Doechii may be known for pushing the envelope both sonically and stylistically, but the rising rapper still holds the fundamentals of Hip Hop near and dear.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden following the release of her new project Alligator Bites Never Heal, the Top Dawg Entertainment signee spoke about her love of rap music and argued that the core elements of the genre matter now more than ever.
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“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,” she began.
“With me kinda coming back to myself … I kinda re-fell in love with Hip Hop. And realized that there is a sense of tradition in Hip Hop that I really want to represent and bring back.”
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The 26-year-old Florida native continued: “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.”
Doechii has certainly been winning over Hip Hop heads since singing to TDE and Capitol in 2022, and Alligator Bites Never Heal has only fueled her ascent.
While the mixtape boasts an impressive 78 out of 100 score on Metacritic, some of the highest acclaim has come from her peers and those within the TDE camp.
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Label founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith was especially praiseworthy when he compared Alligator Bites Never Heal to Kendrick Lamar’s classic 2011 mixtape Section.80, which helped put the West Coast powerhouse on the map.
“@doechii Alligator Bites Never Heal out now !! What are your thoughts & standouts so far ? I have the same feeling I had when KDOT dropped Section 80,” he wrote in a rare Instagram post. “She’s 1 of those ones 4sho !!!!”
Longtime TDE represenative ScHoolboy Q added in his own post on X (formerly Twitter): “Just Here to say DOEcHii… dats all I care about at da moment.”
Despite the continued acclaim, Doechii is keeping her feet firmly on the ground — especially when it comes to the prospect of working with Kendrick Lamar.
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While appearing on The Joe Budden Podcast last week, the “Boom Bap” MC admitted that landing a feature from the former TDE titan is her “goal” but she doesn’t feel quite ready just yet.
“I don’t assume anything and I also don’t feel entitled to a Kendrick feature but I would absolutely love that. That’s the goal,” she said. “I’m sure that for my debut [album], eventually I’m gonna ask Top if he could ask Kendrick, or ask Kendrick myself and see what comes from that.
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“But I’ma be real: I don’t think I have the record right now for that opportunity. I think I would have to come a certain way and I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
Budden and his co-hosts were impressed by Doechii’s honesty and humility, with the former Slaughterhouse rapper remarking: “I love that from you.”
