Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamin known professionally as Doja Cat is an American rapper and singer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. Her song "So High" caught the attention of Kemosabe and RCA Records, with which she signed a joint record deal before releasing her debut EP Purrr! in 2014.

After a hiatus from releasing music and the uneventful rollout of her debut studio album, Amala (2018), Doja Cat earned viral success as an internet meme with her 2018 single "Mooo!", a novelty song in which she makes humorous claims about being a cow. Capitalizing on her growing popularity, she released her second studio album, Hot Pink, in the following year. It later reached the top ten of the US Billboard 200 and spawned the single "Say So", of which the remix, featuring Nicki Minaj, topped the Billboard Hot 100. Her third studio album, Planet Her (2021), spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned the top ten singles "Kiss Me More" (featuring SZA), "Need to Know", and "Woman". Her fourth studio album, Scarlet (2023), adopted a more hip hop-oriented sound and peaked within the top five of the Billboard 200; its lead single "Paint the Town Red", which is among her biggest hits to date, marked her first solo number-one in the US and the UK among a dozen other countries.

Early life

Doja was born on October 21, 1995, into a very artistic family in Los Angeles, California in the Tarzana neighborhood. 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 starring in the 1992 musical film Sarafina! According to Doja, she never met her father growing up. Her father denies this however, stating that he has a "healthy" relationship with his daughter.

Soon after her birth, Doja and her mom moved to New York City, where they lived for five years. Her family later moved back to California in Oak Park, where her mother enrolled her in ballet, tap and jazz lessons from the age of five. Her aunt, a singer, gave her singing lessons to help her get into a performing arts school. Her family then moved near the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles when she was 11 years old, where they lived in an ashram in the mountains of Agoura Hills and practiced Hinduism for four years. During this time of her life Doja would wear head-covering scarves and sing bhajans at temple. She claims that she lacked interest in school from then on, instead taking a liking for dance. While at the ashram she had been dancing the style of Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam. As she grew older and moved away from the ashram, she moved onto breakdancing classes and joined a professional poplocking troupe with whom she competed in dance battles throughout Los Angeles while still attending high school. She also frequently skipped school to participate in online chatrooms. She eventually dropped out of high school at 16 during her junior year.

Career

2012–2017: Career beginnings and record deal

Doja Cat has described life after dropping out of school as "messy", claiming that she slept on the floor and spent "all night and day" browsing the internet, looking for beats and instrumentals from YouTube which she downloaded and used to create her own music. After becoming fascinated with internet culture and websites like eBaum's World and Myspace, she taught herself to sing, rap and use GarageBand while at home without a job, frequently making music and uploading it to SoundCloud. In late 2012, "So High" became the first permanent upload on her SoundCloud account. Doja Cat began her career in the Los Angeles underground hip-hop scene, performing at parties and cyphers, and connecting with rappers such as Busdriver, Ill Camille and VerBS, the latter of whom claims to have helped hone her craft and find her first gig. It was during this time that she met producer Jerry "Tizhimself" Powell, who had stumbled upon her SoundCloud account. He introduced her to record producer Yeti Beats, who invited her to record at his studio in the neighbourhood of Echo Park, which also served as "an oasis of sorts for Doja to escape from the turmoil at home". Yeti Beats then connected her with Kemosabe Records, an imprint of RCA Records, where she signed under label executive Dr. Luke and his publishing company Prescription Songs at the age of 17. This deal also came with a temporary artist management partnership with Roc Nation.

2018–2019: Amala and "Mooo!"

Her first major commercial release in four years, Doja Cat released the song "Roll with Us" in February 2018 following a brief hiatus. The following month, she released "Go to Town" as the lead single from her debut album, with an accompanying music video. "Candy" was released as the album's second single that same month. The track would later become a sleeper hit after a "dance challenge" on the video-sharing platform TikTok went viral in late 2019. The single consequently charted in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, with the latter having the song peak at 86 on the Billboard Hot 100, making this her first solo entry on the chart. On March 30, 2018, Doja Cat's debut studio album Amala was released through RCA and Kemosabe Records, and included the three singles. Its release was largely uneventful, as it was ignored by critics and failed to chart in any market.

In August 2018, Doja Cat self-published the homemade music video for "Mooo!", a novelty song with absurdist lyrics in which she fantasizes about being a cow. The video promptly garnered viral success as an internet meme, attaining over three million views in one week.

2019–2020: Breakthrough with Hot Pink

A remix version of Doja Cat's song "Juicy", from the deluxe version of Amala, added a verse from American rapper Tyga and was released alongside a music video in August 2019 as the lead single from her second studio album. Following the release of the remix, the song debuted at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Doja Cat's first entry on the chart, and ultimately peaked at number 41. In January 2020, "Say So" was sent to radio to become the fourth single off of her album Hot Pink. The song was originally released alongside the album in November 2019, but gained wider popularity through the video-sharing platform TikTok. She performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in February 2020.

2021–2022: Planet Her

On January 7, 2021, Doja Cat was featured on the single "Best Friend" by rapper Saweetie, and appeared in the accompanying music video. The following week, Doja Cat appeared alongside Megan Thee Stallion on the remix of "34+35" by Ariana Grande. Following the release of the remix, the song reached a new peak of number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In early 2021, Doja's song "Streets" became a sleeper hit after live performances of the song went viral on TikTok. TikTok also spawned a viral challenge which uses a mashup of "Streets" and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" by Paul Anka. This caused the song to enter the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 16. Doja Cat was nominated for three awards at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards: herself for Best New Artist and "Say So" being nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. In 2021, she was placed on "Time's 100 Next" list, which highlights 100 emerging figures, with her write-up being penned by American rapper Lil Nas X.

2023: Scarlet

In early 2023, Doja Cat began teasing her fourth studio album with the working title of Hellmouth. Prior to this, she had asserted that the album would be "predominantly rap", a callback to the musical style of her earliest works, and an effort to diverge from the "pink and soft things" and "pop and glittery sounds" that she has become noted for, notably denouncing her previous two albums as "cash grabs" and "digestible pop hits". Later that month, Doja Cat announced the opening North American leg of her first arena tour, The Scarlet Tour, featuring rappers Doechii and Ice Spice as supporting acts. The album's lead single, "Paint the Town Red", was released in early August 2023 to commercial success, breaking a number of streaming records, and becoming her first solo song to top the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom, among several other countries and the Billboard Global 200 chart. The album's title was later revealed to be Scarlet in mid-August 2023. The second promotional single, "Demons", was released in early September 2023, alongside a music video directed by Christian Breslauer and co-starring American actress Christina Ricci.

Artistry

Influences

Doja Cat has cited Nicki Minaj as her biggest influence. In a Billboard interview, Doja Cat stated that she is "in love with everything Nicki Minaj has put out into the world." On the song "Get Into It (Yuh)" from her third studio album, Planet Her (2021), she pays tribute to Minaj and borrows lyrics and rap delivery from her debut 2010 single "Massive Attack". Critics noted that the album as whole was largely influenced by Minaj herself with The New Yorker noting that she "build upon the pop-rap legacy established by her predecessor Nicki Minaj". She has also named Lauryn Hill and Busta Rhymes as some of her biggest influences. While speaking about Busta Rhymes, she stated: "if I hear a beat Busta Rhymes would absolutely kill, I'll use my voice to do a flow similar to his."

Stage name and persona

As a teenager in 2012, Doja Cat gained her stage name from one of her cats as well as her favorite strain of marijuana, stating, "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." She has since expressed slight disdain towards the name and the persona that it carries, stating in November 2021 that "my image was the pothead hippie girl, and I'm not that."

Musical style and themes

Doja Cat's music has been described as hip hop, pop, R&B, and pop rap. When asked about her legacy, Doja Cat revealed that in future she would like to be remembered for her versatility in not only music but also visual art and dance. Her second full-length studio album, Hot Pink, is built with her own beats as well as a series of videos written and conceived by herself. She claimed the era was a firm restart for her career, and the most "refined, chiseled" representation of herself. Her escapist fantasy worldview is reflected in the music by its upbeat production style. The record was inspired by drastic lifestyle changes including an "illuminating" acid trip which made her quit smoking cigarettes and marijuana.

Her 2021 song "Naked" contains a tongue-in-cheek sexual reference that refers to bisexuality in that she "like bananas and peaches", while her 2019 single "Bottom Bitch" can also be interpreted as a metaphor for lesbian sex.
 

Personal life

Doja Cat is reported to be "eager to deflect interest in her personal life." She lived in a home in Beverly Hills, California, which she bought in 2021 for $2.2 million and sold in September 2022 for $2.5 million.

She was in a brief open relationship with American musician Jawny from August 2019 until separating in February 2020. Despite not having formally come out or openly stated her sexual orientation, Doja Cat has hinted at queer themes, stating that she likes "people [she] can have sex with. And you can kinda have sex with anybody."[better source needed]

In June 2020, Doja Cat donated $100,000 to the Justice for Breonna Taylor Fund, in support of Taylor's family.

Health

In May 2022, Doja Cat opened up about her nicotine addiction on Twitter, and revealed that she required lancing of an infected tonsil caused by vaping and intended to pursue a tonsillectomy, consequently canceling her summer festival run and her opening act slot for the Weeknd's After Hours til Dawn Tour.

Controversies

In 2018, Doja Cat sparked controversy on social media when her Twitter history revealed a continuous usage of the word "faggot." In a tweet from 2015, she used the word to describe hip hop artists Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. Doja Cat initially defended her past remarks but later issued a series of apologies for her words and has since deleted her tweets. As a result of the controversy, Doja Cat was declared the Milkshake Duck of 2018 by NME. In March 2020, she received backlash after saying on Instagram live that COVID-19 was "only a flu" and that she was not scared of it. Later that October, Doja Cat was criticized for participating in Kendall Jenner's Halloween and birthday celebrations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2020, a 2015 song by Doja Cat titled "Dindu Nuffin" resurfaced. "Dindu Nuffin" is an alt-right term used to ridicule African-American victims of police brutality who claim they are innocent. After apologizing, Doja Cat said that although the song was intended to flip the term's meaning, it was a "bad decision." Doja Cat denied that the song was a response to the death of Sandra Bland, calling the allegation "one of the most awful rumors that I've ever encountered." She took to Instagram to address accusations after footage began circulating of her on Tinychat in a chat room saying "nigger." She apologized to those offended and said she should not have been on certain chat room sites, although she maintained that she had never been involved in any racist conversations. Frequent users of the chat room later came forth and revealed that the nature of the chatroom was not specifically racist, and claimed that Doja Cat never said anything discriminatory in their conversations.

Doja Cat's 2020 performance of "Say So" at the MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony was criticized when some viewers noted that the guitar solo in the performance was identical to the one in Plini's 2016 song "Handmade Cities." The following month, Plini reported that he received an apologetic message from Doja Cat through social media.

In March 2022, Doja Cat threatened to quit music due to the backlash from an incident that occurred during her time in Paraguay. The artist was in Paraguay for the 2022 Asunciónico Festival which was eventually canceled due to severe weather conditions. After the cancellation, fans reportedly gathered outside the hotel she was residing at in order to get a glimpse of Doja Cat. She did not come outside to meet with her fans and was consequently accused of being rude and apathetic. She did not post anything involving Paraguay on social media, leading fans to express frustration about her lack of acknowledgement. She was also accused of being more enthusiastic with fans from other countries such as Brazil compared to her behavior with Paraguayan fans. Because of the backlash the artist released a series of tweets where she claimed she was “not sorry” and she would quit the music industry, she then changed her Twitter username to "I Quit." The artist did not quit music or Twitter and returned two days later with tweets expressing appreciation towards her fans.

In July 2023, Doja Cat faced backlash for Threads comments suggesting that she does not appreciate her fans, for which she lost over 250,000 followers on Instagram.

Public image

Doja Cat has been noted for being versatile in her music. This includes her ability to sing, rap, and produce, as well as perform and dance. Often described as eccentric, she is known for her absurdly humorous personality and posts on social media platforms. Bryan Rolli of Forbes wrote that "Doja Cat's aloof, irreverent, chronically online persona masks a tireless work ethic; she sings better, raps faster and dances harder than many of her peers, all at once." In an article for Okayplayer, Robyn Mowatt noted that "as a singer, rapper, songwriter, and entertainer Doja has led her fans on a rambunctious journey equipped with snappy lyrics, live video streams, outlandish outfits, and memorable viral moments. It's not just the music that gets her fans riled up, it's also her live performances which typically are infused with a touch of eccentricity." As one of the biggest and best-performing commercial artists of the 2020s decade, writers at Billboard expressed that "it'd be tough to name three artists of any kind who feel more like the 2020s so far than Doja Cat."

Awards and nominations

Doja Cat has received many accolades throughout her career, including one Grammy Award, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards (AMAs), four MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), and an iHeartRadio Music Award.