prettylittlething, to name a few.
Her efforts certainly aren't going unnoticed: Saweetie is the only female rapper nominated for Best New Artist at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards. What's more, her collaboration with Doja Cat, "Best Friend," is also nominated for Best Rap Song. And to think she doesn't even have a full-length album to her name.
Saweetie's highly anticipated debut LP, Pretty B**** Music, is reportedly being released this year. No matter when the album arrives, though, the rap star is already making 2022 another busy year: She released a MAC Cosmetics campaign with Cher in January, dropped a collab with H.E.R. in February, and was recently announced as Champion's Global Cultural Consultant.
From celebrating her heritage as a Blasian entertainer, to empowering women and people of color to be their best and most confident selves, Saweetie has created a lane all her own. For Saweetie, her authenticity is inspired by her family, strong women, and the icons that have come before her. With a newfound focus on, as she puts it, "health is wealth," Saweetie wants to better herself and her community — ultimately making her one of rap's most multifaceted female voices.
Ahead of the 64th GRAMMY Awards, GRAMMY.com caught up with Saweetie to discuss her impressive work ethic, why it's important for her to represent women and POC, and how she'll bring healing with Pretty B**** Music.
What does being GRAMMY-nominated mean to you? Was this a milestone you were looking forward to or did it catch you by surprise?
It definitely caught me by surprise since I don't have an album out. But I am very appreciative. I think GRAMMYs — along with any award show — it's great for your work to be recognized. I work really hard along with my team, so to be acknowledged by [the GRAMMYs] is a huge accomplishment. I'm just so grateful.
You're the only female rapper nominated for Best New Artist. How does that make you feel, and what do you think about more women gaining respect in hip-hop?
I feel like this year, a lot more respect has been given to females in hip-hop. I know that we no longer need a co-sign. We've proven — especially through social media — that we can create our own fanbase, our own culture, our own brands.
It was a great year for women in hip-hop. To be the only one in that category nominated, I'm just so happy to represent, because it's a great group of women out right now.
What do you think should change in hip-hop to make it more inclusive for women?
That's a great question. I think the more representation we have, the more inclusive it'll be for all the women who work hard in hip-hop. I definitely hope that next year more women in hip-hop will be nominated, because I know I'm working hard, I know they're working hard, and hip-hop is the culture right now. So I would love to see more of my women in hip-hop nominated in more categories because we are highly, highly influential right now.
You're in the same category as J. Cole [Best Rap Song], who you once rapped for outside of a show. Why was he the rapper you felt comfortable performing for? What would you tell yourself then with what you've learned now?
Honestly, I've always just been a risk taker, overly ambitious. I saw an opportunity and I took it. I admire his music, I listened to all the mixtapes — The Warm Up, Friday Night Lights, there's two other ones. In high school, I used to play his mixtapes every morning — you know, the CDs — and play them on my radio. I just wanted a moment to connect with one of my favorite artists.
You got a degree before fully pursuing music, which isn't common. Do you think you gained anything from that experience?
One thing that I learned about college, and a gift that it gave me, was to be comfortable in any room. I went to a predominantly white school, so sometimes I'd be the only Black girl in class. And my high school wasn't that way, so I had to adjust and I had to be comfortable in uncomfortable environments.
What I also had to realize was I was making myself uncomfortable, because I was intimidated. I might have felt that I wasn't smart enough — and I actually was, obviously, since I got accepted.
I had to realize that I was my own worst enemy. After I acknowledged that, and after I became more courageous with participation and interacting with other students, I had a better experience. It taught me how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. It taught me how to read a room, and it taught me how to adjust to any group of people who I may be in the room with.
You're involved in philanthropy, specifically for Asian and Black communities. Can you speak more about the Icy Baby Foundation and what work you hope to do with it?
With the Icy Baby Foundation, I actually founded it with my grandmother. I was raised around her, and she was always giving back. I thought she was a perfect partner for this foundation. With this foundation, we strive to teach brown and Black kids about financial literacy. We really need to teach Black and brown kids how to manage their money, how to save their money, how to invest their money, how to create generational wealth. That's really important, because even for me, saving isn't enough.
Then also, we would love to focus on women. This is something that we kind of discussed, but it would be a safe haven for women — whether they're dealing with domestic violence, they're in an unhealthy living home or space, or they need shelter for their kids. But I'll definitely be focused on financial literacy in low income communities and women who need help, essentially.
I love how you rep both sides of your cultural identity. You performed at Head in the Clouds Festival highlighting Asian artists, and you're obviously tapped into the hip-hop world. Your Met Gala look also highlighted this. Do you see fan responses to this representation, and does it motivate you to continue doing it?
Absolutely. The reason why I share both sides is because I know there are Asian kids at home, Black kids at home, and it's dope to represent where you're from — because if I can do it, I know they'll feel like they can do it.
I try to share as much as my background as possible, so that kids who need inspiration can identify with me — and so they know that if Saweetie can do it, they can too.
