The musician who inspired Doechii to start rapping: “I was immediately hooked”
Doechii is one of the most exciting rappers making music today, and it just so happens she’s getting the commercial success to go with it. The artist from Tampa, Florida, exudes confidence and talent in all departments, whether it’s storytelling, vocal delivery, or taste in production.
The 26-year-old’s hard work has been paying off recently. In August 2024, she released her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, which peaked at number 33 on the Billboard 200. She also won the prestigious Best Rap Album award at the Grammys and received nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rap Performance for ‘Nissan Altima’.
In 2022, Doechii signed with Top Dawg Entertainment (widely known as TDE) through a joint venture with Capital Records following the viral success of her single ‘Yucky Blucky Fruitcake‘. She said at the time, “I’m excited to run with Top Dawg – to work, to have a home for my overflowing ideas. I want to create a new vision, a new lane, and so much music. Everyone is invited to the Doechii dominance.”
Her music is theatrical, and her ‘Tiny Desk Concert‘ is the best example of this. Doechii effortlessly switches between characters, drawing comparisons to Nicki Minaj and her alter egos, such as Roman Zolanski. So, it comes as no surprise that Nicki was the artist who got her into rapping.
“I wrote my first song when I was in the sixth grade,” she told NME. “I knew this girl who was a huge Nicki Minaj fan, and at this time I was really Christian and I believed that Nicki Minaj was a part of the Illuminati [laughs]. I was really against her. But she put me onto Nicki Minaj and I was immediately hooked and wanted to start a group. I wanted to rap, so I wrote my first song and we did it at a talent show, and we won!”
She once broke down the lyrics for her song ‘Denial Is a River’ and touched on adding effects to her voice, such as growling. “The last couple of lines are where I get really serious, and my voice starts to growl. It is the first time in the whole song where I’m actually expressing anger as anger,” she explained to Genius.
“I built up this whole story, and I waited intentionally to the last lines to really give it to you and let you know: no, I’m actually really pissed off, and you’re about to have me revert to somebody I was supposed to leave behind. That’s why I did it that way.”
But Minaj isn’t the only rapper who has inspired Doechii’s style, crediting Slim Shady and another hip-hop legend for crafting her sound. “I also have a lot of Eminem influence. That Slick Rick, even Nicki Minaj – the way she animates her voice to evoke an emotion,” she said.
With the world’s weight on her shoulders, expect Doechii to thrive all the same. Less than three years after teasing the “Doechii dominance,” we’ve seen her words come to fruition and then some.