Doja Cat

**Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini** (born; October 21, 1995), known professionally as **Doja Cat** is a South African-American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began making and releasing music on SoundCloud as a teenager. At age 17 she signed a contract with Kemosabe and RCA Records, subsequently releasing her debut EP *Purrr!* in 2014.

After a hiatus from releasing music and the release of her debut studio album *Amala* (2018), Doja earned viral success with her single "Mooo!", which gained notoriety for its novelty nature. In 2019 her second studio album *Hot Pink* dropped, becoming her first effort to reach the top ten on the Billboard 200. "Say So", the album's fifth single, went viral on social media app TikTok and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2020, following the release of a remix with rapper Nicki Minaj. In 2021 Doja released her third studio album *Planet Her*, which marked an artistic and sonic progression from *Hot Pink*. The album spawned five singles, "Kiss Me More" (featuring SZA), "You Right" (featuring The Weeknd), "Need to Know", "Woman" and "Get Into It (Yuh)", all of which were commercially successful and charted within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Her fourth studio album, *Scarlet* (2023), adopted a hip hop-oriented sound and peaked within the top five of the *Billboard* 200, while its lead single "Paint The Town Red" became her most successful song to date, as it marked her first solo number-one on the Hot 100 among eight other countries.

Doja has been avowed for her versatility, blended rap and pop music, humorous public image, and her reception in social media platforms, such as TikTok. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including a GRAMMY Award, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, and three MTV Video Music Awards.

## Early Life

   Doja was born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini on October 21, 1995 in the neighborhood Tarzana, in Los Angeles. Her mother, Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, is a Jewish-American graphic designer. Her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African actor, composer and film producer of Zulu ethnicity. Doja has stated that her father was absent from her childhood and has claimed that she has "never met him."

Following her birth, Dlamini and her mother moved to Rye, New York, where they lived for five years. She returned to Oak Park, California with her single mother, where she experienced a "sporty childhood", often skating and visiting Malibu for surf camps. It was during this time when she participated in ballet, tap and jazz lessons. Her mother played music from artists such as D’Angelo, Jamiroquai, Tupac, Earth, Wind & Fire and Erykah Badu in the house. She returned to Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles at the age of 11 and a half, where she lived in an ashram and practiced Hinduism for four years. During this time she also took part in breakdancing classes, further joining a competitive troupe. She would frequently skip school to participate in online chatrooms. She told *Paper* that she had a near-"religious" obsession with the unnamed chat room, and would still participate years later.

## Career

### **2012–2017: Career beginnings and label signing**

Doja dropped out of high school at age 16 while in junior year, and spent time downloading beats from YouTube to create her own music. She taught herself to use GarageBand. She has mentioned that life after dropping out of high school was "messy." For the first few months, she would upload songs onto SoundCloud and quickly take them down, until "So High" in late 2012, which she remembers crying over after attracting 12 views. She got her stage name, "Doja Cat", from one of her cats and her favored strain of marijuana. She stated, "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."

At age 17, Doja signed to RCA Records with a joint venture deal with Dr. Luke's vanity label, Kemosabe Records, in 2014. She signed to them in late 2013 but the deal was finalised in early 2014. She has declined to comment on her connection with Luke through Kemosabe. Later that year, Doja released her debut EP, *Purrr!*, which was described as "spacey, eastern-influenced R&B" by *The Fader*. "So High" was re-released as a single prior to the EP's release. The song was also featured on the TV series *Empire* in the third episode of the first season. She continued to release music on SoundCloud as she started gaining more attention. In mid-2015, OG Maco announced via Twitter that Doja Cat had signed to his label, OGG. Following the reported signing, in late 2016, the two artists collaborated on "Monster" off of Maco's mixtape, *Children of the Rage* (2017). By then she had also started collaborating with other artists, such as her Kemosabe label-mate Elliphant, and Soundcloud-based rappers Skoolie Escobar, Pregnant Boy and frumhere.

