Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. Welcome back to Crash Course Pot, the
Speaker 1: music podcast for music heads by a music head. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Ashtoney, and today we are looking at an
Speaker 1: artist who essentially hacked the Internet to become a global icon.
Speaker 1: She's been a cow, a pop princess, and a high
Speaker 1: fashioned demon. Yes I said cow. We're talking about Amala
Speaker 1: de Lamini, known to the world as Doja Cat. We've
Speaker 1: been talking about super accredited, influential stars and the music
Speaker 1: sphere for a couple of episodes now, and it's only fitting,
Speaker 1: especially after the Antonoff episode, that we segue into Dojacat. Also,
Speaker 1: I was not thrilled to have mispronounced her album. I
Speaker 1: pronounced it VI when it's so clearly V. And the
Speaker 1: on top of that, just a really quick you know,
Speaker 1: before we get into the episode. And that's also, you know,
Speaker 1: my explanation for the two week hiatus that last episode.
Speaker 1: I was so exhausted and tired and I wanted to
Speaker 1: honor my commitment to you guys' weekly episodes. But after
Speaker 1: hearing it, I mispronounced Lord's album. I forgot what I
Speaker 1: called it, but mispronounced that mispronounced V. Doja CAAT's album
Speaker 1: and just the passion and the energy was not there.
Speaker 1: I wasn't feeling the episode, so decided to say two
Speaker 1: weeks off to recuperate, get my energy back, get my
Speaker 1: motivation back, and on top of that, correct the mispronunciation
Speaker 1: of Dojakat's album V And what better time to do
Speaker 1: it than doing a whole episode dedicating a whole episode
Speaker 1: to Doja Cat. So that's the thought process behind this
Speaker 1: episode today. So let's get in to everything, shall we.
Speaker 1: So Doja Catt is often called the Queen of pop rap,
Speaker 1: although some argue that she's not hip hop. I'd like
Speaker 1: to counter that argue with have you heard any of
Speaker 1: her songs? Inty ways, her path wasn't paved by a
Speaker 1: label or a talent scout. It was paved by her
Speaker 1: own laptop and a deep understand meme culture. Today we're
Speaker 1: looking at how she transitioned from a SoundCloud outlier to
Speaker 1: a stadium headliner and why she's currently one of the
Speaker 1: most polarizing figures in music. So let's get into it.
Speaker 1: To understand Jojakat, though, you have to understand her work ethic.
Speaker 1: Growing up in Los Angeles, she was a high school
Speaker 1: dropout at sixteen. But she wasn't just sitting around being lazy.
Speaker 1: She was a digital hermit. She spent her days downloading
Speaker 1: beats from YouTube and teaching herself how to use garage band.
Speaker 1: I wonder if she used fl studio. Not sure. In
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, she uploaded her first permanent track to SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: a song called so High. Even then, though you could
Speaker 1: hear it the technical precision in her rapping mixed with
Speaker 1: a really airy melodic vocal style. It took years, and
Speaker 1: I mean years, the world to notice, but those early
Speaker 1: days of the solo grind were her training ground. Her
Speaker 1: stage name actually came from two of her interests at
Speaker 1: the time, her love of cats and a specific strain
Speaker 1: of weed. Now, as someone who's currently eight months sober,
Speaker 1: I love to say this every chance I get, and
Speaker 1: I walking a very different path myself. I'm just eight
Speaker 1: months sober from weed, you guys. I find it fascinating
Speaker 1: to look back at her origin story and see how
Speaker 1: it evolves for Doja Cat though, that name became a brand,
Speaker 1: but the discipline she developed in her bedroom studio is
Speaker 1: actually what built her career. In order to have such
Speaker 1: a huge, global scale career, It takes tons of discipline,
Speaker 1: like no one is just falling into a career like
Speaker 1: Doja CAATs. Twenty eighteen was a turning point. She released
Speaker 1: a joke song called Moo be a a Cow. I'm
Speaker 1: a Cow. I don't want to say the B word,
Speaker 1: but it's I'm a cow moo moo. It's actually a
Speaker 1: very humorous music video. It looks like an old school
Speaker 1: game boy video game esque style with like the crappiest
Speaker 1: green screen background. And I say that endearingly because as
Speaker 1: basic and simple as it is, it came together to
Speaker 1: make such a a memorable cultural statement in music videos.
