‘My Pen is on Fire’: How Doechii Won By Trading Perfection for Progression

Hell no. They should expect all types of sounds. Something that’s important to me right now is embracing my alternativeness and the fact that I genre bend. I don’t think genre is even going to matter in the next five to 10 [years]. So, they should expect all types of sounds: rapping, singing, melodic, not melodic, all types of shit. It’s going to be great.

What else would you say an eager fan should look forward to from a proper, full-length Doechii album? 

I have been preparing for this album for years, the concept of it, everything about it. The songs on Oh the Places You’ll Go are like loosies because I was just like, “I still need to drop something; these are still important songs.” But I have stuff in my catalog that I know I want to save for later.

With this project, because of that, it’s going to sound drastically different. People’s perspective of how skilled I am [will be] completely different from what you [heard] on Oh the Places You’ll Go and Bra-Less.

I’m mean. And I don’t even want to be cocky right now, but I know this album is tight. It’s going to sound like my pen is on fire.

Before we go, I’d love to know what role you want your music to play in the lives of your fans?

A mirror. My job as an artist is to say the things that they might be too afraid to say. So I feel like I have to be brave for them, in a way, and say things that they didn’t really know that they felt, but they do. And that’s something that I owe myself, that bravery and honesty, so it works for me, but it also works for them. So when they listen to me on the bus or when they’re by themselves, they can feel like, “She gets me. Her too, and me too,” and that’s how we connect.