Doechii has been part of the Top Dawg Entertainment team for years, and now she has finally dropped Alligator Bites Never Heal, her first album for the label. She released the project in August, and today (September 16), she announced that she’s getting ready to tour in support of it, too.
Alligator Bites Never Heal The Tour is set to launch in Atlanta on October 11 before hitting cities in the US and Europe until mid-November.
Ticket sales start with an artist pre-sale for the North American dates on September 17 at 9 a.m. local time. Following that will be the general on-sale starting September 20 at 9 a.m. local time. More information is available on Doechii’s website.
Doechii 2024 Tour Dates: Alligator Bites Never Heal The Tour
10/11 — Atlanta, GA @ The Loft
10/14 — Philadelphia, PA @ Foundry at The Fillmore
10/15 — New York, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/16 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
10/21 — Berlin, Germany @ Lido
10/24 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Bitterzoet
10/25 — Paris, France @ Alhambra
10/28 — London, UK @ Village Underground
11/02 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
11/03 — West Hollywood, CA @ The Roxy
11/12 — Tampa, FL – Crowbar
11/14 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Doechii has been on the come up for over the last year or so. Even though the TDE roster is stacked, she’s managed to remain as one of their most intriguing prospects and this year, she’s really breaking through. Just a couple of weeks ago, she dropped off her excellent mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal. While it’s got some flaws, it showcases that she’s got the stuff to be a true superstar. She possesses a lot of charisma, creativity, solid lyricism, as well as crossover appeal thanks to her ability to sing as well. The latter quality is what’s allowing Doechii to get on the radar of modern pop hitmaker Katy Perry.
Their new collab, “I’M HIS, HE’S MINE”, was previewed at the MTV VMAs this past Wednesday with both of them being able to perform it. If this isn’t another step into becoming one of the biggest rappers in the game, we aren’t sure what is. Overall, the song may annoy you on its first couple of listens and could come across as a generic pop rap radio hit. But it is growing on us a little bit, but that’s mostly thanks to Doechii adding some extra oomph to the single. As for Perry, this represents her third offering from her upcoming seventh album, 143, which is due September 20. Apparently, she’s going to be working with more MCs, including 21 Savage and JID, which isn’t too surprising given how many of them she’s worked with in the past.
What you tryna do? Baby, lock in We could get it in, you could bring a friend H*es so pressed when I step in the spot I’m so possessive and up-echelon Upper echelon rollin’ up in the shade If you try to vibe with him, might catch a fade
While her 143 album has received a mountain of pushback, most notably around its professional affiliation with Dr. Luke, there is one collaboration fans are digging: During the VMAs, Katy Perry debuted her track “I’m His, He’s Mine” with Doechii.
Now, the unapologetically possessive record, which samples Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless),” has an official music video to match. Throughout the video directed by Torso, Katy Perry and Doechii demonstrate just how they mark their romantic territory.
“I’m his queen, I’m his freak / I’m every woman he wants and needs / I’m his dream, I’m his drug / I’m every woman he wants, so what? / I’m his boss, I’m that b*tch / I’m every woman he knows exists / I’m his main, I’m his side / I’m every woman that’s in his mind,” sings the pair.
From daredevil like stunts to full-on PDA, Katy Perry and Doechii hold nothing back. In interviews, Katy Perry discloses intimate details of her relationship with Orlando Bloom, but “I’m His, He’s Mine” takes it to another level.
Listen to “I’m His, He’s Mine” above.
143 is out 9/20 via Capitol. Find more information here.
However, users online believe that one of the parties have found a new boo. After a photo (viewable here) of Offset attending a New York Fashion Week event posed next to Bad Gyal went viral, people assumed that he was soft launching his new girlfriend. However, yesterday (September 7), Offset denied the rumor by way of a X (formerly Twitter) post.
“I took a pic with Anna Wintour the same way,” he wrote. “I CAME ALONE .”
Although Bad Gyal, a Spanish singer, model and DJ, attended CFDA’s NYFW ribbon cutting ceremony at Rockefeller Center on September 6 she wasn’t the only women entertainer present. TDE’s multi-hyphenate talent Doechii was also invited as a special guest. In a subtle upload in her Instagram Stories, Bad Gyal seemingly shut down the report posting an image of her, Doechii, and Offset together.
Instagram
This isn’t the first time Offset came forward to diss dating rumors. In December 2023, Offset slammed Blueface’s claim that he was secretly involved with his ex and son’s mother, reality TV personality and rapper Chrisean Rock.
Doechii has become a rising star over the past few years, but her increasing profile hasn’t come without its issues. Some of her detractors haven’t had particularly kind things to say about her appearance, but instead of hiding from it, Doechii is leaning in.
“Last year, I started seeing comments from people who would say, ‘She looks like a man.’ Or, ‘She has on too much makeup. She looks like a drag queen.’ All these comments never bother me, because I just find it interesting. But I was like, ‘Since they keep saying I look like a man, I’m gonna f*cking give them a man. An eight-pack, mustache man.’ That’s what inspired me to do the look and I think it turned out sick.”
She also explained the character’s name, saying, “I came up with so many names. I was like, ‘He’s from Panama, he’s bisexual.’ We came up with Ricardo. That’s his name.”
Doechii went on to discuss her mindset behind the photoshoot, saying, “The thespian in me has to be fed. It does a lot for my inner-child. I am a theater kid. Playing with characters and coming up with characters has always been a passion of mine. Fashion is more than just flexing, it’s about being creative and telling a story. That’s what this shoot gave me.”