### **2018–2019: *Amala* and "Moo.”**

On February 1, 2018, Doja released the promotional single "Roll with Us", which entered Spotify's Global Viral 50 chart upon release. On March 9, 2018, she released the lead single, "Go to Town", which was released with an accompanying music video on the same day. "Candy" was released as the album's second single on March 23, 2018. Consequently, the single charted in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, the latter having the song peak at 86 on the *Billboard* Hot 100 making it her first solo entry on the chart. On March 30, 2018, Doja's debut studio album *Amala* was released, including the three singles. She later claimed to have been under the influence for most of the production of the album. *NPR* described the album as a "manifesto of a young woman striving to take ownership of her craft, her image and her sexuality, mixing genres like dancehall, trap, house and R&B with a healthy dose of sass and humor." Most of the tracks on *Amala* were co-produced by her frequent collaborator, Yeti Beats, who also executively produced the album. At the time of its release, the album was largely ignored by critics and failed to chart within the top 200 selling albums released that week. Doja Cat continued to promote the album herself on social media platforms as well as touring for the album with the *Amala Spring Tour* and *Amala Fall Tour* respectively throughout 2018 and 2019.

On August 10, 2018, Doja uploaded the completely self-produced music video "Mooo!" on YouTube. The single is a novelty song with absurdist lyrics where she fantasizes about being a cow. The video gathered attention and praise from popular artists such as Chance the Rapper, Katy Perry and Chris Brown. Due to popular demand following the music video's viral success, Doja Cat released a single version of "Mooo!" on August 31, 2018. In February 2019, Doja Cat released the single and accompanying video for "Tia Tamera" featuring Rico Nasty, which preceded the release of a deluxe edition of *Amala*. The re-release of the album included three new songs, including "Mooo!" and "Juicy", the first song released by Doja Cat that was co-produced by her label boss, Dr. Luke. Her ColorsXStudios performance of the latter song from March 2019, garnered over 21 million views on YouTube. A remix of "Juicy" featuring Tyga and its accompanying music video were released in August 2019. Following the release of the remix, the song debuted at 83 on the *Billboard* Hot 100, marking Doja Cat's first entry on the chart, and ultimately peaked at 41. The song would eventually be certified Platinum in the United States. It led to Doja  debuting for the first time on the *Billboard* 200 album chart in August as well.

### **2019–2021: *Hot Pink* and breakthrough**

On October 3, 2019, Doja Cat released "Bottom Bitch" which was the second single from her sophomore album. The single, co-produced by Doja herself, would be noted for sampling the Blink-182 single "What's My Age Again?". On October 24, 2019, she released the single "Rules" and announced her second studio album *Hot Pink*. *Hot Pink* was released (along with the single "Cyber Sex") on November 7, 2019 to generally favorable reviews. The album would eventually peak at number 9 on the *Billboard* 200. Her debut album, *Amala*, also reached a new peak on the *Billboard* 200 at number 138 around the time of *Hot Pink'*s release. On December 15, 2019, Doja Cat contributed "Boss Bitch" to the soundtrack of the superhero film *Birds of Prey* on January 23, 2020. The single entered the charts of 28 countries including United States, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

On January 28, 2020, Doja Cat's song "Say So" was sent to radio becoming the fourth single off of her album *Hot Pink*. The song was originally released alongside the album in November 2019. Doja Cat performed the song on *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon* on February 26, 2020. The next day, Doja Cat released the music video for the song, directed by Hannah Lux Davis. The solo version of "Say So" peaked at number five on the Hot 100, becoming Doja Cat's first top 10 single, and has so far been the most streamed song of 2020 by a female artist in the US.

On March 25, 2020, Doja Cat was set to embark on the Hot Pink Tour, before it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour was planned to include fifteen shows spanning across North America, including two Coachella performances. In an interview with Nick Cannon on Power 106 in May 2020, Doja Cat announced that she would be releasing a new single (possibly titled " Ain't Shit") which she previously leaked while on Instagram live. She also stated that she would be doing some "self-filming" imminently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2020, following the release of a remix of "Say So", featuring Nicki Minaj, the single topped the *Billboard* Hot 100, becoming the first number-one single for both artists. The remix also marked the first female collaboration since "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX as well as the first ever female rap collaboration to peak atop the chart.

