Saweetie Covers Maxim's July/August Issue

In case you didn’t already know, Saweetie’s upcoming album is called Pretty B*tch Music. In her interview with Maxim, she explains how she’s hoping to redefine both “Pretty” as well as “B*tch”.

“I want to change the meaning of pretty ’cause there’s this model on social media of how a woman looks,” she explains. “I grew up in a house of all shapes and sizes of women. Pretty means different things to different cultures, different groups, different backgrounds and different ages.”

“Bitch means Boss, Independent, Tough, Creative and Hyphy,” she spells it out in an acronym. “This is going to be a great moment for women. My music is empowering, inspiring, but it’s also fun.”

Saweetie also describes how her grandmother played a huge role in shaping her. Her father’s mother was a pastor and real estate agent who worked every day of the week except Thursday — which was the day she’d spend getting her hair and nails done.

“She’d come back with her pretty nails, her bomb hair, and she had a whole bunch of money in her purse and I was like, I want to be like that one day,” she says of her grandmother and best friend who first called her “Saweetie.” “She inspired me to get my hustle on and at the same time be fabulous.”

Saweetie also talks about the important role college played in her life. She attended SDSU before transferring to USC, where she majored in Business Communication.

“College really molded my mind into a businesswoman,” she says. “I feel like that’s really important for artists ‘cause a lot of artists don’t know their business. I always wanted to be in beauty, I always wanted to be in fashion, I always wanted to be on TV, but you can’t pursue all of these things at once.”

It’s definitely clear that Saweetie is a young woman with her mind on her money and her money on her mind — and she has every intention of building an empire that is beyond music. For that reason, Saweetie says she’s especially inspired by Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

“They remind me that all of these things are possible especially for people who look like me. Black excellence,” she says, noting her biggest commonality with the pop diva. “She always had the eye of the tiger and I feel like that’s what I have, too. Because I’m a woman, people are always trying to make decisions on my behalf. But I always have to step up to the plate and say no, this is my shit, this is my company and we’re going to run it this way. I really love that she’s professional, but she’s the boss. And that’s something I strive to be.”

Gotta love it. We feel like we learned so much about Saweetie from reading her cover story. We follow her online but didn’t realize her single “Tap In” (which borrows it’s beat from Too Short’s iconic “Blow The Whistle”) comes from the social media game Saweetie plays where she asks her pretty girl fans to tap in and they take turns posting photos and complimenting one another. Who knew Saweetie was all about empowering other women?