Doechii is here to take up space and be great.

(7 min read + videos)

The Don. The Dean. Supreme Ruler and Princess of The Swamp. Right now, Doechii is probably your favorite artists’ favorite artists’ favorite reason to be an artist. She’s a major ‘lightning in a bottle’ conversation in hip-hop and music in general and these last few months have been more than proof of that. After her widely acclaimed August Mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal she’s continued to capture the people’s attention and simply hasn’t let go.

Just to reference, I’ll list some achievements she’s had since releasing ABNH: 4 Grammy nominations including Best Rap Album, A sold out solo tour for the project, a Katy Perry feature, performing at Camp Flog Gnaw¹ to thunderous applause, an amazing self-produced Colbert appearance² alongside many other legacy media and platforms like Genius³, Variety, New York Fashion Week, Apple Music, and Rolling Stone, and then all of that capped off with the viral sensation that is her recent Tiny Desk Concert⁴. And that just gets us to December. As of right now, she just released her inaugural Nardwuar interview⁵, is mid rollout for the premiere of her “DENIAL IS A RIVER” music video⁶ and has announced her debut album will come out sometime in 2025.

Clearly Doechii is a hard worker but that and a good media campaign can’t be the only reason why she’s popping off right now. Let us please not forget what a monumental year in rap and hip-hop we just witnessed.

Here’s another list lol: The total destruction of what was Drake. The seemingly infinite victory lap we are seeing with Kendrick Lamar. An iconic year for Megan Thee Stallion and many female rappers continuing on the rise like GloRilla, Sexyy Red, Latto and JT to name a few. Then there’s critically acclaimed drops from heavy hitters like ScHoolboy Q, Denzel Curry, Rapsody, Vince Staples, Mach-Hommy and of course the mold-breaker Tyler with CHROMAKOPIA. And that’s honestly just the tip of the iceberg for hip-hop, let alone all the major and female forward music we had in 2024. Too much has happened, really.

So somehow, through it all, Doechii has been able to cut right through so many feeds and algorithms. From patiently working on her craft creating videos and songs from her bedroom a decade ago to now being the first female rapper signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and referred to as “the hardest out 🐊” by their former biggest star and current number one name in the game.

How does she do it?

Doechii on her ambitions as an artist. Interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music.

Doechii stands out for many reasons but I’ll name a few that stood out to me.

First and foremost, I think it’s in how genuinely fun and dynamic she is to experience. Her songs can go from pop, to hip-hop, to more alternative or rnb and, even better, she can both sing and rap well. Not to mention her range in live performances, choreography skills, and her impeccable taste in fashion and styles. Highly encourage you to go peep her Instagram if you haven’t, she does not miss. Off-stage and in person too, she can be serious, vulnerable, goofy, eccentric and everything else in between. Doechii quite literally is everything, everywhere, all at once.

I think that can sometimes be a double edged sword because it can appear as being unfocused. While yes, she’s a rapper, it’s harder to land on just one thing to associate her with. Especially since we as humans really like our boxes and putting ourselves and other people in them. Being hard to pin down like that also puts you at odds with a genre organized, chart oriented industry. But I’d argue that for her it’s way more of a strength than a weakness. Her song “BOOM BAP” hits this issue at its core. Doechii addresses how i’ts an issue even discussed within her label and an industry that wants more rap music from her: “They want real rap from a b tch, like they out rappin a b tch.” Throughout the song, she shrugs off this demand by describing all the unique qualities to her music and comes to a conclusion that it is ‘yes, and.’ Yes the music is all these things, yes it sounds good, and yes “even the moms know what it is,” as if to say even people who wouldn’t keep up with labels and trends will get it.

Next is her vulnerability and how she meshes her experiences and insecurities in a ways I think a lot of male rappers fail to (likely due to a lack of exercising that muscle). Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers and likewise CHROMAKOPIA have served a similar purpose for both artists to be some of their most honest and reflective albums. They let us in on what Kendrick and Tyler have been feeling lately but they also come years after having built up their braggadocios rap personas by ‘playing the game.’ They establish a framework where we as listeners still can perceive them as tough, talented and successful but they can also be equally as thought provoking and emotionally vulnerable, almost like a yin-yang relationship.

