Doechii’s Overnight Success Only Took Four Years!
Friday is about music, playlists and links galore. Today, the amazing Doechii — about to be an overnight success after four years of hard work.
Last weekend, Doechii’s Tiny Desk Concert dropped on the YouTube, perfect timing. I spent a part of Saturday morning watching it twice. It is my favourite Tiny Desk since the Tank and the Bangas one —
— and it probably shares some superficial similarities, similar/ish genre and some nice surprises in the way both artists represented material that sits to the side of the mainstream as accessible, warm, inviting, and inventive.
It’s a good time to be a Doechii fan — she’s blowing up big time. This appearance on Colbert also from just last week was another feather in the cloak:
I hadn’t heard of Doechii until earlier this year, I was not on board when her very first tracks dropped. But I’ve gone back to listen to the early work, and I like it.
She’s only just 26 now, so those first short mixtape EPs were from an artist and human being just arriving into her 20s. In the last four years she has matured into an artist that has every aspect of her product locked down: choreography, references, politics, and then of course the actual music, and her delivery of it.
I’ve referenced Doechii a couple of times in this newsletter. I mentioned the album a few months back, as one of my favourites, and if I did a list of best albums of the year, this would absolutely be on it, and if I ranked the list this would be right near the very top.
Alligator Bites Never Heal is that rare thing, an album that is cohesive and flows, and you don’t have to skip a single track on it, but yes, it’s got some particular bangers. My one criticism would be to say it’s top-heavy, and does meander down to a point, somewhat. That’s if being ultra critical. But at the same time, I’d take Doechii’s weakest track here over so many of the strongest by others. This is like a middle ground between Lauryn Hill and Kendrick Lamar, and feels like it could actually speak to to the seperate fans of those artists, more than that could unite them. Some people have suggested a little touch of Missy Elliott, even Busta Rhymes, they’re referring of course to the cartoon-like nature of some of the lines and character-voices in Bullfrog, Boiled Peanuts, and Denial Is A River, in particular. An opening trio to all but shame entire outputs by other artists. And those people throwing Missy comparisons at her feet at doing it in much the same way you might toss flowers to a performer. This is the ultimate of compliments within this genre.
Doechii is up for four Grammy Awards, she’s featured on a track (she co-wrote also) on the new Tyler The Creator album —
— incidentally, I’d add Tyler’s Chromakopia to my long list of albums of the year, absolutely.
Here’s a full set from a recent Doechii performance which, whilst not as musically appealing as the Tiny Desk, shows more of her attitude and ability as a performer, as well as her actual musical talents, her wordplay, flow, and poetry:
So, I’m excited about this Doechii moment. It feels like something to get behind. She’s a real deal, a genuine talent, and if you’ve yet to dive fully into Alligator Bites Never Heal, you have the Kiwi summer to enjoy it. A perfect album for poolside, for road trips, for in your ears when walking around town, or in the final days of office work for 2024, this could even be the perfect soundtrack to provide the motivation for finishing the cover sheet to put on your TPS report before it goes out.
I guess all of this is me just saying I’m a fan. And it’s nice to see the hard work of someone young and talented being recognised.
If anything, I’m a fairweather fan of hip-hop these days, too. Which is to say, I like a lot of it, but I’m busy listening across genres, and a lot of it simply drifts through my net. It was nice to catch onto this — because I’m a firm believer that the truly great music (irrespective of genre) finds you.
But if all of this gushing about a type of music that doesn’t usually appeal to you is just a bit much, I’d suggest at the very least watching the Tiny Desk performance. Everything about it is wonderful. This killer band, all female, all kicking ass, this great look and feel, a synergy between the performers but they all basically have their own individual uniforms, they’re connected but free to show their own style. And the music is great. It’s funny, fresh, funky, and, well, cool. I think that’s all I wanted to say. I love the album and totally suggest you give it a hoon, but at the very least check out that Tiny Desk show. It’ll help you get through this Friday, and this weekend, and on towards the end of the year. And that’s not nothing!
Okay, it’s Friday of course, and that’s more than enough talk about Doechii — so if none of that did anything for you, or you just know that’s not your type of music, I have the regular playlist for you. This one is cool I think, every song on here has been sampled more than once for a hip-hop or R’n’B gem. Every song — these originals from the musical worlds of funk, soul, jazz and rhythm n blues — is cool enough on its own, but there’s more power in them being together. So, hopefully it floats your boat through the weekend.
