Doechii: The rap heavyweight comes through to dish on 'Alligator Bites Never Heal,' the highs and lows of fame and Lauryn Hill's impact
Ready for a deep dive into all things rap artist Doechii? Look no further than what she’s dishing out these days with Apple Music 1’s Ebro Darden and her Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape streaming.
Doechii slides through with Apple Music 1’s Ebro Darden and doesn’t hold back
There’s ample moments from the Q&A between Doe and Ebro ranging from her talking about the new project demanding attention and her music roots to just how much of an impact hip-hop icon Lauryn Hill has had on her personally.
Doechii tells Apple Music about the meaning behind the title ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal’
Doechii: I think it's not necessarily about where I come from, the damage of where I come from. I think it's a general statement of certain patterns happen in your life, certain hardships happen. You have lows, very low lows, and then you have really high highs. And I think that in those lows, when you get wounded, it'll happen again. At some point in your life, you'll get hurt again. I think that's what that's ultimately about. I'm still kind of processing the title myself and figuring out what it means to me as well.
Ebro: Really? So how’d you decide?
Doechii: It always resonated with me. I've had that title in my head, on my heart really, for a long time, for years. Since I think 2021 or something like that. And I'm still unpacking what it really means to me, but I know that there's this sadness to it, kind of like this thing always happens. There will always be a situation that will puncture you or wound you or hurt you, but at the end of the day, in a way, ironically, you will heal and scars will always be there to remind you what happened. But it's kind of like a victory thing as well.
Doechii tells Apple Music about her roots in rap music and how she is keeping classic hip-hop alive
Doechii: But my roots in rap are from Boom Bap, and I taught myself how to rap through battle style rapping. And with me kind of coming back to myself, I'm recently completely sober, no nicotine, no alcohol, no smoking, no nothing. And so I just kind of re-fell in love with hip hop and I realized that there is a sense of tradition in hip hop that I really want to represent and bring back.
Ebro: Oh, she's trying to make me more of a fan, son. Keeps cool. Yo, y'all see what she's doing?
Doechii: No, but for real though. I feel like 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.
Ebro: There you go.
Doechii: 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, was like, I want to 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 tells Apple Music about the struggle of having her voice heard and navigating her vision within a record label
Ebro: How has that been as a creative? What's that struggle? What's that journey been to get people to see your visions and believe in what you're trying to express?
Doechii: It's been a journey. Like I said, about those lows and those highs. It's definitely been a journey. Sometimes I joke with my friends and I'm like, "I shouldn't have showed all my cards. I shouldn't have showed people I could sing and I could do this and I could do that." Because it's like, I think that... How do I word this? What I experienced was kind of like, "Okay, she can do everything. She can sing pop, she can rap, she can also dance and all this other stuff." And it was just kind of like, "Okay, well where do we put it? This could be commercial, but this could be underground." And I feel like it just felt so scattered. You know what I mean? I felt scattered creatively, which led me into that dark space that I was talking about because it's just a lot to deal with. It was a battle between me figuring out myself as an artist and expressing myself through different ways in different genres. I have always done that for a long time, but navigating that with a label was interesting and different.
Ebro: Because deadlines and they need things to fit for the business.
Doechii: This is a business, and this has to make sense. And so I think that I was trying to figure that out and figure out do I fit commercially? Where do I fit commercially? Do I want to be commercial? Do I not? What does this mean for me? You know what I mean? I love to sing. I love it, but I also really love to rap. I think I've been trying to navigate this superpower that I've been bestowed with.
Doechii tells Apple Music how the culture shock and loneliness of moving to LA inspired 'Denial Is A River’
Ebro: Why you say, "Oh God.”?
Doechii: It’s a vulnerable one. And it's funny, don't get me wrong. It's really silly and people think it's funny, but it's actually-
Ebro: Yeah, but there's real shit in there.
Doechii:… it's really dark.
Ebro: And you talk about the addiction stuff in there.
Doechii: I wouldn't say addiction.
Ebro: Or usage.
Doechii: Unhealthy relationship.
Ebro Darden: Usage. Yeah, because yeah. But was that usage, that unhealthy relationship, that lifestyle, was there something about your journey as an artist that put you in that place?
Doechii: I think that when... I kind of came from the south, from Tampa, Florida and I moved to Los Angeles, that was a culture shock for me. The way people interact with each other, the way they talk to each other. It was not like anything that I had really experienced. So I didn't off bat make a lot of friends. I didn't connect with a lot of people, which led to me ultimately being lonely at some point. And it's just me and my label. I'm just one young girl, my family's not with me, not around me. And so I think that over time I just started to party a lot and that just turned into... It's little things. It turns into, there's a bottle everywhere you go at every show. There's a bottle in your sessions. Anybody's like, you want this, you want that? And then you start to develop an unhealthy relationship with these things, and now I'm drinking too much, and on Denial Is A River. I'm really combing through that process. You're witnessing me talk about my transition through Hollywood and navigating that and how it had negative impacts on me.
Doechii tells Apple Music the artists who have shaped her sound and the rap acts she's currently listening to
Ebro: Is there an artist or multiple artists when you were inspired by or someone that was really like the flip the switch? I know I'm going to be in the music business. I'm going to do this as my profession.
Doechii: Yeah. Two big artists for me. Beyoncé made me want to do it as a business and be an official artist. I didn't know that you could be an artist without being signed. I didn't know being independent was a thing. And then I became a huge Kanye West fan and his grind, oh my God, it just did so much for me. So Kanye showed me how theatrical and crazy it could get, and Beyoncé just showed me pure performance, etiquette and boss energy.
Ebro: I love that. I love that. Do you listen to a lot of rap still today?
Doechii: 100%. Recently I've been into a lot of MF Doom, rest in peace. I've been into a lot of MF Doom, Westside Gunn. Love him. He's so talented.
Ebro: So incredible.
Doechii: Tyler, the Creator, Jay-Z. I'm from the south. So I didn't grow up on a lot of Jay-Z, but I recently went through all of his discography. Oh my God. Everybody knows he's crazy, but, damn.
Doechii tells Apple Music about being inspired by Ms. Lauryn Hill
Ebro: Yeah, I love it. Where does Lauryn Hill fall in your inspiration?
Doechii: Huge.
Ebro: Like that album?
Doechii: Huge. Huge. It's the first album that I had a physical copy of. I know it top to bottom. It molded me, honestly.
Ebro: And you have a Black woman talking about pro-blackness, family and spirituality and purpose and positivity. But the beats are dope. The rhymes are dope. The songs are dope. It literally checks all the boxes of everything you could ask for in an album.
Doechii: I miss that.
Ebro: It’s hard. It's a very tough accomplishment though. I'm sure you could talk about trying to get all your thoughts into an album when you have a lot of them, right?
Doechii: Yeah. I think it takes a lot of wisdom, but so much bravery to be that vulnerable. I mean, she said everything she needed to say. You know what I mean? And it just makes me think about how I miss, and I need vulnerability right now in hip hop more, that's all.
