# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#dojacat #scarlet #agourahill #earlylife #music

# data[].attributes.body
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini (AKA Doja Cat) Was born on October 21st, 1995 in Los Angeles, California to her Father Dumisani Dlamini, and Mother Deborah Sawyer. Her mom is a graphic designer, and her dad is a south African performer of Zulu descent. Her dad performed in Broadway shows but was too busy to spend time with Doja and her brother, which left Doja with an estranged feeling from him. Doja says she has "never met him" since he left his family to go back to South Africa out of home sickness. Her father claims that he was apart of Doja's life and says he has a "healthy" relationship with his daughter, but Doja denies these claims as her management blocks his communication attempts in fear of "losing Doja"

Doja lived with her maternal grandmother for 5 years, then moved to California with her mom and brother at the age of 8. She lived at a Sai Anatam Ashram in Agoura Hills, and practiced Hinduism for 4 years. Doja sung bhajans at temples, and as influencial as this period of her life was to the way she expresses herself artistically now, she claimed that she didn't feel like she could be a kid during this era of her life.

Her family moved to Oak Park, and not too long after this move Doja attended dance lessons, skateboarded, and surf classes. Doja faced a lot of racial prejudice since her and her brother were some of the only mixed kids in the area. She fully moved away from the Ashram when she got older and started attending break dancing classes while still in high school. Doja's aunt (who is a vocal coach) helped Doja get into a performing arts high school, but Doja often skipped classes to talk in online chatrooms. Doja dropped out of school during her junior year at the age of 17 and said this decision was mainly because of her ADHD. she said "it felt like I was stuck in one spot and everybody else was progressing constantly". With no job and nothing but free time, She became fully enveloped in the internet, which is where she would start off her career

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#dojacat #fashion #mooo #music #cowprint 

# data[].attributes.body
Apart from her music, Doja Cat is known for her eccentric fashion choices. Like most artists, Doja changes her aesthetic depending on the vibe of her next album. For a long time, her aesthetic was very cutesy / egirl, which was a big appeal to the internet back in 2020 since the egirl style was popular. A big music and fashion moment that put her on the radar was her music video "MOOO!" from 2018 where Doja wore a cow print outfit / costume and sunglasses. A lot of people took influence from her outfit and wore bathing suits with the cow print pattern and during 2020 before her big debuted, cow print had become a big staple in fashion at the time.

Doja has also worn a lot of art pieces to the met gala these years, with her most notable ones being her cat outfit (cat nose face prosthetics with cat ears, forehead gem, and long flowy dress), an all red outfit from head to toe in gems, a out of the shower look where she looks like she's drenched in water, and many more. Doja usually keeps her hair short and and wears wigs and she does not have eyebrows. Doja is one of the only black female rappers (as well as dochii) who wears her natural hair in concerts and shows

Doja has spoken in recent interviews that she takes a lot of fashion inspiration from Grace Jones and says that she likes Grace's geometric hair. In a recent Instagram post, Doja was seen sporting a wig with similar angled hair as Grace, which makes fans wonder what direction she'll be taking the next album into

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#dojacat #historic #startup #fame #success

# data[].attributes.body
A historic Decade for Doja was the late 2010's to early 2020's when her music blew up. She had some successful songs here and there in the past, but her big break through album was Hot Pink that came out in 2019. Hot Pink is a pop-hiphop album that showed the world what kind of vibe Doja had to offer. Her biggest song on the album is "Say So" which stands at 553 million views on YouTube.

TikTok put the song in the spotlight in 2020 and it still plays on the radio to this day. Hot Pink made it to the Billboard hot 100, staying place at number 9 and Doja continued to make history from that day on. Her other big album, Planet Her is a huge hit among fans with songs like "Woman" and "Kiss Me More" that helped boost her career even more. "Say So" reached number 1 on the billboard and her most popular songs remain timeless as they still meet a lot of recognition today and are often still played on the radio

Doja cat won her first Grammy in 2022 for her and SZA's performance of "Kiss Me More". They won the category of Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and as of now that's the only Grammy that Doja has won. Doja continues to make history with her album "Scarlet" and has hit the Billboard top 100's and 200's with songs "Paint the Town Red", "Attention", and "Agora Hill"

# data[].attributes.body
Doja cat has expressed herself artistically in many different ways. Apart from her music, Doja is creative in fields of painting, makeup and fashion. As of recent, Doja carries herself artistically as the sharp, edgy type with sharp eyeliner looks and thin eyebrows. Doja is often seen sporting dark colors and eccentric jewlery

Doja has showcased many of her paintings online and displayed her artistic abilities. Her paintings depict "demonic" figures and show different types of anatomy like eyeballs and horns

Doja has spoken in interviews about how much she enjoys doing her makeup and spends a lot of time on her makeup. She used to do the "e-girl" look as she described it

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#dojacat #scarlet #skullandbones #music #artist

# data[].attributes.body
For a lyric Analysis, I decided to do lyrics from my favorite song on Doja's album Scarlet. The thing I like about this song is her rap flow, I like the way that Doja ventured out into rap on this album because it shows that she's multi-talented when it comes to music / she's not constricted to one genre. I picked a bar from "Skulls and Bones" because it's my favorite bar Mostly because I like the way she goes about mocking the people who say she's a "satanist"

"You need to mind your business, Helga Pataki
'Cause I'ma do something devilish if you at me
I might hit Woo for the kudu and get a back piece
You too high off that booboo to unpack me (ah)
When I arrive on the set, there ain't no holy water
But when I grind my set, make sure to throw me waters
I'ma make it through 27, y'all superstitious
I'ma say, "Jinx" on my 28th when you owe me sodas"

