As TDE’s first lady of rap, Doechii represents today’s leading class of women in hip-hop taking the landscape in a completely new direction. Her bold creativity, animated bars, knack for melodies, and appreciation of different genres have positioned her as her label’s next big rap star — and she’s just getting started. Her breakout song, “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake,” off her 2020 EP, “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” caught the world’s attention. But, according to her, follow-ups like “Crazy,” “Persuasive,” and a standout 2021 feature on Isaiah Rashad’s “Wat U Sed” made her presence well-known. As her debut album awaits a 2023 release date, Doechii’s focused on solidifying herself as a household name — in hip-hop and beyond.
What are you most grateful for in today’s era of hip-hop?
I’m grateful for all the unique approaches we have to hip-hop. There’s a lot of subgenres like melodic rap, trap, alternative hip-hop. So many different types, where I think in the ’80s, it was [only] one, but now it’s different. Everybody expresses hip-hop in their own type of way, and it’s interpreted differently.
“I want to see how much further it can expand and how we keep continuing to redefine hip-hop.”
Where do you fit into that spectrum of hip-hop?
I think that you can be multiple things at once. So I am a rapper, I am an artist, I am a singer. I can be multiple things at once. I fit into a lot of different subgenres. Sometimes I fit into boom-pap rap. Sometimes I fit into just alternative hip-hop. Some of my music is rap, some of it’s melodic rap. So it’s like you can exist in multiple spaces at the same time. You don’t have to be dedicated to one, and that’s the type of artist that I am.
What do you hope to see for the future of hip-hop?
I want to continue to see what I’m seeing. I want to see how much further it can expand and how we keep continuing to redefine hip-hop. I want to uphold the foundational skills of hip-hop, though; I don’t want to ever lose that. That’s what I’d like to see in the next few years. We just continue to uphold the skill of rap and the art of it.
