Growing up in the Bay Area, Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper, now known to fans as Saweetie, listened to 106.1 Kmel and Wild 949 on her drive to school with her dad every morning. And like clockwork, Turf Talk's "It's a Slumper," her dad's favorite song, could be heard blasting from the 808 speakers in the trunk as they made their way across the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. At home, the family computer was riddled with viruses, thanks to her LimeWire downloads of Nicki Minaj and Remy Ma's mixtapes. This was Saweetie's first introduction to hip-hop.

"Both of my parents were really big hip-hop heads. My dad played a lot of the greats, Tupac, Biggie, but I'm from the Bay, so I grew up listening to Mac Dre, Too $hort, Mac Mall, and Mistah F.A.B.," the 30-year-old rapper tells Popsugar. "The Bay Area has so many great hip-hop artists from every era, but that's...