The bar "You need to mind your business, Helga Pataki" refers to her music critics. Helga Pataki is a school bully character from the animated show "Hey Arnold", she's kinda tomboy-ish, complains about everyone and is deceitful. Doja calls the music critics "Helga Pataki" because of how cynical they can be towards everything that Doja does. She's basically telling her bullies to mind their business

"'Cause I'ma do something devilish if you at me, I might hit Woo for the kudu and get a back piece". Doja's referring to her tattoo artist who did her kudu skull tattoo on her arm, and did Doja's bat back tattoo (the back piece that she refers to)

"You too high off that booboo to unpack me (ah)" Doja is saying that her music critics are too high to look deeply into her lyrics or to take the time to understand her character, and instead they're running with the "satanist" narrative

"When I arrive on the set, there ain't no holy water
But when I grind my set, make sure to throw me waters". The first sentence is still referring to the satanist accusations & her shooting them down, the second line is her saying that shes grinding so hard that she wouldn't need to "sell her soul"

"I'ma make it through 27, y'all superstitious"
there's a conspiracy theory in the entertainment industry that successful young artists are cursed because a lot of them die at the age of 27 in gruesome ways (example: Kurt Cobain is a part of the "27 club" as it's referred to, as well as Janis Joplin). Doja knows that these are just superstitions and she believes that the people who think that she'll be next are silly

"I'ma say, "Jinx" on my 28th when you owe me sodas" Doja's saying that since everyone is saying she'll "pass away" she'll be able to jinx her music critics on her 28th and they'll owe her sodas. Jinxing is also used as a curse of bad luck or speaking something unwanted into existence

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#doja #cat #femininity #politics #political 

# data[].attributes.body
Doja Cat has spoken in numerous interviews about how she doesn't discuss her political views at all. "Politics are not something I want to sweep into my life, I just want creativity and joy" Doja stated in an interview with HipHopDX. Doja has been in hot water when it comes to politics, as back in 2020, a rumor has spread that Doja stripped for white supr3m@ce's on a online chatroom (rumors that she denies to this day). Doja apologized for a song she made that mocked police brutality victims, but besides that, Doja doesn't speak on politics.

Planet Her is often interpreted as a feminist album, as it has strong themes of femininity and embracing your femininity as a (black) woman. Planet Her is attributed as an homage to femininity

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#doja #cat #influences #nickiminaj #indie #rock 

# data[].attributes.body
Doja Cat has spoken numerous times about the people who influence her when it comes to her art. Her biggest musical influence is Nicki Minaj and Pharrell Williams. Nicki was Doja's main influence and inspired Doja's rap flow that we see today. Nicki Manaj was labeled as "The Queen Of Rap" for a while in her career, and is known for dynamic rap flow

Doja has also said that she takes influences from people like Erykah Badu, Busta Rhymes and Tyler, The Creator. She looks up to their rap flows and creativity

Doja Cat has also expressed admiration towards white indie music like TLC, Lil' Kim, and Aesop Rock as these genres and people have inspired Doja's sound today. Doja has a unique way of blending these different genres of music together to create what we know and love today, and we can see which influences shine through the most depending on the album. Hot Pink & Planet Her are both heavily Nicki Inspired, as to Scarlet where her grungey, rap side shows

# data[].attributes.body
Doja Cat's genre is diverse, but can mostly be described as HipHop/Rap. She won the award for best selling R&B and hip-hop artist in 2021 and has won many awards for her releases since then. Doja Cat has a unique way of expressing her musical talent, as she shows her abilities to showcase different genre's as they're supposed to be

Doja has spoken on her influences in the past, her biggest being Nicki Minaj. This influence shines through Doja as shes released many pop singles and albums. What makes Doja unique is that she switches her genres instead of repeating herself like Taylor Swift or Ice Spice

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
#doja #cat #influences #music #geography 

# data[].attributes.body
Doja has many geographical influences when it comes to her music. A lot of the way she expresses herself through dance is from influence at the Ashram that Doja stayed at as a kid. Doja has spoken in interviews that a lot of her movements are from practicing belly dancing and different types of Indian dance forms at her Ashram. She was exposed to a lot of art at her Ashram which would influence the way she expresses herself now, including people like Alice Coltrane, and the other people who expressed themselves artistically at the Ashram.

Alice Coltrane is a Jazz musician who was married to John Coltrane, an American saxaphonist and bandleader. Her music was played at the Ashram as Alice was a Hindu Spiritual Leader

# data[].attributes.body
I mostly take inspiration from Doja's fashion. I love the way she puts clothes together, especially during her "Scarlet" era, she pulls off the office siren aesthetic very well. A lot of people complained about her sudden change in her style and called it "demonic", especially since she was cussing out her fans during this era and saying she didn't like them, but I really enjoyed it. To me this new era felt refreshing from the pop era that she was in for a while. Doja's aesthetic during Scarlet was very edgy and sharp, as she approached her music with more of a rap kind of sound. I like how diverse she is with the way she makes her music and her style since a lot of artists are constrained to one category of music

On a more personal level, I love the way that Doja Cat expresses herself, and I love the way that she makes old people mad. Doja represents all of the weird black girls out there, and as a (former but still sometimes weird) (half but mostly) black girl myself, I love watching her not care about what anyone says. I remember talking to my mom about her one time and my mom said "I think she's weird" and I think that was a moment where I understood Doja and her aesthetics. Everything kinda just clicked for me

# data[].attributes.body
this is a playlist of doja cats music and the music that influences doja cat the most