Bay Area rapper Saweetie was in high demand after dropping her 2018 single, "ICY GRL."
The 27-year-old says she received an "overwhelming" amount of attention after the song was certified Gold by the RIAA in January 2019, and Platinum months later.
"After 'ICY GRL' hit, I was in such high demand, and it really was like night and day. I had no artist's development," says Saweetie as Teen Vogue's June cover star. "I realized that I never equated attention with happiness, so all that attention I was getting was overwhelming for me and I didn't know how to handle it."
Fans enjoyed Saweetie's "ICY GRL" anthem, as well as her sassy lyrics about "living drama free" and "stacking paper steadily so I can live in luxury."
After the 2020 quarantine and going through a breakup with Quavo this year, she says, "I had a lot of time to reflect, and that made me want to take back my power of being confident and made me want to rethink my career."
The "My Type" rapper, who made her debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, believes that her stage name, Saweetie, and her birth name, Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper, are both examples of her dedicated work ethic.
"I think that I use different personas as coping methods for how much I work," she explains. "Saweetie is going onstage; Diamonté is reading contracts. I feel like Diamonté don't take no [mess] and Saweetie is carefree."
You can enjoy Saweetie's carefree demeanor on her debut album, Pretty B**** Music, dropping June 25. She says this project marks the return of her "car rap Saweetie," which fans were first introduced to on her previous EPs, 2018's High Maintenance and 2019's ICY.