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It’s been just over a year since Doja Cat’s “Mooo!” swept the screens of millions across the globe. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, the American singer, rapper and producer begs no further introduction. With that said, in case you have in fact been dwelling beneath stone, then you should know that the future of music is Doja’s for the taking. With her 2018 claim-to-fame music video sitting atop 50M views on YouTube, and her most recent visual release for “Juicy,” featuring Tyga, breaking 20M in two weeks, the musician’s growth is unshakeable, having cemented her place through sweet sonics and visuals that pack a punch. As she so bluntly claims over the phone from her apartment in Los Angeles, “It’s only the beginning. I feel like I really know who I am and what I’m doing with my next project.”
The bovine-style music video released last August would eventually flourish into a viral meme. “I didn’t mean for ‘Mooo!’ to get as big as it did,” she admits. “I had more serious music to put out, I’d been working on so much other stuff, but once I put the cow costume on, I had to do it. It was the only way I could get it out of my head,” she explains. Within days of the abrupt upload to YouTube, the video had racked millions of views.
The dairy dreamscape was by no means Doja’s introduction to the music industry. In fact, she had been signed to RCA Records since 2014, after the successful release of her debut single, “So High.” From there, she followed up with several tracks, including “Go To Town,” off of her debut studio album in 2018.
“Before ‘Mooo!,’ we hadn’t really gotten any viral hits, or had any hits, period. We were doing okay, but things weren’t at their fullest potential. That was the most significant part about ‘Mooo!’ going where it did—it allowed all my other work to have a foundation and have a pull.” Taking a moment to consider the past whirlwind year, she reasons, “Since ‘Mooo!’ blew up, it’s been kind of non-stop. I don’t know if it’s really allowed me to reflect, but I feel like I’ve refined my style and refined who I am. I kind of have to have the spotlight on me.”
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The spotlight she speaks of shines focused and fixed, with no intention of moving elsewhere, but as a consistent subject of such recognition, Doja Cat has experienced two sides to the coin that is internet fame. Since its inception, the Internet has proven an untamable beast, and the environment it has bred has developed twice as feral. Through public domains like Tumblr to TikTok, and YouTube to Twitter, a vast stretch of subcultures and trends have been cultivated. On opposite poles of this digital sphere, there stands viral fame and cancel culture.
It’s no secret that the musician has faced multiple controversies regarding comments she’s made online, and it’s even less of a secret that the public is quick to mobilize on social media. After old tweets resurfaced of the artist using derogatory terms towards other rappers, a rallied audience of critics made it its mission to take her down. Admittedly hurt by some of the criticisms, she reasons, “I’m not invincible, I do get hurt by some comments. I’m not superhuman.” Immediately requiting, she follows up with, “But being raised on the Internet gives me the ability to know how to deal with negativity most of the time.” Then, at once in a final stride, she claims of her presence online, “It’s just a small portion of my life.” And just like that, if we’ve learned anything in 2019, it’s that you can’t cancel Doja Cat.
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Fresh off the release of a new music video with LunchMoney Lewis for “Make That Cake,” while still riding the success of “Juicy,” she’s traveling cross country for performances and appearances on a weekly basis. In the age of virality, such sustainability is impressive. That said, she’s in no way the first artist to have a viral hit catapult their work to an unfamiliar stratosphere of celebrity, and certainly not the last. We’ve seen fellow musical phenoms like Mason Ramsey and Megan Thee Stallion reap the benefits of a trending tweet and hashtag or two. Could it just be that we’re experiencing the dawning of a new age in music? An educated guess would reason, yes.
With democratized media-sharing platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud, there’s been an inevitable boom in bedroom pop-stardom. Not only that, but with the increasing irrelevance of labels across younger generations, classification proves less important in not only topics of gender, but music, too. Lines blur across styles nowadays, with artists coloring the outsides more than ever. In attempts to maintain order through categorical standards, we see the term “Alternative” tacked onto the classic genres we’ve come to know.
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Prompted to describe her forthcoming record, _Hot Pink,_ in three words, she replies with little to no hesitation: “Too. Many. Genres.” Declining a subscription to any one breed of song, the response points to her exploration of sound, a progression of her euphony, and the future of music.
“My last record is a lot different from this one because I didn’t understand what it was to be in the studio and in an environment where there’s a bunch of musical equipment,” Doja shares, candidly. “I was young, I was a teenager and I really didn’t know who I was. My character wasn’t really shining the way it does now. I can tell you _Hot Pink_ is one of the best things I’ve done, the best project I will have ever released.” Then, implored to divulge more about the release in detail, she retracts to the previously implemented three-word limit: “Super, duper, mystery.” So while Doja—who won the world over with an onomatopoeia in 2018—makes a favorable case for the future of music today, her own music remains as ambiguous as it does full of promise.
* * *
Photographed by: [Julian Buchan](https://www.instagram.com/juliandbuchan/?hl=en).
Styled by: [Katie Qian](https://instagram.com/katieqian).
Hair: [Frankie Payne](https://www.instagram.com/frankiepaynehair/?hl=en) using [Oribe](http://oribe.com) at [Opus Beauty](https://opusbeauty.com).
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