Back in June, Doja Cat announced “The Scarlet Tour,” along with her opening acts. One of them is Doechii, aka hip-hop’s new rising star. Entering the genre in 2018, the rapper has now become an overnight sensation due to abundant confidence and experimental raps, making her one to watch going into 2024.
Growing up in Tampa, Florida, with her mother and two sisters, Doechii always had a lot of energy. In an article by the Los Angeles Times, she said her house was loud and exuberant thanks to her sisters, as well as wildly creative. Yet, outside of the confines of her home, the rapper was extremely shy.
“I only felt safe to be myself at home,“ She said in an interview with The LA Times. " When I’d try to be myself around my peers, it just wasn’t embraced. To other people who I grew up around, they’d probably tell you that I was shy, but I really wasn’t shy. I was just scared as f— of them.”
Turning to YouTube to express herself, Doechii started producing vlogs about anything that interested her, not fully diving straight into music. Whether she was detailing her first fight or giving advice to high school seniors, it was clear that the rapper had a voice she wanted to use. Once she started to explore a musical career, she became popular in Tampa for her raps, performing in local bars.
The rapper’s first debut single “Girls” dropped in 2018, and in the years following, she dropped a scatter of singles, including “Spookie Coochie” and “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake,” the latter of which allowed her to break into the mainstream. The single also caught the attention of the president of LA-based label Top Dawg Entertainment, Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith.
Doechii signed with the label, allowing her to escape from the concept of being a local musician. She released her first EP in 2021, titled “Bra-Less,” and the singer kept up her tough-girl persona with songs like “Truth” and “Sh*t,” but her momentum only increased the following year with the release of singles “Persuasive” and “Crazy.”
“Persuasive" discussed the pleasure that comes from taking drugs, while “Crazy” was a whole new sound from Doechii. The rapper released her pent-up anger about the perception of Black female rappers. Admitting to being in a more masculine headspace during the time of its creation, she continued to expand on these thoughts with another EP, “she / her / black b*tch.”
Featuring artists such as Rico Nasty on “Swamp B*tches,” Jst Ray on “B*tches Be” and SZA on a new rendition of “Persuasive,” Doechii continued to prove that she was worth other artists’ time by outdoing most of them on her collaborations. Serving as the last EP before her debut album, which the singer has been teasing for over the last two years, it’s clear that Doechii is ready to prove herself once more.
Rapper Isaiah Rashad, who collaborated with Doechii on 2021’s “Wat U Sed,” predicts that the rapper’s success will only continue to show.
“She got a plan,“ Rashad said in the same LA Times article. "She was different than other 21-year-olds because she knows what she wants to do. When I was 21, 22, I just knew I wanted to be somebody. But she’s everything, she’s a director, she’s an A&R, she’s all these things already.”
With an array of singles already released throughout this year such as “What It Is,” “Universal Swamp Anthem,” “Booty Drop” and “Pacer,” Doechii has already had quite the standout year, but her drive and ambition are two leading motivators in her career that won’t be slowing her down anytime soon.
If you haven’t listened to any of Doechii’s music, and need a new female rapper to support, then she’s the obvious choice. With songs full of empowerment, swagger and emotion, the rapper is making hip-hop more relatable to women of color, as well as leading by a new example.
