Doja Cat

*The topic of this page has a wiki of its own: Doja Cat Wiki.*
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, known professionally as Doja Cat, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager.

## 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, and soon caught the attention of 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". He connected her with Kemosabe Records, an imprint of RCA Records, where she signed in March 2014 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.

In August 2014, Doja Cat released her debut EP, *Purrr!*, described as "spacey, eastern-influenced R&B" by *The Fader*. "So High" was repackaged and released as her solo commercial debut single prior to the EP's release, and was later featured on the Fox series *Empire* in the third episode of the show's first season. In mid-2015, Doja Cat temporarily signed to OG Maco's label, OGG. Following the signing, in late 2016, Maco and Doja Cat collaborated on the song "Monster", from Maco's 2017 mixtape, *Children of The Rage*. She had started experiencing writer's block, which led her to decline American singer Billie Eilish's offer to feature on what would later become her popular 2017 single "Bellyache". Doja Cat would stop releasing music for a while amid what she describes as a "creative limbo", which was influenced by her record labels not paying her much attention, as well as the effects of "finding herself" and smoking too much marijuana.

### 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. Doja Cat has since expressed strong disdain toward the record, claiming that it doesn't entirely represent her as an artist and that it isn't a "finished album" since she was constantly partying or high on marijuana during its recording. She claims it was also rushed in order to meet deadlines from the record labels who paid it "almost no support".

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. Due to popular demand following this viral success, the single version of "Mooo!" was released onto digital platforms later that month as the lead single from the deluxe edition of *Amala*. This was followed by the release of the second single, "Tia Tamera" featuring Rico Nasty, and its accompanying music video in February 2019. The full deluxe edition of *Amala* was released on March 1, 2019, and featured the bonus tracks "Mooo!", "Tia Tamera" and "Juicy". The success of "Mooo!" is believed to have "irrefutably proved" to her record labels that Doja Cat was a marketable artist, which led them to start paying more attention to her.

### *Planet Her* and retirement

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 2 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, namely Best New Artist, and her single "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 recording artist Lil Nas X.

Doja Cat revealed the title of her third studio album, *Planet Her*, in a March 2021 interview with *V*. On April 10, the song "Kiss Me More" featuring SZA was released alongside a music video as the lead single for the album. It received critical acclaim, and commercial success, spending nineteen consecutive weeks within the top 10 of the *Billboard* Hot 100, breaking the record for the most weeks in the top 10 by a female collaboration. The song peaked at number 3 and became Doja Cat's third top 10 hit. Later that month, Doja Cat performed the songs "Best Friend" with Saweetie, "Rules", "Streets" and a solo version of "Kiss Me More" at Triller's inaugural Fight Club event. On April 23, 2021, Doja Cat launched an NFT marketplace titled "Juicy Drops". In May 2021, Doja Cat won the award for Top Female R&B Artist at the 2021 *Billboard* Music Awards, where she performed "Kiss Me More" with SZA. Later that month, she performed a solo version of the same song in a medley with "Streets" and "Say So" at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards, where she won the award for Best New Pop Artist.

The song "Need to Know" was released alongside a music video as the first promotional single from *Planet Her* on June 11, 2021. Doja Cat wrote that it was released in anticipation of the "more important" second single, which was confirmed to be "You Right" with the Weeknd. Doja Cat officially announced the release of *Planet Her* and revealed its tracklist and album art via social media a few hours before the release of "Need to Know". The album was released to generally positive reviews, and opened at number two on the *Billboard* 200 where it remained for another two weeks, becoming the first album to spend its first three weeks at number two on the chart since *The Pinkprint* (2014) by Nicki Minaj in January 2015. Elsewhere, it topped the charts in New Zealand, and landed in the top 5 in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway and Ireland.

Doja Cat guest starred as the temporary romantic interest of American rapper and comedian Lil Dicky in season 2 of the TV series *Dave*, which premiered on June 16, 2021. On September 10, she was announced as a Pepsi ambassador and starred in an advertisement in which she performs a modern reenactment of the song "You're the One That I Want" from the musical film Grease, as part of a campaign celebrating the launch of the Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop. Her first-ever gig as a television presenter, Doja Cat hosted the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards ceremony, where she also performed the songs "Been Like This" and "You Right". She won the awards for Best Collaboration (shared with SZA for "Kiss Me More") and Best Art Direction (shared with Saweetie for "Best Friend"), among nominations for Artist of the Year, Video of the Year and Best Visual Effects. It is the first time in history where a nominee in the Video of the Year category hosted the ceremony in that same year. Doja Cat was praised for her presenting abilities, with *Pitchfork* noting that she "reinvent[ed] award-show hosting".

Doja Cat was featured on the song "Scoop" from Lil Nas X's debut studio album *Montero* (2021), which was released on September 17, and then on the song "Icy Hot" from American rapper Young Thug's second studio album *Punk* (2021), which was released on October 15. That same month, she reached number one on the *Billboard* Hot 100 Songwriters chart for the first time in her career, and also became the first rapper to place three top 10 songs on the US Top 40 radio chart, with "You Right", "Need to Know" and "Kiss Me More". She featured alongside Saweetie on French Montana's song "Handstand" from his forth studio album *They Got Amnesia* (2021). The music video for *Planet Her*'s fourth single, "Woman", was released on December 3. According to *Billboard*, Doja Cat closed 2021 as the bestselling female R&B and hip-hop artist in the US, and the forth bestselling female artist overall, additionally placing six songs on the year-end Hot 100. *Planet Her* was also the sixth best-selling album in the US, and the fifth most streamed album globally on Spotify in 2021. In 2022, Doja Cat won the awards for Female Rapper of the Year and Performer of the Year at the 2022 XXL Awards.

In February 2022, Doja Cat released a cover of the song "Celebrity Skin" by American rock band Hole, as part of a Taco Bell commercial which stars the singer herself and premiered at the Super Bowl LVI. The cover contains reworked lyrics co-written by Doja Cat and Courtney Love, the frontwoman of Hole. Later that month, the single "Freaky Deaky" with Tyga and Doja Cat was released alongside a music video directed by Christian Breslauer. Doja Cat was nominated for eight awards at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, the most for any female artist. “Kiss Me More” won the award for Best Pop Duo Performance, while her other nominations included Album of the Year (*Planet Her* and *Montero*), Record of the Year ("Kiss Me More"), Song of the Year ("Kiss Me More"), Best Pop Vocal Album (*Planet Her*), Best Rap Song ("Best Friend") and Best Melodic Rap Performance ("Need to Know").

In November 2021, Doja Cat began showing signs of burnout. She took to Instagram Live to express her disdain for "unnecessary" obligations, while admitting that she is no longer enjoying her music career. Her frustration continued during a South American festival tour in March 2022. After an incident involving Paraguayan fans, following a storm that cancelled her scheduled show, Doja Cat tweeted: "Everything is dead to me, music is dead, and I'm a fucking fool for ever thinking I was made for this... This shit ain't for me so I'm out. Y'all take care." On March 31, she reiterated that she plans to retire from releasing music once she has fulfilled her current obligations, which includes serving as the opening act for the North American leg of the Weeknd's After Hours til Dawn Stadium Tour.