Doja Cat Makes Rap Hot Pink

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Coming off of the high of her first album, Amala, Doja Cat quit smoking weed and set out to make a more refined version of the cheeky rap flows and sexually-charged songs that made her popular. The result is the 12-track Hot Pink, released last week, that has the same genre mixing and bending that makes the west coast rapper’s music so infectious. “With this album, each song, people get something that they haven’t heard before,” Doja (born Amala Dlamini) tells CR. “But it’s still familiar enough that they can fuck with it.”

She’s not wrong. The lead single, “Bottom Bitch,” takes a sample of Blink-182’s “What’s My Age Again?” and builds on a catchy beat with lines about pimps and tricks, but with an earnestness that only Doja can get away with. It’s her ability to package the eccentric with tight, clever flows and quirky lyrics that makes her so appealing. Take “Mooo!” for example, her song about cows that was made as an inside joke but went viral last year and catapulted her career after she shared the homemade music video in which she dances and eats fast food in front of a green screen projecting hentai clips. (“It’s so ridiculous, like how are you not going to click that?” Doja laughs.) But beyond the milkshakes and twerking, she wanted to make a real song, not a gimmick, and, according to the rapper, that’s why people connected with it.

For Hot Pink, she feeds on the same unapologetically humorous yet sexual energy from the opening song, “Cyber Sex,” in which she sings about getting “freaky on camera” with increasingly explicit lyrics about webcam sex. As with much of her music, it comes from a place of wanting to tell a story she relates to. “I’m like a serial Skype sex-er,” Doja says. “When I was younger, I would be in chatrooms and making e-boyfriends and all types of recklessness. I just love doing it because, now, my boyfriend is an artist and has to go on tour, and it’s difficult, so it’s something I like to do. It’s like burlesque, too. It’s an art and it’s really fun.”

And it sets the tone for the rest of the bubbly yet badass album. “I wanted there to be an atmosphere of passion and love and romance and sex and sexuality,” Doja explains. “I have a curse where I like to write about guys and sex, and that’s definitely in this album.”

Track after track, Hot Pink lays out Doja’s sexploitation with her vibrant wordplay and variety of moods. What sells the vulgar parts is her ability to tap into the fiery emotion behind them. Her passion-filled songs come from a place of power, even if that’s not her intent. “When I write about sex, I’m not thinking about ‘I’m owning my sexuality,’” Doja says. “I’m thinking about, ‘I’m horny and I feel like writing about sex.’” But with songs like “Rules” (“Said play with my pussy / but don’t play with my emotions”) and “Won’t Bite (feat. Smino)” (“He just wanna hit and head off, then / Why the fuck you in my bed all day?”), Doja directly, and perhaps inherently, does the former. There’s often more to her songs about sex than the initial impression. For the rapper, “Won’t Bite”–which is her favorite track–isn’t just “another song about ass and titties and sucking dick. It’s about taking back your power and not mistaking my kindness for weakness.”

Doja, who began releasing music on Soundcloud when she dropped out of 11th grade, has made sex and silliness a part of her evolution. Now, she gets to polish her sound and image on the same wavelength as those who she finds herself referencing, such as Nicki Minaj. From the beats that she picks (“I’m very bratty about if a beat sounds like some shit I’ve heard before, then I’m not going to use it”) to the treatment of her music videos, Doja’s artistic acumen comes through. With Hot Pink, the rapper continues to build on the off-beat, sex-positive sound that made her a hit, but in a newly minted way. “There’s dirty parts, there’s rough parts, there’s lyrics that are very vulgar and crazy,” the rapper says. “But it’s definitely squeakier, more sparkly, and mainstream.”

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createdAt:Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:26:03 +0000
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