Saweetie Fires Back At Claims She's A "Nepo Baby"
She may have a famous family, but her career is all hers.
Icy girls have problems too, even if it may look like they’ve got famous shoulders to lean on. In late June, a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, went viral calling out the celebrity connections in Saweetie’s family, downplaying the struggles the rapper has been through in the past. Well, Saweetie saw the discourse, and took the time to explain why the “nepo baby narrative” is so frustrating to her specifically.
The whole situation started when a Saweetie fan tweeted that the rapper wrote her first hit single “Icy Grl” while she was unhoused as a way to manifest future fame and fortune. That led to another social media user listing off all of Saweetie’s famous relatives: “Your 1st cousin is Gabrielle union, your grandfather played for the 49ers as a Super Bowl winning linebacker, MC Hammer is your uncle, & zaytoven is your cousin,” the post read.
True enough, Gabrielle Union is Saweetie’s cousin, her grandfather is Super Bowl champion Willie Harper, and her uncle is MC Hammer. Her relation to music producer Zaytoven is only nominal, though — they aren’t directly related but do consider one another cousins due to growing up together.
Despite those connections, Saweetie has spoken in the past about how she experienced severe financial struggles before her music career took off. So when her achievements seemed to be brushed aside by the nepo baby label, she fired back.
“I hate the ‘nepo baby’ narrative,” the rapper posted shortly after the viral tweet about her. “It spits in the face of the child who grew up barely spending time with her parents because they was too busy hustlin trying to make ends meet.”
“Also, I think saweetie the college girl would have had her ‘wealthy family’ pay for tuition and boarding so that she could enjoy the social experience of college instead of working 4 jobs to support herself,” Saweetie wrote. “Saying I’m privileged ignores the girl who risked her safety renting rooms off of Craigslist because she believed in herself enough to stay in an expensive city while everyone else was telling her to move home because that’s the safe and better ‘financial option.’”
She continued by highlighting how she had to depend on herself to kickstart her music career. “Can’t pay for studio time? No problem. I made car rap videos which is how I got discovered,” Saweetie wrote. “I’m proud of all the hard work I’ve done/accomplished and will continue to share my story to inspire those who come after me.”