Speaker 1: So she recorded that in her bedroom, hammered a green
Speaker 1: sheet to the wall and wear a cow outfit. She
Speaker 1: was also eating a burger and fries, which from my
Speaker 1: memory when I watched the old when I watched like
Speaker 1: old interviews, she had ordered food like uber each or something,
Speaker 1: and it came in the middle of her doing the
Speaker 1: music video, so she just kind of like added that
Speaker 1: in as like extras. I don't know where I heard that,
Speaker 1: but I remember hearing that before. Anyways, that music video
Speaker 1: and song went viral instantly. But while the world was laughing,
Speaker 1: Doja was playing the long game. She proved she understood
Speaker 1: absurdity as a strategy. She quickly moved from meme girl
Speaker 1: to pop queen by working with production heavyweights like Max Martin,
Speaker 1: the same architect for Backstreet Boys. Actually, songs like say
Speaker 1: So didn't just hit the charts, they redefined them, and
Speaker 1: say So became the moment TikTok officially became the primary
Speaker 1: driver of the music industry. Max Martin didn't work on
Speaker 1: the hit kiss Me More. The primary architect of the
Speaker 1: Hot Pink and planet her era was actually doctor Luke
Speaker 1: Tyson tracks Sidebar. Anyways, what makes Dojacat different from other
Speaker 1: viral artists is that she's a triple threat. She raps
Speaker 1: with technical boom back precision, She sings pop hooks perfectly,
Speaker 1: and her dance training in ballet and jazz makes her
Speaker 1: live shows a theatrical experience. She isn't just an internet artist,
Speaker 1: She's a high level performer. Let's just say that. Now,
Speaker 1: let's get into the technical side, because this is crash
Speaker 1: course pot after all. So what makes Dojacat's music sticky
Speaker 1: isn't just the hooks. It's the vocal stacking. She's no
Speaker 1: own for recording dozens of layers of her own voice
Speaker 1: to create these thick, lush harmonies. And she's a student
Speaker 1: of vocal percussion. If you listen closely to her verses,
Speaker 1: she's using chirps, clicks, and tonal shifts to act as
Speaker 1: a second drum kit. Basically, it's a level of detail
Speaker 1: you usually only see from veteran producers. And I mean,
Speaker 1: if she's getting into this at sixteen and earlier, then
Speaker 1: quite naturally she's a veteran producer at this point. Let's
Speaker 1: dive deeper, though, into the technical skill, the pop rap hybridity,
Speaker 1: shall I say so? I already said about vocal stacking,
Speaker 1: and on tracks like Vegas or Paint the Town Red,
Speaker 1: she layers her own voice to create her own harmonies,
Speaker 1: much like Backtree Boys did, but she did it solo
Speaker 1: in a digital booth. I think that it proves she
Speaker 1: isn't just a personality, she's a technical musician, a veteran.
Speaker 1: Shall we say also the genre fluidity. We touched on
Speaker 1: pop and rap, but we haven't mentioned her disco and
Speaker 1: house influence. Say So is essentially a new disco track,
Speaker 1: and her more recent work like twenty four twenty five
Speaker 1: era leaned heavily into like nineties Chicago house beats. It
Speaker 1: explains why her music works in clubs and on the radio.
Speaker 1: It also shows she's studying music history, not just TikTok trends,
Speaker 1: all qualities of a highly disciplined veteran artist in my opinion.
Speaker 1: And then we talked about her vocal percussions. I think
Speaker 1: this is a technique she took from Busta Rhymes or
Speaker 1: even Nicki Minaj, and it gives your listeners something specific
Speaker 1: to listen for when they play her tracks. It's just entertaining.
Speaker 1: Let me just say like that, it's entertaining. So let's
Speaker 1: rewind back to twenty twenty three for her album Scarlet.
