Tampa-based rapper Doechii has been in the game for a while now, but the release of her Grammy-Award winning album “Alligator Bites Never Heal” has taken her to the next level.
Let’s back track a bit to understand the full course of her journey. It’s 2020, and Doechii has just released her self-funded debut EP, “Oh The Places You’ll Go.” The single “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” goes viral on Tiktok some months later. The song eventually obtains the attention of Rolling Stone, who wrote that the rapper “achieved the rare feat of a truly ubiquitous song.”
The year 2021 consists of releasing her second EP “Bra-less,” becoming an opening act for SZA’s “Good Days” tour and performing at the BET Awards with Isaiah Rashad.
Top Dawg Entertainment entered the picture in 2022, and Doechii becomes the first female rapper to join the label. “Persuasive” was the first single she released through the label. Its up-tempo beat and sultry lyricism about the effect of marijuana earns it a place on Billboard’s Best Songs of 2022, and she even performs it on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”
Her first label project “She/Her/Black Bitch” also comes out later that year, with the title alluding to the reclaim of an insult that many dark skinned, Black women have been on the receiving end of. This EP is a sharp turn from the colorful nature of previous projects, revealing Doechii’s ability to cover a little bit of everything.
Doechii performed at the 22nd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 2023 and made her acting debut in Savannah Leaf’s “Earth Mama”. Then, it gets quiet for a bit. Doechii begins working on the mixtape that will forever change the trajectory of her career.
The 2024 album “Alligator Bites Never Heal” was released in August and received overwhelming critical acclaim. Pitchfork writes that it’s her “most ambitious and musically diverse release” yet, as she unpacks the demands of the music industry, her own internal struggles and navigating fame in the 19-track project.
All of this hard work comes full circle at the 2025 Grammy Awards when “Alligator Bites Never Heal” wins Rap Album of the Year, making her the third woman to ever win the prestigious music award. Doechii’s journey has many steps and she gradually garnered support and became more versatile.
So, what’s with all the online hate and accusations of her being an industry plant? Rolling Stone writes that the hate is largely fueled by “misconceptions, misogyny, and prejudice”. Doechii unpacks many of her encounters with blatant misogynoir and colorism in her songs.
People have a very narrow perception of what these forms of prejudice actually are. It’s much deeper than petty insults; it’s an attitude towards people like us that makes everything that we do a problem. We’re “too loud”. We’re “too much”. When in reality, we’re just being ourselves.
