When splotches of pink started to taint her albums’ covers on streaming platforms — with “Planet Her” and “Hot Pink” trying unrecognizable in most Spotify customers’ libraries — audiences have been shocked to see a brand new Doja Cat period begin.
Amala Dlamini, recognized professionally as Doja Cat, has all the time been generally known as a extra eccentric rapper within the trade. She rose to fame in 2020, when songs like “Say So” and “Candy” went viral on TikTok, shortly garnering a fanbase infatuated together with her distinctive persona and memorable stage presence.
Unfortunately, the rapper has disenchanted a lot of her followers over the previous couple of months. From numerous adverse fan interactions to shedding tons of of 1000’s of Instagram followers, Doja Cat misplaced a good bit of her viewers with the seemingly nonsensical web struggle she undertook previous to the discharge of her fourth studio album.
Recently, the rapper garnered criticism from listeners when she posted a collection of tweets relating to her profession, primarily disregarding her fame and fanbase. She mocked devoted listeners for being too concerned together with her and claimed that she solely launched her older albums as a method to make money. Unhappy with the earlier pop persona that had been utilized to her, Doja Cat wished to focus extra on hip-hop and rap, together with an entire rebranding of each her as a public determine and her fanbase. And herein comes the discharge of her latest album: “Scarlet.”
The launch of “Scarlet” was one which followers had been eagerly anticipating for the reason that begin of Doja Cat’s fall from grace. Her final studio album, “Planet Her,” was a large hit, spawning a preferred tour as effectively, with clips of her singing and dancing bombarding everybody’s social media pages. Doja Cat was on the peak of her profession.
At a floor degree, the brand new album really does exemplify Doja Cat’s imaginative and prescient with a circulate that feels murky, demonic and heavy. She has hanging imagery of thick, darkish blood, satanic rituals and a gothic tackle love, intimacy and energy. The album takes a fiery stand towards anybody who doubted her talents as a rapper. Its objective of constructing her seem as a gifted and critical rapper, although, falls a bit brief. Her pseudo-horrorcore branding doesn’t fairly work with the picture she has already cultivated on the web, which is able to take greater than only one album to eradicate.
The album begins together with her latest single, “Paint the Town Red,” the place she raps, “Yeah, said pop make money / You could make a revamp with a new vibe.” The music blew up in reputation, regardless of some followers’ insistence that they might not be streaming her music following public callouts from the artist herself. Even whether it is simply hate-listening to her album, her viewers has quietly come collectively (albeit unknowingly) to provide her sufficient views and listens to get “Paint the Town Red” to the highest of the Billboard charts. Compared to different songs on the album, this one is essentially the most much like her old music with that Doja Cat-esque vibe her followers are used to. However, this shortly adjustments with the following music.
In “Demons,” Doja Cat opens with a sound that her viewers has not heard from her earlier than. The music takes on an angrier tone, with Doja Cat firmly positioning herself as a rapper with vary. She raps, “I’m on to bigger things now,” reaffirming her departure from the pop trade and dismissal of the “mediocre” lyrics in her older songs.
The observe is accompanied by a music video with horrific visuals that rival these conjured by the works of Stephen King. The music is a quiet but pounding flurry of rage and discontent. The music video that accompanies it options Christina Ricci as a lady dwelling alone in her home, whereas Doja Cat, dressed as a demon, terrorizes her. The setting and idea itself spotlight the concept behind the music. However, Doja Cat falls brief with regards to the outfits and scare issue.
“Fuck The Girls” options Doja Cat rapping passionate and resentful verses towards the “girls” who undermined her earlier than. The observe is repetitive, fast-paced and aggressive. She raps, “Fuck the girls, they ain’t with me, then they with me / Fuck the girls, I don’t need them, I’m too pretty.” She takes her listeners again to the Eighties with this music, with a beat akin to the various old hip-hop songs that impressed her.
“Shutcho” incorporates a lengthy intro with drawn-out melodies earlier than Doja Cat begins to rap. The observe is extra dream-like than the rest on the album, with heavenly devices backing up her toned-back rapping. The music brings out one of the best in her voice, with professional switches between fast rapping and slowed-down lyricism.
“Agora Hills” comes with one other music video, although this one options imagery from the early 2000s and late Nineteen Nineties. Surprisingly, Doja Cat’s voice adjustments for this music as effectively, as she sings like feminine artists from this period — particularly Christina Aguilera and Fergie. The outfits within the video are Y2K-inspired, laden with ribbons, tall boots and tank tops with brief skirts. The units for the video are paying homage to a 90s bed room, the place she is shot mendacity on the ground whereas talking to somebody with a wired phone and lengthy painted nails.
Despite Doja Cat’s makes an attempt to interrupt freed from the pop branding that was assigned to her, “Scarlet” doesn’t hit the mark of being a record-breaking album. Though the intent and that means behind the album are there, it’s extra not sure and erratic than listeners might need hoped for.
Still, Doja Cat is undoubtedly one of the influential and artistic artists of the twenty first century — and he or she is simply getting began. Whether she drops the horrorcore style and returns to pop or continues to unravel her demons, she is definitely one to observe for a lot of years to come back.
