Doja Cat
Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini was born on October 21, 1995 into an artistic family in Tarzana, Los Angeles. Her mother, Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, is a Jewish-American painter. Her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African actor, composer and film producer of Zulu ethnicity best known for Sarafina! Doja Cat has stated that her father was absent from her childhood and has claimed that she has “never met him.” She explained to The Fader that she did not “hold grudges against him or anything in any way, but obviously it’s a little weird” that he would actively comment on her Instagram posts about how proud he was. Her father however has denied these statements, stating he has a “healthy” relationship with his daughter.
Doja Cat has cited Barbadian singer Rihanna and American singer D’Angelo among her biggest influences. In May 2020, Doja Cat stated American singer Beyoncé “is one of the driving forces of who I am in my career.” In her early career, Doja Cat cited Japanese culture as an inspiration.
Doja Cat has stated that she “like[s] both [men and women]. I like dicks and I also like, um, I like people that I can have sex with. You can kind of have sex with anybody, right?” In May 2020, in response to accusations of internalized racism, Doja Cat stated that she identifies as a black woman and has pride in her South African roots.
Opinion:
Doja Cat will not let you box her in. She wants to do what she wants to do and will not be pressured to be in anybody’s box. She is a real genius in her art. Sex but real and her wordplay has some punch. She will make a real impact on tour she can perform live very well. If she gets a full tour backing her show should be good, she will be a hot ticket. She has appeal across race like Maria Carrie.
Doja Cat dropped out of high school at age 16 while in junior year, and spent time downloading beats from YouTube to create her own music. She taught herself to use GarageBand. She has mentioned that life after dropping out of high school was “messy.” For the first few months, she would upload songs onto SoundCloud and quickly take them down, until “So High” in late 2012, which she remembers crying over after attracting 12 views. She got her stage name, “Doja Cat”, from one of her cats and her favored strain of marijuana. She stated, “I was heavily addicted to weed and weed culture, so when I began rapping I thought of the word ‘doja’ and how it sounds like a girl’s name.”
At age 17, Doja Cat signed to RCA Records with a joint venture deal with Dr. Luke’s vanity label, Kemosabe Records, in 2014. She signed to them in late 2013 but the deal was finalised in early 2014.[citation needed] She has declined to comment on her connection with Luke through Kemosabe. Later that year, Doja Cat released her debut EP, Purrr!, which was described as “spacey, eastern-influenced R&B” by The Fader. “So High” was re-released as a single prior to the EP’s release. The song was also featured on the TV series Empire in the third episode of the first season. She continued to release music on SoundCloud as she started gaining more attention.[citation needed] In mid-2015, OG Maco announced via Twitter that Doja Cat had signed to his label, OGG. Following the reported signing, in late 2016, the two artists collaborated on “Monster” off of Maco’s mixtape, Children of the Rage (2017). By then she had also started collaborating with other artists, such as her Kemosabe label-mate Elliphant, and Soundcloud-based rappers Skoolie Escobar, Pregnant Boy and frumhere.
Following her birth, Dlamini and her mother immediately moved to Rye, New York, where they lived for five years. She returned to Oak Park, California with her single mother, where she experienced a “sporty childhood”, often skating and visiting Malibu for surf camps. It was during this time when she participated in ballet, tap and jazz lessons. Her mother played music from artists such as D’Angelo, Jamiroquai, Tupac, Earth, Wind & Fire and Erykah Badu in the house. She returned to Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles at the age of 11 and a half, where she lived in an ashram and practiced Hinduism for four years. During this time she also took part in breakdancing classes, further joining a competitive troupe She would frequently skip school to participate in chatrooms. She told Paper that she had a near-“religious” obsession with the unnamed chat room, and would still participate in it as of December 2019.
Career
On October 3, 2019, Doja Cat released “Bottom Bitch” which was dubbed the lead single from her sophomore album. The single, co-produced by Doja herself, would be noted for sampling the Blink-182 single “What’s My Age Again?”.[50][51] On October 24, 2019, she released the single “Rules” and announced her second studio album Hot Pink.[52] Hot Pink was released on November 7, 2019 to generally favorable reviews. The album would eventually peak at number 9 on the Billboard 200.[53] Her debut album, Amala, also reached a new peak on the Billboard 200 at number 138 around the time of Hot Pink’s release.[53] On December 15, 2019, Doja Cat contributed “Boss Bitch” to the soundtrack of the superhero film Birds of Prey on January 23, 2020.[54] The single entered the charts of 28 countries including United States, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
On January 28, 2020, Doja Cat’s song “Say So” was sent to radio becoming the fourth single off of her album Hot Pink. The song was originally released alongside the album in November 2019, but the song gained immense popularity through the video-sharing platform TikTok.[56] Doja Cat performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on February 26, 2020. The next day, Doja Cat released the music video for the song, directed by Hannah Lux Davis. The solo version of “Say So” peaked at number five on the Hot 100, becoming Doja Cat’s first top 10 single, and has so far been the most streamed song of 2020 by a female artist in the US.[60]
On March 25, 2020, Doja Cat was set to embark on the Hot Pink Tour, before it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour was planned to include fifteen shows spanning across North America, including two Coachella performances. In an interview with Nick Cannon on Power 106 in May 2020, Doja Cat announced that she would be releasing a new single (possibly titled “Niggas Ain’t Shit”) which she previously leaked while on Instagram live. She also stated that she would be doing some “self-filming” imminently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[65]
In May 2020, following the release of a remix of “Say So”, featuring Nicki Minaj, the single topped the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first number-one single for both artists. The remix also marked the first female collaboration since “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX as well as the first ever female rap collaboration to peak atop the chart.
On May 21, 2020, Doja Cat featured on a remix of Canadian singer The Weeknd’s single “In Your Eyes” from his fourth studio album After Hours.[67] On May 29, 2020, Doja Cat featured on the song “Shimmy” by American rapper Lil Wayne, which appeared on the deluxe edition of his album Funeral. On June 20, 2020, Doja Cat was featured on the song “Pussy Talk”, taken from American rapper duo City Girls’ second album, City on Lock. She was nominated for Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Video of the Year (for “Say So”) at the 2020 BET Awards. American singer Ariana Grande stated in an interview that she is planning to release a song with Doja Cat which they recorded in early 2020.
Videos
