Doechii wants to “bring back” hip-hop’s “traditional roots”.
The 26-year-old rapper – who went viral on TikTok in 2021 with her song ‘Yucky Blucky Fruitcake’ and later signed to Top Dawg Entertainment – says her aim with her recently released mixtape, ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal’, was to “represent” the relatable hip-hop she first fell in love with whilst also pushing it “forward”.
Speaking to Apple Music’s Ebro Darden, she said: “When people are listening to this project, they’re really witnessing me reconnect with my roots. I learned how to rap through boom bap beats, through classic beats. My first rap that I ever made was a diss track.
“With me kinda coming back to myself … I kinda re-fell in love with hip-hop. And realised that there is a sense of tradition in hip-hop that I really want to represent and bring back.”
Doechii – who recently teamed up with pop star Katy Perry on her latest single ‘I’m His, He’s Mine’ – says rappers need to share their “feelings” and be “honest” more than ever in these times of “economic recession”.
She explained: “There is importance in tradition. I feel like it is important for us to uphold the heart of hip-hop, which is lyrical composition, it is skill, it is wittiness, but it is also talking about our feelings, being honest about what we’re going through and connecting us as people.
“I feel like, especially in the time of an economic recession, people need to feel things right now and we need to talk about it. And we need to do it through rap, which is why I chose the sonical direction that I chose.
“I wanna take us back to this classic space in hip-hop and just remind people of the traditional roots of where this started — and do it in my way and push it forward.”