Saweetie Opens up About Living in Her Car Before fame: ‘I Was Literally Couch Surfing’

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Saweetie, the 30-year-old rapper, recently sat down for an interview while promoting her new single “Nani.” During the conversation, she opened up about her struggles before achieving fame, including a period when she was homeless and couch surfing in L.A.“I remember I was too proud to tell my friends and family that I had nowhere to stay and I was literally couch surfing,” Saweetie revealed through tears. “People always wanted to be around, so I didn’t have to worry about having a place to stay, but I never wanted to take up space in someone’s house, so I would just keep my closet in my car.”

She even found a bit of humor in her situation, joking, “When it was time to party, I didn’t have to go home. I just had to go to my trunk.”

Despite managing her circumstances, being homeless took a toll on her self-esteem. “Talk about having no confidence. Imagine not having money, couch surfing, and then sometimes being at parties,” she said. “I would always just go home early because I felt like I didn’t deserve to be there.”

Although she considered getting a full-time job, she decided to focus on her music career. “If I’m full-time, I’m working 40 hours a week. And if I’m doing that, then I’m not doing music.”

For a year, she lived with limited resources and rented rooms through Craigslist. During this time, she wrote her breakthrough single, “ICY GRL,” filled with affirmations. “That’s why in ‘ICY GRL,’ I said, ‘Looking in the mirror, I thank God for what I’m about to be’ because I swear I was looking in the mirror, I said ‘You broke bitch. You need to get your shit together,’” she recalled.

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Reflecting on her journey, Saweetie shared, “I always aspired to be like a boss bitch, but that’s just the aesthetic I was giving online.”

In 2018, Saweetie signed to Warner Bros. Records in a partnership with her own imprint, Icy, after a bidding war from several labels.

In February, she responded to criticism about her single “Richtivities” during tough economic times. Saweetie wrote, “When I was pursuing my career with barely any money to support myself in LA… I loved listening to music that made me hustle harder to attain the lifestyle I always wanted.”