“Everybody wanted to know what Doechii would do if she didn’t win. I guess we’ll never know". Mark my words, this is Doechii’s decade...
I have been waiting for this day. Ever since I heard her verse on Isaiah Rashad’s ‘Wat U Sed’, I was enamoured by her slick flow and careless superstar attitude. I was alway praying for her big breakout moment. Fast forward 4 years later, and the day has finally graced us. Florida-based artist Doechii has had a huge boost since 2024, consistently dropping solid gold in her own releases while sprinkling her signature swamp princess magic on various high profile collaborations, dominating sold out shows and packed-out festival sets all over the world (Seriously, her Camp Flog Gnaw set should be studied for her breath control alone).
The road to the Grammys was so well deserved that me even saying this in text does not do it justice. Doechii has been grinding in the music scene since 2016, dropping her first releases on Soundcloud as iamdoechii. Eventually, thanks to the viral nature of TikTok, the song ‘Yucky Blucky Fruitcake’ gained heavy exposure in 2021, which in turn led to her getting signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and Capitol Records. But it didn’t stop there. Her singles in the lead up to her debut studio project are so varied with so many genres and styles being explored and yet, she still wasn’t done.
Enter the Swamp Sessions; timed with an hour on the clock, she writes a song and whatever gets made in that hour, gets dropped. These masterful freestyles set the stage for the solid studio debut that is: Alligator Bites Don’t Heal. Her first major label project which was made in only a month. “I literally called my label and I was like, I am going to drop a mixtape on August 30th. This is what my plan is. This is what I want to do.” (In conversation with Rolling Stone). A sprawling and vulnerable 19 track beast, that stands toe to toe with releases from some of the strongest MCs in todays scene, which finally boosted her to the mainstream.
The flowers were finally handed to Doechii in the form of the artist’s first ever Grammy for Best Rap Album. Up until this point, there have only been two black female artists to win this title, Ms. Lauryn Hill in 1997 (Miseducation of Lauryn Hill) and Cardi B in 2019 (Invasion of Privacy). The Grammy awards have been notorious in its years for its shoddy handling of its hip-hop categories, (most notably, the 2014 win of Macklemore’s The Heist over Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city), and especially in its female rapper representation. With true greats like Lil Kim, Foxy Brown and Missy Elliott being omitted from this award, it’s quite baffling. It’s why Doechii’s win is such an important one. It's also what made her debut grammy performance just as important.
Performing ‘Catfish’ and ‘Denial Is A River’ from the winning mixtape, it saw Doechii and a whole posse of dancers all clad in Thom Browne, completely dominating the stage. She’s walking on top of people as a bridge, being carried around on passing shoulders and even going full 360 at one point. All the while maintaining sharp breath control and magnifying flow. The extra live flourishes of added trumpet elements and lack of backing track really add to the full circle feeling of the performance. My favourite part of this show however, was how theatrical it was throughout, without the reason being that its a Grammy performance. She treats every performance like it's the biggest show of her life, and always gives her all.
To top it all off, Doechii decided to celebrate the evening with a surprise single release. ‘Nosebleeds’ plays out like an artist confident in the hard work and passion they pour into their art. Partly an extended Grammy speech, partly being justifiably smug. With beat pauses, flow switching and tempo changes, its a braggadocio filled banger. A perfect end to a defining night. “Everybody wanted to know what Doechii would do if she didn’t win. I guess we’ll never know". Mark my words, this is Doechii’s decade.
Take a listen to ‘Nosebleeds’ down below.
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