Some people say you have pretty privilege to downplay what you've accomplished. What's your response to criticism or judgment on your career based on your looks? How have you been working to develop as an artist?
So what is pretty privilege? I would like to know what that means, because one thing I do know is I worked hard for everything in life. I worked hard to make the volleyball team. I worked hard to get 4.0s. I worked hard to get into USC. I worked hard to be self made as a businesswoman and as a rapper. All of these hurdles have made me a wiser and stronger woman. I just don't see privilege in that DNA at all.
And obviously being a woman of color, there's a whole set of other issues.
Right, absolutely. Women are oppressed, and Black people are oppressed. So when you combine the two, you're double oppressed. And it's like two different battles you're trying to fight — woman of color, and just being a woman period.
I think that the obstacles in life have made me a stronger woman, but I definitely didn't get no handouts. I was always taught not to take a shortcut. My parents were hard workers, and I think that's where I get my hard-work ethics from.
What's the hardest obstacle you've faced lately, and how did you bounce back?
A really hard obstacle is just working a lot. I'm starting to feel the burnout. So I went to Turks [and Caicos], my mom was there, it was like a mini mental health vacation. I shaved my hair there, I was meditating a lot, praying a lot, just trying to get clarity in life.
My mom was talking to me, and she was talking about my work ethic. She was like, "You really need to start taking care of yourself before it starts catching up to you." It really created a lightbulb in my head, because I'm sure all my other ambitious people out there — my go-getters — we just think we're invincible, you know? We feel like we're superheroes and we can just accomplish anything, but we're humans, not robots. That's something I struggled with [in 2021] by allowing myself to work too much. I hope to find balance between resting and work.
I've heard your album is coming out soon. What can we expect from it? What direction did you go in artistically?
I was going to curate either a song or two just to introduce people to Pretty Bitch Music. With this album, I want to create art. That's why I shaved my hair off. It's time for a fresh start, it's time for clarity, it's time for a rebirth, and it's time for a reboot. I want a clean slate with my artistry.
I want to really have time to create, and I actually [had] the first three months [of 2022] blocked off to finish, and to keep creating this album. With the visuals, the instruments I choose, it needs to feel like art, inspiration. It needs to be empowering, because I feel like the world needs healing right now.
With this music, I hope to heal. That's why I really want to take my time with it. I think I know what the purpose of this album is — it's to inspire, and to heal.
One of my songs is a meditation song, because meditation has really helped me. It's helped me calm down my brain. It's helped me center my spirit, because with the music industry, it gets chaotic sometimes, and peace is so important. I hope to just promote love and peace with this album.
Are you going to go into different genres, or is it still going to be hip-hop?
It's still going to be Saweetie. It's gonna be an elevated Saweetie. A couple people asked me, with me shaving my hair off, was I going to take a different direction. I'm just like, "It's not a new me, it's an elevated me."
I'm still the Icy Girl, but this time, I really want to take time with my music. With High Maintenance, with the Icy EP, all of those were done under crunch time. I want to create a whole bunch of amazing songs, and then my good problem is having to cut down the songs. Instead of just trying to rush and put something out, art can't be rushed. I'm really excited about this.
I know you dropped the Pretty Summer Playlist and you've been doing a lot of collaborations. Why was it important to you to highlight smaller artists?
I know what it feels like to be a smaller artist. Honestly, I wouldn't change anything about my journey, but what I would say, as a smaller artist — because I know what it feels like to be there — we do appreciate moments of appreciation with someone else sharing their platform. Because I love all these artists, I wanted to share my platform.
Little artists matter, too. The following, the success, that's not what makes me want to collaborate with the artist. I truly love to meet an artist, and then collaborate with them.
Do you have a dream collab?
I would love to collaborate with Rihanna.
It's a big part of your brand to empower women. Is that something you're cognizant of when making songs and choosing brand deals?
You know what's so funny? I don't think it's cognitive, I think it's innate. I grew up with a lot of loving, supportive women, so for me, it's not even a brand — it's not something that I strategically do. I just love women.
I come from confident, business-oriented, beautiful women, who I watched as a little girl hustle. I watched them get ready, I saw them not tolerate no bullshit. I'm really happy I'm from a strong village of women, because they were able to pass that down to me.
I love that. What else is in the works right now?
I'm working on creating a true company. I'm actually looking for a warehouse right now, so that the Icy Business has a campus — almost like Facebook. Right now I'm looking for a warehouse so I can establish my parent company, Icy, which will house merchandise, makeup and all of my other cool quirky ideas.
So you're building an empire.
Yes, ma'am. I really want to have everything in-house. I want to make my own merch, perfume — I want to make my own full line.
I'm on this spiritual and body journey, too. I'm going to document it and post it on Youtube, it'll be a whole rollout. I really want people to take care of their bodies and their brains. Everything that I need to be a successful artist, I would love to share that with the world through the products I make.