Saweetie's Grown-ish Debut Is A Masterclass In 'Boss Shit'

By Virginia Lowman


Saweetie is a shooting star. The Bay Area-born rapper, née Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper, has seen her career in the music industry rise like a meteor, blasting off with her sizzling 2018 EP High Upkeep and the cool follow-up, Icy, the next year; nevertheless not before cinching her degree from the University of Southern California in 2016, where she studied communications. As she gears up for the release of her debut full-length album Pretty B.I.T.C.H. Music, Saweetie’s going back to school — order kind of — with a guest-starring appearance in Kenya Barris’s hit series Grown-ish.


In her acting debut, Saweetie claims her spotlight as Indigo, a spirited rapper who counts Joey Bada$$ among her companions. Grown-ish’s third season, out today (January 21) on Hulu, finds series heroine and recent college dropout Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi) is booked and busy with two celebrity clientele, including Indigo. The parallels between reality and fiction here are hard to disregard as both Saweetie and Indigo are strong-willed, independent female rappers owning their art and image. “My music covers a lot of parts of womanhood, of adulthood, of just the transitional eras of the different stages of your life,” she tells MTV News. “I certainly feel like there really is a relationship between the ‘Icy Grl’ music and Grown-ish’s [themes].”


Though Saweetie may no longer be a college student herself, she’s still taking her fans to class with her digital agency and life academy, Icy University, which teaches everything from how to begin a business to lessons in flyology. Ahead of the release of Pretty B.I.T.C.H. Music and her small-screen debut, MTV News speaks with Saweetie, clad in diamonds and fiery red waves on the opposite end of a Zoom call, about her career objectives, her album’s acronymized title, and her “boss shit” suggestions for getting the life you want.


MTV News: Why did you pick Grown-ish as your first acting project?


Saweetie: Well, to be truthful with you, it was the opening thing that was brought to my team. It was a wonderful first distribute. I was honored and I took it immediately. I love Yara and the show was just already so good. So I hired an acting coach immediately and got to rehearsing.


MTV News: How was working with an acting coach? Was there anything you noticed particularly complicated or fun?


Saweetie: There's nothing really hard about working with an acting coach, just because I know nothing, so I'm just there to learn. I think what's hard is just yourself. Whenever you get also into your head or any time you're not able to rehearse lines. For me, I'm very hard on myself, so the only thing that's in my way is me, nevertheless my acting coach was super supportive, super informative.


MTV News: Right now that you’ve got the acting bug, are there other assignments we can want to be able to see you in in the future?


Saweetie: Well, I'm currently working on other audition tapes. I feel like the skits I've done on social media, and also maybe people knowing that I'm on the Grown-ish set, have opened up other doors. So I may certainly visualize myself getting on other shows or certainly other movies.


MTV News: You’re no stranger to the trials of undergrad life. What was your biggest growing pain or life lesson as soon as you were in college?


Saweetie: I wish I was more proactive on campus. I was at the parties, however I wish I was a piece of the student body. I wish I would have interacted a lot more because — [like] the Trojan — once you're in, you're in. So I wish I would have long-established more relationships.


MTV News: One of the iconic lines from the opening episode of this season between you and Yara is, "Just do boss shit." In the event you had to prepare build a guide to boss shit, what could be your opinions for making your own lane and setting the terms for the life you want?


Saweetie: Certainly going to school and getting an education. I mention that not and also you need to carry out the complete course, yet that is beneficial. Yet the situations that you're placed in in college, you wouldn't learn in corporate America or the street. I feel like it assists the you. It grooms you to be an adult. So certainly college because it indicates to you who you aspire to be and who you don't desire to be. So certainly experiencing a semester or two at a college campus.


MTV News: What about your suggestions for shooting your shot and setting the terms of the passion you want?


Saweetie: I think ladies should normalize shooting their shot. I've shot my shot before. I'm very black and white, so if I want it, I'm going to go and get it. I'm not going to picture it. Yet habitually with class, routinely with taste, routinely. Don't go out there and go crazy, nevertheless if you are a grown woman, you can do grown-woman things. And grown ladies go out there and get what they want, so don't routinely wait for someone to approach you.


MTV News: Got it. And your suggestions for choosing your inner circle and setting a friend code to comply with? That's a theme that you visualize a lot play out between Zoey and her girls.


Saweetie: What's interesting is I'm actually doing a class on girl code in Icy University. I feel like growing up, ladies just... It's interesting, the nature of the relationships I've had before, which is why my circle is so small. I've had some PTSD-type of experiences with girl groups, so I think keeping your circle small, trusting your instincts, and keeping people around you who genuinely want you to succeed, who aren't back-door kind of friends.


MTV News: Speaking of success and empowerment, would you mention those are themes that you often incorporate into your music? Is it something you’re thinking about any time you're in the ideation stage of creating an album or a song?


Saweetie: It's interesting that you mention that because it certainly wasn't intentional in the starting. Once I'm creating music, I'm normally just speaking from my heart. Nevertheless because I was raised by independent, bossed-up, just fly females, I think it's just second-nature for me to act and to think that way. Yet in creating Pretty B.I.T.C.H. Music, I certainly do have certain lines or certain songs that are intentionally and purposely geared towards boss women.


MTV News: What's the importance of redefining “bitch” and turning it into an acronym for your album?


Saweetie: Well, I wanted a title that would catch the eye. I think High Maintenance and Icy are good names, nevertheless they're not going to prepare someone think and be like, "Oh, that's good or "Oh, I hated her." It doesn't construct a reaction, so I wanted to do something that intrigued someone.


I'm from the West Coast. I grew up listening to Tupac and I really love what he did with Thug Life, so that's why I created an acronym for “bitch” because I mention it so much in my music. I wanted it to be clear that once I'm saying “bitch,” people knew that it meant boss, it meant independent, it meant tough, it meant CEO, it meant hyphy. And for people who don't know what hyphy means, it means turning up and having a good time. So “bitch” is certainly an acronym, and I feel like females like Trina, females like Nicki [Minaj], females like Foxy [Brown] — all females who use the term “bitch,” we use it in a very empowering way.


MTV News: Is there any particular lesson that you feel you learned while creating Pretty B.I.T.C.H. Music?


Saweetie: A lesson that this album taught me is that I'm very anal any time it comes to recording. I hate beat packages. One of my requests is if I want to work with a producer, or if a producer wants to work with me, we have to sit in a studio with each other and create from scratch because I feel like that's as soon as I'm able to have my personality and soul in the beat. You know a song is beneficial any time the beat introduces the emotion before the lyric does. So, that's one thing I learned while creating Pretty B.I.T.C.H. Music, that I have to be there for beat production.


MTV News: What do you hope fans take away from the album?


Saweetie: The narrative of just being bossed-up, independent, depending on yourself, doing things on your own terms, doing what she wants to do. I think those are back-to-back during the songs and the storytelling, just celebrating yourself. I feel like self-esteem is really essential, especially in the day of social media, so just knowing who you are, knowing your worth and your value is really important.