Speaker 1: That's when she was in her shaved head era and
Speaker 1: no eyebrow era. She was essentially trolling the pop industry
Speaker 1: that tried to box her in. There's more to say
Speaker 1: on that, but we keep it strictly music here. If
Speaker 1: you want the tea, go find a tea channel. I
Speaker 1: will say this. There was this viral comment on threads
Speaker 1: or Moment when a fan asked her to say she
Speaker 1: loved them, and she replied, I don't though, just because
Speaker 1: I don't. Just wait, I don't though, because I don't
Speaker 1: even know y'all. Using the quote I don't know you,
Speaker 1: I guess made the fans mad and she developed this
Speaker 1: reputation of not liking her fans, But you see her
Speaker 1: work ethic outweighs the backlash or anything she's done. Even personally.
Speaker 1: For me, there's a lot where I have to separate
Speaker 1: the artist from the art, and the art is so
Speaker 1: so good it makes me feel like, well, I'm still
Speaker 1: listening to this despite my personal opinions about her. But
Speaker 1: she's right, we don't know her, and that's what makes
Speaker 1: music such a good thing. You don't have to know
Speaker 1: anything about the person to enjoy the music, although I
Speaker 1: would like them to have a moral compass regardless, moving on,
Speaker 1: moving on, Whatever the case, her statement I don't know
Speaker 1: you is a blunt reminder of the difference between a
Speaker 1: fan and a friend, and we should remember that. We
Speaker 1: should remember that. So let's fast forward to now in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. With her latest album VI and the
Speaker 1: massive world tour, we're seeing Jacat come full circle. She's
Speaker 1: embracing pop melodies again, but on her own term. She's
Speaker 1: no longer the girl trying to get a hit she
Speaker 1: is the hit. What's the takeaway here, guys? Do Jacat
Speaker 1: is a lesson and one of initiative. She didn't wait
Speaker 1: to take a seat at the table. She built her
Speaker 1: own table using a laptop and a bedroom green screen.
Speaker 1: She reminds us that in the digital age, authenticity, even
Speaker 1: when it's weird, abrasive, or confusing, is the ultimate currency.
Speaker 1: She stayed true to her vision even when it meant
Speaker 1: being the villain for a while. Arguably, I believe there
Speaker 1: were times when she said that Planet Pink was it
Speaker 1: Planet Pink and I actually mix it up Hot Pink
Speaker 1: and Planet Her. There is record of her saying that
Speaker 1: though were cash grabs, but I'm my girl, those were
Speaker 1: some good songs. If those were cash grabs, I don't
Speaker 1: even want to say it. She had say So, which
Speaker 1: was on that when not my favorite. She also had
Speaker 1: Juicy loved that song, Bottom Bitch Love that song Rules,
Speaker 1: which was actually the song that I very first even
Speaker 1: knew who she was. Rules was trending on Twitter and
Speaker 1: it made me click the music video and that was
Speaker 1: my first introduction to Doja. Caat Cybersex was my actual
Speaker 1: favorite bot by Doja cat Like that. That was also
Speaker 1: a good one. Streets was okay. I don't know why
Speaker 1: she says Hot Pink was a cash grab. It was.
Speaker 1: I think it showcased her talent and arranged you very
Speaker 1: very well. It was a perfect album for the mainstream
Speaker 1: to get to know her. And then we have Planet
Speaker 1: Her with songs like Woman Naked, Payday, Get Into. I
Speaker 1: would say Planet Her, I would agree where he could
Speaker 1: have been a cash grab because there's not one song
Speaker 1: on there that I like very much. And then we
Speaker 1: move into Scarlet, which Scarlet has several songs that I
Speaker 1: like in addition to vibe this newer album. So everyone,
Speaker 1: that's our dojacat lesson, that's our take on Doja Cat.
Speaker 1: She's proof that you can be the villain of the
Speaker 1: Internet one day and the most streamed artist the next.
Speaker 1: As long as the work is undeniable, you don't have
Speaker 1: to fit into a box that people build for you.
Speaker 1: And that's why I like her. Her talent supersedes any
Speaker 1: antics she's ever had. She's incredibly talented. More entertainment down below,
Speaker 1: click a link. Thanks for listening, and I will catch
Speaker 1: you guys on the next episode of Crash Course Pod.
Speaker 1: You guys, what was your favorite dojacat era. Let us
Speaker 1: know in the comments.