That type of separation I feel less often listening to Doechii, it’s all just there together as one experience. And while the production can still be just as moody and subject matter deeply introspective, she often has less artsy metaphors open to interpretation like her male counterparts. Much more brutally honest delivery and lyricism. Her song “DENIAL IS A RIVER” is a great example of this. While also being an awesome Wendy Williams reference⁷, Doechii spends nearly 3 minutes outlining her come up in the industry, career highs, lows, unresolved traumas, issues with her ex, and troubles with drug abuse. Then it ends with her justifyingly having a panic attack due to all the overwhelm and stress. It’s a lot of subject matter yet succeeds in so many ways in telling us exactly who Doechii is. Skills, scars and all.

Lastly I’d say it’s in her authenticity. She never appears as if she is more aware or above the audience. Instead, she’s honest that she loves music as a fan and student first. I hardly sense any ulterior motive or that she’s trying to appear conventionally artistic or ‘cool.’ She’s not one to reference a super obscure, deep-cut record just to get brownie points from the nerds (no offence to my fellow nerds tho). Rather, she’s genuinely just taking in the world and music in a way that works for her, like most people do. “I do not have the answers, I remain a student. I’m not righteous. I don’t know everything,” as she says humbly in her Zane Lowe interview for Apple Music⁸. That’s also why I love her stories and posts on Instagram because if it’s not promo it’s something off-the-wall random/funny, a behind the scenes thing, a GRWM, a clip of her with friends, a book, some food, or a new album she’s listening to. She’s just like us fr.

Doechii on her approach to writing. Interview with Killer Mike at the Grammy Museum.

While these qualities are incredible, I think it’s important we talk about Doechii’s identity too.

She manages to do this right out the gate on ABNH with the first few lines:

“Let’s start the story backwards

I’m dead, she’s dead, just another Black Lives Mattered

And if I died today, I’d die a bastard

TikTok rapper, part-time YouTube actor”

Doechii is an openly queer, dark skin black woman and while she does address that often in her music, she manages to not let it become her entire perception. It’s a quality that informs her art. On the song “DEATH ROLL” she is very honest about her insecurities when saying “I contemplate how’d I ever get this rich? or get this bag? I wonder what them labels see in a b tch this black.” That’s so real and reminds me a lot of imposter syndrome. Like ‘do I even deserve to be here?’ It’s a position and a feeling that anybody, whether you share her identity or not, can relate to.

Doechii then seems to move past many of these doubts on the next song “PROFIT,” declaring “f ck modest, f ck polished, f ck the politics, I pledge allegiance to the motherf cking profit b tch.” I interpret profit here to mean any form of wealth though. Friends, family, love, understanding, self-confidence, creativity, actual finances. Whatever floats your airboat. She’s imagining something more and does not want to let the systemic issues of the world around her or self-doubt to limit her potential.

I really appreciate the self-aware take that Professor Skye⁹ had in describing this as an empowering human project: “This is a really important thing. This is, in and of itself, a political act of triumph. Doechii on this album is a human being…. We have allowed people who don’t look like me, people who don’t have my life experience (as) cis white males, to be human beings and express themselves as human beings. Who can be female rappers without being ‘female rappers.’”

Further, Keyon contributes this commentary for the griot(s).¹⁰ “Instead of just going the traditional route of female rappers, of the legends who just fit into an archetype, (she’s) trying to break that. Like ‘I can be just as conscious as Lauryn [Hill], I can be just as sexy as [Lil] Kim and Foxy [Brown], I can be just as alternative and left field as Missy [Elliot] and Left Eye.’ I feel like Doechii is in that same vein.” I would even add that she’s also an extension of other unfiltered, underground and alternative black femme rap artists. People like BbyMutha, Rico Nasty, Kari Faux, Junglepussy, or CupcakKe for instance. A number of them came to rise in the 2010s streaming era and many have been ground and genre-breaking each in their own respects by representing for other alternative black girls and queer people. This same of group human beings has long been a focus and dedicated foundation to Doechii’s fanbase and art as well.

