The World’s New Found Love For Doechii – And Ours

 

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26 year old American rapper and singer-songwriter Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon, known throughout the music industry as Doechii, has recently skyrocketed into pop culture discourse, and rightfully so.

Doechii has been releasing music since 2018, however in 2020 she gained great attraction on TikTok when her song ‘Yucky Blucky Fruitcake’ became a viral sound.

Doechii reached a new audience after the release of her album Alligator Bites Never Heal in August of 2024. The album was in the top ten out of the one hundred albums chosen by Rolling Stone Magazine for album of the year. She also had many successful features on other albums last year including Katy Perry, who she performed ‘I’m His, He’s Mine’ alongside at last year’s VMAs, and Tyler the Creator, who she joined at Camp Flog Gnaw to perform ‘Balloon.’

 

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Doechii won Variety’s Hip-Hop Disruptor of the Year award in December 2024 and has been nominated for three awards in the upcoming 67^th Annual Grammy Awards which include, best rap album, best rap performance and best new artist.

Although Doechii’s music has been recognised over the last few years, her creativity reached new bounds in 2024 especially with her hit song ‘Denial is a River.’ The song brings us listeners on Doechii’s journey throughout her career up until now. She discusses toxic relationships and her ex-partner cheating, her success financially and in the music industry and dark times where she turned to drugs as a remedy for her pain.

In December 2024, Doechii, along with two other dancers, performed ‘Denial is a River’ on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The performance gained huge attraction online and was seen as an artistic masterpiece. Doechii and the two dancers were wearing identical outfits and had matching hairstyles with the end of their braids connecting to each other which made the choreography incredibly unique.

 

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Following the success of the album and the performance, at the end of December Doechii started teasing a music video with retro visuals on her socials for ‘Denial is a River.’ On January 2 it was finally released to the public and it exceeded all expectations.

The video is based off a 90s sitcom with reference to Family Matters and was directed by Carlos Acosta and James Mackel. Throughout the video we see Doechii walking through the different sets of the sitcom as if they were set during different times in her career.

The video stars artists such as ScHoolboy Q, Teezo Touchdown, Baby Tate and more. The 90s cinematography breaks into a modern lens towards the end of the music video when Doechii admits she was in denial about how “good” her life was and that she is struggling: “Honestly I can’t even f**king cap no more, this is a really dark time for me.”

The change in cinematography suggests she has left her state of denial. With all of these achievements in last year alone we can see why Doechii is a hot topic at the moment. We’re sure we’ll be hearing a lot more from this artist in 2025!

Words by Emma Gleeson