Doechii is on her own tip. After signing with Top Dawg Entertainment and blowing up the Billboard Hot 100 last spring with her nostalgic R&B hitthe self-proclaimed swamp princess is ready to level up, haters be damned. Someone who can relate is fellow Floridian and City Girls rapper, who not only hopped on a single for Doechii’s highly anticipated debut album, but hopped on this call, too.DOECHII: Same. I’m throwing away clothes and cleaning up the house for the new year. I’m sleepy though.
JT: Well, I feel like “Persuasive” is your sound because that’s how I discovered you. So, you champion female empowerment and you say that you are the Black girl who beat the statistics. Do you feel like you constantly have to prove yourself as a Black girl into alt, and do they push you to a certain sound?
DOECHII: Thank you. But JT, you can perform your ass off. You know how to make people feel it and you don’t even have to do too much.DOECHII: I do, especially coming out of Tampa. People expect a certain sound to come out of Florida. I love that sound, but I’m not that sound. Plus, people don’t pay attention to Florida as much. They pay attention to L.A., New York, and Atlanta.JT: So you’re the first female rapper signed to Top Dawg Entertainment. It’s a great fit for you.
DOECHII: Okay, so growing up in Florida was dangerous but fun. I was nothing like my environment, I was nothing like the people I was around. I was this weird girl. I was really into rock and I love alternative aesthetics, but when you grow up in the hood in Florida, that’s weird to people. And so it made me a target and it made me have to learn how to defend myself. I got into a lot of fights when I was younger.
JT: I wouldn’t say I do. But when I’m a City Girl, I’m on my bad bitch. And then when I’m home I’m so nerdy. My boyfriend say it all the time. I’m so homebody and I’m very introverted. I really, really, really don’t like to be perceived. A lot of people call it insecure, but it’s not that. It’s just sometimes when I go certain places and I be around certain people, my energy feels so tainted. And when I leave, I feel disgusted for a long time.