Doechii on what she wants people to pay attention to with her music. Interview with Ebro for Apple Music.

Doechii’s recent popularity I think is signaling a demand for less structure and more humanity and oomph in music. “I envision breaking a lot more records for black women, taking up a lot of space in this industry, exceeding expectations constantly within accolades, and within music, and just breaking out of boxes. Deleting the concept of a box, lets just denounce that,” as she says in her post NPR Tiny Desk interview with Ashley Pointer.¹¹

Moving like Doechii, I believe, could also be one of many potential cures to this era of brain rot, slop content, and AI takeover. All of which have made really bland and unmemorable content so normal to see in media. Outside of actual legislation and platform control, the only way I believe we’re gonna beat these things is by opting out. Maybe call this the thesis of this blogpost, but I think Doechii is an easy-to-identify-with example and counter to the slop. I’d argue that her mainstream success now is because people can feel that and are in need of her type of creativity and expression of humanity. She is the message and the messenger.

Much further down the list, after obvious fears like death and public embarrassment, I think I’ve always been afraid of, or at least bothered by, eventually becoming boring. The idea of running out ideas. My creativity getting stale and uninteresting to the point where things I make stop being good and/or I don’t like doing or making certain things anymore. For me, Doechii has been a reminder that it really doesn’t take much to be ‘not boring.’ You just have to be a little curious of the world and dare to try things, whatever they may be. You’re uninteresting only when you are uninterested.

Until they can pluck these cute little ideas out of our pretty little heads (which might be sooner rather than later) we should prevent platforms from stopping us in our tracks now. Keep doing what humans do best and cope. Grapple with our reality and make things from it. I mean that’s a lot of what generative-AI is anyway, just machines trying to replicate human-made things.

So if you have the privilege of space and time to do so, please make the things. Not even just to share but probably more importantly for yourself. Especially if you don’t consider yourself an artist or ‘creative,’ let this be your sign to start believing otherwise. Even if all the energy you have to muster at the end of the day or week is 10 minutes of doodling, invest it. Not because it may manifest into a million dollar idea and not to eventually make something ~~Picasso~~ Basquiat level. We could all learn to be okay with doing it for the sake of just doing it. Who knows what it could be building towards? And does it really need to be something to mean something? Let’s get those ideas out and let them exist. Open up that notepad or sketchbook.

And if you’re looking for some inspo or a place to start, here she is. Here is your playbook.

Doechii on her decision to make a mixtape. Interview for Rolling Stone – The Breakdown.

I’m writing this about a month before the 2025 Grammys. It’s a love-mostly-hate relationship but best believe I’ll be screaming and cheering at every award Doechii wins. Howeveerrr, this is the same Grammys that’s handed Beyoncé 99 nominations but never an Album Of The Year win… so we’ll see 🤷🏾‍♂️. Regardless of what happens though, I’m also not too worried about Miss Jaylah Hickmon. She seems to be having a lot fun, keeping good company around her¹² and also has lots of support and trust from her label. Aside from opening more potential opportunities in the future, her winning would only confirm what many already know and feel about Doechii. The best thing we can do now is root for her and excitedly, but also patiently, wait to see where she’ll decide to take us next. Hold space for her to take up and do whatever she wants to with it.

In December, TDE co-president, Moosa, had this to say about Doechii when presenting her with the Variety Hip-Hop Disruptor Award; “I’ve got a theory that in this male dominated industry, maybe every five to ten years you get the superstars, like the Lauryn Hill’s, Missy Elliot’s, Nicki Minaj, SZA, Beyoncé and, though we’ve got a long road ahead of us, I think that we’re witnessing that right now in Doechii”

So let’s bear witness.

I don’t like ending these posts without something actionable to take with you, so let the video below serve as that. Much love,

✌🏾

*** ! * also potential jump scare warning * ! ***

Wise words from @teadayblogs on Instagram.

kidogo

Doechii is here to take up space and be great.

*** ! * also potential jump scare warning * ! ***

References: