Sophia Michaels
Doechii isn’t trying to convince the world of her star power. As she explains to POPSUGAR, “I don’t usually think about that.” The 24-year-old Tampa, FL, rapper isn’t concerned with “setting intentions” with her music, either. That’s why, so far, she’s seamlessly tapped into different lanes of hip-hop without holding herself to a specific label. Her boom-bap, autobiographical breakthrough hit “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” sounds nothing like the upbeat, airy rhymes delivered on her 2022 single “Persuasive.” The same could be said for the rest of her multifaceted discography. And the fun of that leaves her little time to cater to her fans’ every whim and want — she’s too busy making the music they need.
“It’s up for them to have that,” Doechii says, unconcerned with fans’ expectations. “However the art is interpreted, that’s how it’s interpreted. All I know is how I want them to feel.”
Doechii’s always been “super imaginative” with her art. Even as a kid, her musical gifts shined through; she found inspiration from rock (Paramore) and gospel artists (Tye Tribbett, Fred Hammond, and Deitrick Haddon), as well as fellow rappers (M.I.A. and Azealia Banks). She says, growing up, “I’ve always been very enthusiastic and playful. Very animated as a kid and passionate.” This still rings true of Doechii’s artistry today.
Born Jaylah Hickmon, Doechii says her love for music stemmed from singing in front of her family as a child: “The way that they would react kind of showed me that I had some type of talent and my family always reassured me that I was talented. That’s why I kind of kept at it ’cause of the motivation from them.” Her interest in hip-hop, though, came later in life.
“That time in my life where I decided what I wanted for the next five years was a pivotal turning point in my career, where I saw things actually blossom.”
In Doechii’s teenage years, as a student at Howard W. Blake High School, fellow classmates at the performing arts institution “would like to link up and rap for jokes.” But she actually took a liking to it. Connecting with her close friend Taylor, the two would spend their days “skipping school, smoking weed, and rapping.” Her love for hip-hop grew from there, prompting the independent artist route that eventually led her to sign as the first-ever female rapper for Top Dawg Entertainment (the record label responsible for introducing acts like Kendrick Lamar and SZA). The road in between, though, was quite the journey for Doechii — nothing about her success came overnight.
After high school, Doechii tried attending college, but the venture was short-lived. As she explains it, “I lasted a week in orientation and I left and dropped out.” When she entered the next chapter of her life, she quickly realized that she “didn’t wanna be policed again as an adult,” so she stopped pursuing dead-end jobs, too: “It felt militant and I didn’t like it, so I decided I was just gonna not work for anybody anymore.” That’s when music came back into play.
One of Doechii’s biggest life-changing moments, she says, arrived before her name entered the mainstream. No, it didn’t involve her daring music video for her 2022 song “Crazy” (which got flagged on YouTube for showing women dancing, fighting, and toting heavy artillery in the nude). It did, however, have everything to do with Doechii taking her music to the next level. According to her, that meant putting herself through an “artistic boot camp” before she moved to New York in 2019.
“That’s when people were like, ‘Who is that?'”
“I bought a bunch of books, I learned how to write music — it was very like YouTube research, how to write a song, and just honing in on my skills, and practicing and building and branding myself again before I popped out and [came] up with a plan,” she shares. “So I think that time in my life where I decided what I wanted for the next five years was a pivotal turning point in my career, where I saw things actually blossom; when I decided what I wanted and I moved forward on it.”
Though the “slow, steady pace” of Doechii’s career didn’t skyrocket her straight to stardom, she eventually caught the world’s attention after dropping her 2020 “Oh The Places You’ll Go” EP, which included “Yucky Blucky.” As she remembers it, “That’s when people were like, ‘Who is that?'”
Soon thereafter, she found herself blowing up on account of a standout feature on fellow TDE signee Isaiah Rashad’s “Wat U Sed” song, off his 2021 “The House Is Burning” album — that’s when the TDE rumblings initially began. After Doechii signed with them in early 2022, her name was everywhere. There was her “Persuasive” hit (which also scored a remixed version with SZA); her 2022 EP “she/her/black b*tch”; and her Billboard Hot 100-charting, Kodak Black-assisted “What It Is” single, which arrived on March 17.
Now, Doechii’s gearing up to drop her long-awaited debut album before heading out on tour with Doja Cat and Ice Spice this fall. Speaking to POPSUGAR in mid-July, she shares that she “just came back from Jamaica finishing it,” so she hopes to share a release date soon. While “she/her/black b*tch” was just a five-track appetizer to tease what Doechii can do, she says her upcoming album all-around has “better music.”
“This is gonna be a piece that my fans are gonna value forever.”
“The music is stronger, the writing is stronger,” she explains. “You’ll get a [better] representation of who I am versus where I only have four songs to show people who I am. It’s different. It’s harder. So with this body of work, because it’s longer, people can get a better idea of who I am as an artist.”
Doechii confirms that she’s taking more risks with her debut album, which she notes has more “range and replay ability.” She hopes it’ll turn into a “project that [her] fans can go back to,” comparing it to the feeling she had when she listened to Tyler, the Creator’s first album. “Like a cherishable moment of just great, unique music,” she explains. “That’s the same feeling that I’m curating here with this project. This is gonna be a piece that my fans are gonna value forever.”
That being said, Doechii didn’t record the upcoming album with her fans’ opinions in mind. All she knows is that she wants them “to feel free when they listen to it.” “I want them to dance,” she says. “I want them to feel liberated. I want them to feel special when they listen to it or a part of something special. Whatever comes after that, that’s what comes after. But the intention is for us to have a good time always.”
