Saweetie on Hair, Discrimination, Feminism and her Meteoric Rise to Fame

I'm pro woman.

I love me some woman and I love me some pretty bitches.

Hey, what's up?

It's Saweetie, and this is my Glamor Unfiltered.

Growing up, I hated my hair.

My hair naturally is really kinky,

and curly, and it's beautiful,

but I was a tomboy, and I was like,

I don't got no time for this. [laughs]

I actually got in trouble with my mom

because I convinced her mom, my grandma,

to cut my hair off in the kitchen,

'cause I was just so tired of having to comb my hair out.

Every time I washed it, it would take like just forever

and my arms would hurt.

So I had her cut all my hair off, to like right here.

I just remember always wanting to have straight hair.

And when I would compliment, you know,

another girl with straight hair,

like she wouldn't compliment me back. [laughs]

So at a young age, I just felt like my hair,

like personally, I just didn't like it.

I just felt like it was very high maintenance

and not easy to do.

And I honestly didn't love my natural hair texture

until senior year of high school.

I was a year round athlete,

but I noticed that my hair was just so curly

and wild that I didn't need to do it at all,

it was just pretty the way it was.

So I think just me playing a lot of sports,

not having time to do my hair,

and me just seeing like how wild it was,

that's when I really started to appreciate my hair.

I felt like it went with my style of an athlete,

like I was a hardcore athlete, very aggressive,

very ambitious, and I felt like my hair represented that.

So I fell in love with my hair,

probably like my varsity years of high school.

I think the first step of progress

for accepting all hair textures

is just to stop touching people's hair,

you know, like I hate that,

don't touch my hair. [laughs]

The compliment serves its purpose,

but trying to touch the hair after that is not cool,

so I think that's the first step we can take.

I mean the first hair hero's definitely my mother,

her hair was hella thick and hella long.

Like her hair is just so thick and luscious.

I love Cher's hair,

Cher is definitely on my mood board all day, every day.

I love me a bone straight moment, middle part,

nice, and silky, and flowy.

I definitely see a difference to where I'm wearing

like long bone straight hair, to when I'm bald,

to when I'm wearing curly hair, to when I wear braids.

It's definitely a different energy, and maybe,

I don't know, maybe it's the energy I give off,

but I definitely think that different types of hairstyles

attract different types of people.

I actually shaved it off because fourth quarter of last year

I learned about meditation,

and the more deeper of an understanding

I got of just spirituality, self alignment,

purpose, I just wanted to start over with everything

and hair holds energy, and I was like,

dang this hair been with me since,

I don't know, and I'm ready for a fresh start.

So that's what made me cut my hair.

To keep my mental health in check I definitely meditate,

I drink a lot of water, I try to,

it definitely makes a difference,

like water is a drug, a good one,

like your body needs that.

I try to stay off of social media,

because of course you wanna learn as much

about yourself as possible

but sometimes all them rabbit holes, not good holes.

You read the wrong thing and be ready to fight somebody.

So I actually have a screen timer now.

So let's me know if I'm on there too long.

Growing up, I don't even know if there's a word for this,

but word that I identified

with the most is just not belonging.

Like it's like, I'm not black enough,

or I'm not Asian enough,

so it's like, where do I fit in?

So I always was confused as a little girl,

I didn't really feel like I belonged in any group at school.

The only place where I felt like I belonged was at home.

I think as people mature, it doesn't necessarily

become a a thing of you don't belong here,

it's kind of like people see past race,

see past skin color, see past ethnicity,

and just kind of see you for your soul.

But as a little kid, you know,

little kids are mean.

So when you got these little girls telling you,

you don't belong here,

then you got another group of girls saying,

you don't belong here either, it's just like,

damn, well where do I belong?

So it was something I definitely

had a lot of identity crisis as a little girl,

just struggling to figure out where I belong.

I've watched my dad get pulled over for no reason,

get out the car, and him having to appear lesser of a man.

You know, 'cause he's Superman to me,

but you know, when the cops come,

and they pull him over, he has to,

you know confine to a certain type of submissiveness.