On May 21, 2020, Doja Cat featured on a remix of Canadian singer The Weeknd's single "In Your Eyes" from his fourth studio album *After Hours*. On May 29, 2020, Doja Cat featured on the song "Bullet burns" by American rapper Remy ma, which appeared on the deluxe edition of his album *Shootin bitches*. On June 20, 2020, Doja Cat was featured on the song "Pussy Talk", taken from American rapper duo City Girls’ second album, *City on Lock*. She was nominated for Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Video of the Year (for "Say So") at the 2020 BET Awards. Within June 2020, Doja Cat donated 100 thousand dollars to the Justice For Breonna Taylor Fund, released the music video for "Like That", and uploaded the song "Unisex Freestyle" to SoundCloud. On June 24, 2020. Doja Cat went on an Instagram Live session and teased multiple new songs which she stated would all be released together in an upcoming project. Songs Doja Cat played included previously teased tracks "N\*ggas Ain't Shit" and "Up and Down". Doja Cat also mentioned an upcoming collaboration with American singer Ariana Grande which she opted not to play due to copyright. The collaboration was previously revealed when Grande stated in an interview that she is planning to release a song with Doja Cat which they recorded in early 2020.

On August 7th, 2020, the song "Freak" which had been on SoundCloud since 2018, was officially released on digital platforms. She was credited as a lead artist on the remix for Chloe x Halle's song "Do It" which also featured City Girls and Mulatto, the following month, and was featured alongside Australian musician Sia on the track "Del Mar" from Puerto Rican singer Ozuna's 2020 album *Enoc*, also released in September. The "Juicy" remix featuring Tyga was nominated for Top R&B Song at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards. Doja Cat was featured on American singer Bebe Rexha's single "Baby, I'm Jealous", the lead single from Rhexa's second studio album.

In October 2020. She performed a medley of "Juicy", "Say So" and "Like That" at the 2020 *Billboard* Music Awards, inspired by *Chicago* and *Moulin Rouge*.

The collaboration with Ariana Grande was revealed to be called "Motive" when she posted the tracklist of her sixth album *Positions* on October 24th. The track peaked at number 32 on the *Billboard* Hot 100, becoming both her highest debut and second-ever top 40 entry.

Doja performed "Say So" at the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards ceremony, where she also won the award for Best New Act. She also won both New Artist of the Year and Favourite Soul/R&B Female Artist at the 2020 American Music Awards ceremony, where she performed "Baby, I'm Jealous" with Bebe Rexha.

*Rolling Stone* ranked her at number one on their list of the ten biggest breakthrough artists of 2020. *Cosmopolitan* declared Doja Cat "hip-hop's most fierce upcoming rapper." *Forbes* named Doja Cat "one of the top breakout stars of 2020" while including her on their annual 30 Under 30 list. *The Kyiv Post* called her "one of the biggest rising female artists in the U.S. music scene." Doja Cat was the fourth most-Googled musician of 2020 in the United States. On December 24th, 2020, Doja released a series of videos on her YouTube channel named "Hot Pink Sessions" where she performed three songs twice with two different "looks".

On January 7, 2021, Doja Cat was featured on the single "Best Friend" by American 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 #2 on the *Billboard* Hot 100. In early 2021, "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, which peaked at number 16. Doja 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 musician Lil Nas X.

