Interviewed by Cheyenne Witcher
We recently had the chance to sit down with Doja Cat to catch up with her. The interview focuses on Doja’s early life and her past achievments. Later on we dive into the future and whats to come, enjoy!
Who are you?
My name is Amala Ratna Zandile
Dlamini but people know me as Doja Cat
Well it’s actually a funny story. I used to smoke weed religiously like I was a literal bonafide cannabis enthusiast. And I was heavily addicted to weed and weed culture. Doja was my favorite strain and I thought it sounded like a girl’s name so I just used that. And cat comes from me just loving cats so yea. I don’t smoke weed anymore but I did smoke heavily during the era of my first album which was self titled Amala. I was trying to be cool and impress others but I realized that just being myself is enough. And now that I don’t smoke I’m able to reflect more and really focus on the music.
Well honestly I’ve been surrounded by music since I was a kid. I studied dance and piano as a teenager but I guess the motivation to start making my own music came from my brother. He always used to listen to rap music and that is what got me into writing and rapping.
I actually ended up dropping out of high school when I was 16 which was a very messy period of my life. I spent my time focusing on the music, I would go on YouTube and download some beats and then I taught myself how to use GarageBand.
I remember for the first few months of me putting the songs I made on soundcloud, I would take them down immediately. That was until 2012 when I made “So High”, I got 12 views and started crying.
I was 17 years old when I first got signed to a label. I actually put that song on my first EP “Purrr” in 2014 and it was featured on an episode of Empire which was really cool for someone like me. The EP itself gave very much spacey, eastern-influenced R&B vibes.
It’s so funny because the only reason I made this song is because I bought this cow print outfit as a costume for my upcoming tour. I made the song on live and then made the video soon after that. I did this in my room at around 5:00 p.m. It was getting really dark and I’m like shit I don’t have any lighting except for some Christmas lights in my room. I pretty much had to rush the whole thing but I had a lot of fun. The 50 supporters I hung out with on Instagram Live that I was making songs with, all were watching and laughing along about it, I thought this was going to be an inside joke for all of us and we had no plan of it getting anywhere further than SoundCloud. So I was just as shocked as everyone else that it went viral. Jokes aside though, it was actually a blessing in disguise because a lot of famous people gave me my flowers for that and it took my career to new places.
“I have no affinity for cows, I mean they’re cool.”
Besides Amala, you also created Hot Pink and Planet Her. Can you talk a little bit about those two?
So Hot Pink is my second album and my intentions with this album was to earn myself more respect as a rapper. I was really excited about this album coming out because it felt like my second chance to redeem myself. Amala didn’t feel finished to me because it didn’t entirely represent me as an artist.
Ah yes, Say So. That song is near and dear to my heart, it was honestly one of the highlights of my career. I received so much love and attention from that song in 2o2o. It was at the start of the pandemic, everyone was in quarantine with nothing but time on their hands so of course TikTok was the go-to entertainment. Anyways, that was my first top 10 song on the hot 100 and the most streamed song of 2020 and i’m just so grateful for that.
Everyone loved the song so much that I had to perform it a million times but luckily the Planet Her Era was approaching.
Planet Her is a planet that I created where all species and races of space live in harmony. This conceptual album is honestly my most visually appealing. I feel like I did a good job at representing my vision for Planet her both visually and musically. I got the chance to work with some amazing artists and I couldn’t be more happy with the outcome.
“I believe in female rap.”
Well I have a name for it , Hellmouth. It is definitely going to be different from my previous projects. I’ve done more pink and soft music but during this era, I want to take a more masculine approach. I want to explore punk. But not pop-punk.
I feel like we have enough pop-punk artists right now. And if there needs to be more, then let there be more, but I don’t think I’m the one to do it, I want to explore more of a raw, unfiltered, hardcore punk sort of thing. It’s just something that I’m doing for my own personal fun — getting some drummers and guitarists together. And I don’t even know if that’s gonna make it out there. So I guess you will just have to wait and see what’s in store.
“I just like to do the fun stuff. If I’m not having fun with it, I’m not going to do it for the rest of my life.”