Saweetie’s Interview with Hip Hop Basement: Her Struggles, Working with Kehlani, Touring

On April 26th, 2018, I was blessed with the opportunity to interview the iciest chick in the rap game who charges by the minute because her time is very pricey. The California native Diamonté Harper, widely known by her stage name , Saweetie, has been developing her rap career since she was 14 years old. Today, she is an ambitious upcoming artist who is making major moves to amplify her success in the rap game.

The interview kicked off with her discussing her five years in college. She started off at San Diego State and transferred to USC, where she obtained her degree. When asked why she left San Diego State for USC, she replied “I felt that there would be more opportunity like for my music. I wanted to go to a college where I’d still be getting a good education while pursuing, you know, what my passion was”. I was delighted to find out that she majored in communications with an emphasis in business, as a communications major myself in college.

I asked Saweetie about her struggles with branching out from her social media platform to being signed artist under Warner Bros. She noted that in the beginning she had trouble with people judging her and comparing her to other girls who were on Instagram rapping due to their large following on social media. She explained that it didn’t phase her much because she started rapping as a teen, way before she even had an Instagram presence. “It’s not something I was doing to capitalize off of my followings.” Saweetie explained, “I was doing it because I didn’t have the resources and that was the only way I could get my

music out. But my music spoke for itself so a lot of people started to respect my artwork and how serious I was about the profession.” When I asked Saweetie how difficult was the switch from freestyling to developing songs she elaborated on the difficulty in great detail. “No, it was extremely hard. It took me a couple months to learn how to do like choruses and bridges...having to cut my raps shorter because I’m used to just writing over a song I really like. It’s easier for me to write over a beat that already has a mood...so I definitely struggled with writing standard songs with brides and hooks.” Saweetie continued on to say that there was a time period where she wasn’t even feeling her own music. However, with practice, persistence and collaborating with other writers she came into her sound which made her not only enjoy making music but listening to her own content as well. Saweetie also gave some insight to struggles as a female in a male dominated music industry. She spoke on women not being taken seriously and how talented women are usually taken advantage of by men who have the resources to take her to the next level. However, she made it very clear that she was not willing to exchange any part of her being to gain her needed resources.

Saweetie stated that she kicked off her “So Icy” tour at Coachella this past week. She informed me that she will be touring until August 2018. I asked her if she would be performing alongside any artist in her tour and she said that she is not scheduled to perform with any artist as of yet, but she did bring up some exciting news about a collaboration with Kehlani that is on the way!! Kehlani will be featured on “ICY GRL Bae” remix that will be debuted tonight, April 27th, 2018, on Saweetie’s Instagram Live at 8:45 PST time. Saweetie said that hopefully she and Kehlani can get together for live performance because that would be really cool.

Whether you like her or not, there is no denying that she is a 5 star chick doing 5 star tricks. From one minute freestyles in the car to signing to Warner Bros., she is undeniably focused on her path to greatness. Her EP, High Maintenance, can be found on ITunes and Spotify. You can keep up with the icy girl on Instagram and Twitter @Saweetie.

(full audio file will be posted here tomorrow)