Born on April 11, 1996, Summer Walker had to go through some hardship first before she launched her music career. For two years, the singer worked as a cleaner and a stripper in Atlanta, Georgia while teaching herself how to play guitar by watching tutorials on YouTube. It all began to change when she was discovered by a woman who works as the studio manager of a label LVRN in the city.
Thanks to the woman, she was signed into the label and began working on her first commercial mixtape "Last Day of Summer". Making its way out on October 19, 2018, the album was well received by critics and helped her name become known to other people. The success of the album also helped her be named Apple Music's Up Next artist in 2019 and join forces with Drake for a remix of the album's lead single "Girls Need Love".
Summer managed to gain people's attention even more due to the Drake collaboration, which peaked at No. 37 and No. 16 on Billboard's Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts respectively. Later in August, Summer began the promotion for her debut studio album "Over It" by releasing its lead single "Playing Fire". Produced by her boyfriend London On Da Track, the song sampled Destiny's Child's song "Say My Name" and peaked at No. 16 on Hot 100.
Her debut album was as successful as its lead single. Hitting the stores on October 4, the effort was met with critical acclaim upon release and debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200 chart with 134,000 units. Its debut week marked the biggest week for an R&B album by a female artist in over three years, after Beyonce Knowles' "Lemonade" sold more than 200,000 units in 2016. Summer was supposed to go on tour to promote the album, but she canceled the remaining dates of her trek due to her social anxiety.
In addition to scrapping her tour, Summer said that she would not go on an interview again. Despite that, she still continued making music and was even honored with Best New Artist accolade at the 2019 Soul Train Awards.