### **2021-2022: *Planet HER***

    Back in September 2020 Doja Cat said that her third studio album was complete and "all ready" for release, although in March 2021, she revealed to *V Magazine* that it was "nearly done". In this same interview, Doja Cat revealed the album's official title, *Planet HER*, and its prospective release window of summer 2021. She also revealed that it would feature a collaboration with SZA titled "Kiss Me More". The song debuted at number 7 on the *Billboard* Hot 100 and later reached a new peak of 5. With an accompanying music video, the song was released as the lead single from the album on April 9, 2021. On April 22nd, she revealed that the song "You Right" featuring Canadian singer The Weeknd will serve as the second single from *Planet Her.* This was proven false when Doja announced the second single off the album, "Need To Know" on June 8th, by tweeting "need to know 6/11", hinting at it being released on June 11th. "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 fourth 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. She received nominations 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 February 2022, Doja Cat released a cover of the song "Celebrity Skin" by American rock band Hole, as part of a Taco Bell commercial in which she starred, and premiered it at the Super Bowl LVI. The cover contains reworked lyrics written by Doja Cat and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love. Later that month, her second collaboration with Tyga, entitled "Freaky Deaky", was released as a single alongside a music video directed by Christian Breslauer. She contributed to the soundtrack for Baz Luhrmann's biographical film *Elvis* (2022) with the song "Vegas", released on May 6, 2022, as its lead single. In June 2022, the track "[[I Like You (A Happier Song)" by Post Malone featuring Doja Cat was released as the third single from the former's fourth studio album, *Twelve Carat Toothache* (2022). The track would later earn Doja Cat a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, where she also earned nominations for Record of the Year ("Woman"), Best Pop Solo Performance ("Woman"), Best Music Video ("Woman"), and Best Rap Performance ("Vegas").

Doja Cat later began sharing her experiences of career burnout, expressing her disdain for "unnecessary" obligations, while admitting that she was no longer enjoying her career. Doja Cat continued to publicise her frustrations during a South American festival tour in March 2022. After an incident involving Paraguayan fans, which followed a storm that prompted the cancellation of her scheduled show, she posted to Twitter: "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."

### 2023: *Scarlet*

Main article: 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". She also adopted a darker aesthetic and appearance, which she described as "punk", "experimental" and "manic", while some fans deemed these changes "demonic", and accused her of being a Satanist, and a member of the Illuminati. In mid-June 2023, she released the album's first promotional single, titled "Attention", alongside an accompanying music video directed by Tanu Muino. 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. 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.

## Controversy

After achieving mainstream recognition in 2018 with "Mooo!", Doja Cat sparked controversy on social media when her Twitter account history revealed the usage of homophobic slurs. In a tweet dating back to 2015, Doja Cat used a homophobic slur to describe hip hop artists Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt, members of the musical collective Odd Future. Doja Cat initially defended her past remarks. She stated, "I called a couple people f\*\*\*\*\*s when I was in high school in 2015 does this mean I don't deserve support? I've said f\*\*\*\*\* roughly like 15 thousand times in my life. Does saying f\*\*\*\*\* mean you hate gay people? I don't think I hate gay people. Gay is ok." Her response was met by even more backlash, including a critical tweet from *Will and Grace* actress Debra Messing. In her statement, Messing expressed disappointment with Doja for defending past ignorance and implored her to use her fame and platform for good. Doja Cat has since issued a series of apologies for her derogatory words and deleted her tweets. The controversy generated much discourse regarding the limits of "cancel culture", the growing trend of outcry on social media resulting in celebrities being deserted and careers abruptly derailed following publicized historic misconduct.[

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 that claim that they are innocent. Doja Cat apologized by claiming that, though the song was meant to flip the meaning of the term, it was a "bad decision". She denied that the song was a response to police brutality or the death of Sandra Bland, calling the allegation "one of the most awful rumors that I've ever encountered". Doja Cat stated that, though she has previously criticized her own hair type, she does not have self-hatred or internalized racism. Doja Cat denied a raceplay rumor that originated from a viral video of her using the N-word in a chat room. She also denied engaging in online racist conversations during her participation in chat rooms, stating that "the narrative that it's a white supremacist chat is absolutely 100% incorrect." Users of various platforms use the term "we didn't forget" as a way of bringing up the controversy, once people started to call Doja Cat "ugly" she took it to an Instagram livestream to address it again, she said, "...if somebody hated themselves, one, for being black. Which is an awful thing to be. To hate yourself for being black is an awful thing. It's horrible."

## Trivia

* Doja Cat has siblings, but we currently don't know their names
* Her fandom is known as "kittenz"

## External links

* Doja Cat on Instagram
* Doja Cat on Twitter
* Doja Cat on Facebook
* Doja Cat's webpage