It's always angered me, you know,

experiencing that, watching the videos.

But I'm actually thankful that we have phones now,

because now the world is witnessing what Black,

and Brown, and Asian communities

go through behind the scenes, and it's not nothing new,

it's been happening for a very, very long time.

So what inspired the Icy Baby Foundation

was I was tired of giving away a lot of money

to other foundations and not knowing

what they did with my money.

So I trust my grandmother,

and as a kid, I watched her give back,

I watched her go to high schools,

I watched her go to other churches,

I watched her go into other people's homes.

Well the number one initiative

is definitely financial literacy.

And the reason why I'm so sensitive

to that is because I needed help my damn self. [laughs]

You know just putting money in the savings account

is not enough, especially not enough

to create generational wealth for you, your family,

or your kids, so I think that it's important

that we educate these young kids

so that it's something that's instilled

into their mind, so that it's innate,

it's second nature,

it's not something that they're like, you know,

trying to figure out as an adult,

because it's something that I'm trying to do at this age.

So I know that if I can go back

and educate these little kids and little boys,

they're gonna be set.

Uplifting those who look like me has always been important,

you know, goal in my life,

since I was a little girl,

'cause I would be right there next

to my grandma helping other people.

So I think that it's important

that I use my platform to help others.

You know, feminism is a touchy word,

but I think that it slowly evolved

to a common goal of women being accepted, empowered,

and equal to everyone on the planet.

So I'm pro women, I love me some women,

and I love me some pretty bitches. [laughs]

Uplifting women is so important to me

because I didn't have a big sister.

So I had to figure out a lot of things on my own.

Point of me sharing is to make sure

that all those little girls who don't have a mom,

a big sister, a best friend,

at least they're learning from the mistakes I made

or learning from wisdom I gain.

I've definitely experienced sexism and misogyny,

but not just in the industry, but in sports.

It's so easy for me to deal with as an adult

because I experienced it as a young woman,

like I grew up a tomboy,

I played basketball, football better than the boys.

So it's like when I would come onto the field or the court,

they'd be like, oh,

she can't play 'cause she's a girl.

Watch me.

So I think I experienced it as a little girl,

and I've always overcame that, always proved people wrong.

I've always proved men wrong.

So I wouldn't even put my focus into experiencing

it in the industry, because I've experienced it all my life,

but it feels my ambition to just prove, you know,

those who may not see me as an equal wrong.

The way women rap got started off,

it was just so beautiful.

From MC Lyte, to Queen Latifah,

to Salt-N-Pepa, to Lauryn Hill, to Nikki,

to Foxy, to Lil' Kim,

to Trina, to Eve,

I'm so happy that they paved the way for women like me,

because they broke boundaries, glass ceilings,

and they're just like walking pieces of art.

I'm so happy to just continue the narrative

of such a strong, boss woman making a way for herself.

I think with Pretty Bitch Music

you can expect me singing a lot more

and just showing more of like a vulnerable side,

but I've been told I'm kind of aggressive. [laughs]

For this album, I know it's just gonna,

you know we're gonna see a different side of Saweetie.

I always saw myself getting here, I just didn't know how,

and I think that was the most frustrating part,

at least for me, because I'm like,

God, I know where I'm headed,

but what do I gotta do to get there?

And the answer to that was just consistency and hard work.

I think it's easier for men and women

to break into the genre because of social media.

Like anyone can go viral overnight

or the access is just way greater than it was before.

You know, at first it was passing mix tapes out,

you know, onto the street or being discovered.

But now it's like you post a video,

and if it's good, your fan base can accumulate,

you know, really quickly over time.

The reason why I was posting raps on Instagram

was because I couldn't afford studio time.

That was my way of putting my music out into the world.

My biggest advice to women who are climbing

the career ladder,

I think a really important piece of advice

that a lot of us overlook is just knowing yourself.

I think the more you know about yourself,

the more you can create boundaries, expectations.

I think you'll get further with your career

if you know yourself.

I think it's really important.