Saweetie opened up about how she was feeling overwhelmed between the release of her breakout single and its successful follow-up.
In a new Allure cover story, the Bay Area artist explained the shift that she felt during the rollout for her 2018 breakout "Icy Grl," and 2019 single "My Type," the latter co-written by her ex-boyfriend, Quavo.
"‘Icy Grl’ and ‘My Type’ blew up so quick, I was on the market almost immediately," she told Allure. “So I didn't have time to develop."
Along with the aforementioned songs, Saweetie also had collaborations with Doja Cat ("Best Friend") and Jhené Aiko ("Back to the Streets"), along with her 2020 solo single "Tap In." She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
Despite the notoriety, Saweetie expressed to Allure that she felt unconfident in her artistry, but that music executives gave her misogynistic and unhelpful advice on how to remain on top.
"I was told I should twerk more on my Instagram,” said Saweetie. “I was told that my voice was very boring. I was told that I rapped too monotone and needed more energy. I was told that I needed to share more of my life on the internet."
She continued, "I'm going to twerk when I want to. That's not going to be my marketing. And if that's what you truly love to do, then empower yourself through that. But that's not innate to me. If I get caught at a party or if I'm turning up, okay, cool. But I'm not finna do that because you guys think I should. That's lazy marketing."
Saweetie admitted to struggling with the decision to refrain from taking the advice, but that it ultimately helped her from falling into the trap of virality. "Everything now just feels like, ‘Make it go viral, go viral, go viral,'" she said. "Okay, cool, go viral. But if your only intention is numbers, what about the art or the reason why we're here today?"
The artist seems to be on the rollout for her long-awaited debut album, previously titled Pretty Bitch Music, flaunting her glamorous life on the new single, "Richtivities."
