After graduating, Saweetie decided to pursue a rap career. She began posting short raps on her Instagram account in 2016. One video featured her rapping over the beat from Khia's classic "My Neck, My Back (Lick It)", which would eventually turn into "Icy Grl". She first released the song on her SoundCloud in the summer of 2017 and later released a music video for it in October of the same year. The visual would go viral online. To follow that up, Saweetie released in that same month a freestyle rap called "High Maintenance" accompanied by a short clip of herself rapping a verse to the song, all while in her kitchen. It would go viral on Instagram and Twitter as well. In February 2018, she signed to Warner Records and her manager Max Gousse's record label Artistry Worldwide, subsequently releasing the EP High Maintenance in March 2018.
