Saweetie admits quarantine made her rethink her career.
The 27-year-old rapper released her debut single “ICY GRL” in 2017 but, after its success, she took the time in lockdown to consider the kind of music she wants to make and to become a different role model.
“After ‘ICY GRL’ hit, I was in such high demand, and it really was like night and day. I had no artist’s development. 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,” she told Teen Vogue magazine.
“Which is why – fast forward to last year and this year in quarantine, 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.”
Saweetie, real name Diamonte Quiava Valentin Harper, actually recorded
‘ICY GRL’ in her car and was renting rooms online at the time, but its release quickly transformed her lifestyle.
However, the “Best Friend” hitmaker wants her debut album to reflect who she is and where she came from, as ‘ICY GRL’ only gave a glimpse at her style.
“I went from only wanting to write freestyles to having to create a hit. Now I know how to make the hits,” she explained. “I need to let people know that I’m a West Coast girl. I’m tri-racial. I come from a poppin’, big, male-dominated family, which explains my masculine energy at times. People were only seeing ‘icy girl,’ but who was the girl under the blonde wig?”