Doechii is a true hip hop original. She’s been putting music out for years, but her latest release has proven to be her breakthrough. Fans can’t seem to get enough of Alligator Bites Never Heal, and the attention Doechii has gotten has been well deserved. Instead of adhering to a traditional “star” mold, though, the rapper has remained as eccentric as ever. Case in point, the cover of Paper Magazine, in which Doechii can be seen rocking an afro, mustache, and fake abs. Meet Richardo.
Richardo is an alter ego of Doechii’s. The rapper talked about the origins of the character, and how it’s helped her communicate her art. She told Paper Magazine that she invented Richardo as a response to the negative things people would say about her appearance. “I started seeing comments from people who would say, ‘She looks like a man,’” Doechii recalled. “I was like, Since they keep saying I look like a man, I’m gonna f*cking give them a man. An eight-pack, mustache man.” The rapper said that she had lots of fun creating the character, and providing him with a backstory. “He’s from Panama, he’s bisexual,” Doechii asserted. “We came up with Ricardo.”
The rapper has always been fascinated by personas and alter egos. She described herself as a “theater kid” who used different characters to better understand her own feelings. “I want to make sure I can really give different characters,” Doechii asserted. ” I think that’s so important in telling stories.” She also joked about Richardo’s appearance. The rapper told Paper Magazine that the makeup turned out even better than she anticipated. “Literally, when I put on the prosthetics,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Oh my god.”
Richardo may get most of the outward attention, being on the cover and all. That said, Doechii goes into detail about the ways in which she herself possesses different personas. “I’m alternative, kind of nerdy, super sexy,” she listed off. “Kind of awkward, conscious, but also I’m twerking and a*s-shaking.” It’s the same unpredictable blend that made her TDE debut such a critical success. Doechii admits she doesn’t know where her music is headed. However, that’s part of what keeps her excited about the creative process.
The release of Doechii’s debut mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal has cemented the ascent of a brand-new rap superstar. Unfortunately, it also resurrected a tired, misogynistic conversation among rap fans – one that seems to resurface every time a new woman in rap asserts herself with a lyrics-forward project or a virtuoso demonstration of wordplay.
Ironically, it’s often the most enthusiastic fans of the new kid on the block who resuscitate the decrepit discourse that pits women in rap against one another. In their rush to praise an exciting young talent, they often end up downplaying the past accomplishments of dozens of artists in the sisterhood of hip-hop and denigrating the efforts of their newfound faves’ contemporaries and peers.
But don’t get it twisted; women have always been rapping — and if you think otherwise, you haven’t been listening.
Alligator Bites Never Heal rightly has fans uplifting Doechii’s rap skills. All across social media over the weekend, rap fans have extolled the Florida rapper’s delivery and gift for wordplay. Songs like “Bullfrog,” “Boiled Peanuts,” and “Denial Is A River,” have fans proclaiming that Doechii’s project isn’t just a stellar debut worthy of Doechii’s label, but is also one of, if not the best rap projects of the year.
However, as they’ve become more profuse with their praise for Doechii, some have become dismissive of her contemporaries. In one example, a fan wrote, “It’s time we celebrate the females in hip-hop who actually can RAP RAP and not the others.” Another wrote, “Doechii is an example of what REAL female hip hop should sound like.”
What these posters and others are really saying is evident in what they’re NOT saying. What “female hip-hop” should be, to coin a popular phrase, is demure, buttoned up, chaste — the opposite of the “others” who “can’t” RAP RAP. By the way, what a horrid way to segregate women and suggest that such classification is also somehow inferior to “default” hip-hop, which, per this phrasing, means “men.”
It’s no secret that the success of sex-positive rappers — like GloRilla, Latto, Megan Thee Stallion, or Sexyy Red (all of whom have released projects this year) — bothers lots of men. These women don’t submit to social standards based on men’s preferences; they encourage women to get their own or turn the tables on men seeking transactional relationships. They turn the male gaze against itself. “If you want some of this,” they say, “You’re going to pay for it.”
Here’s the thing, though. It’s not just them. Rappers like Lola Brooke, Rapsody, and Tierra Whack have also released projects this year preaching self-determination. Please Don’t Cry, Rapsody’s fourth album, foregrounded the North Carolina rapper’s learnings from therapy; Tierra Whack’s World Wide Whack addressed the survivor’s guilt of fame. They all embraced wordplay and delivery and breath control and performance — as did projects from Baby Tate, Flo Milli, and more.
Criticizing rappers like Glo, Latto, and Meg for “sexy” content, only to ignore the “thoughtful” releases from Brooke, Rap, and Whack proves that it’s not about the “right” kind of hip-hop for those fans who do so — it’s about putting women down. It’s about proving them inferior to male rappers — all of whom rap about the same stuff, just from a male perspective — by moving the goalposts.
The sad part is that women have been dealing with this since hip-hop’s inception. MC Lyte — who has a new album coming out this month, by the way — was criticized for being too masculine, but contemporary group Salt N’ Pepa were equally criticized for sexual content. Lil Kim and Foxy Brown were derided for raunchy raps, but Missy Elliott was demeaned for not conforming to beauty standards. Eve, Da Brat, and Trina all fell somewhere along the spectrum, earning attention and album sales for their skills, only to be forgotten anytime the opportunity arose to frame women in rap as one of two dichotomous “types” that were both somehow unappealing.
Those who complain about the “style” of the Cardi Bs and Meg Thee Stallions against the “substance” of Rapsody and Doechii, ironically spend way too much time focusing on the style and overlooking the substance of all of them. These women don’t fit neatly into boxes; Rapsody and Doechii both rap extensively about sex and Doechii’s worn her fair share of risqué fits — including nothing at all in one music video.
Meanwhile, songs like Latto’s “S/O To Me” or Meg’s “Hiss” prove the versatility of women who lead with their looks. While it’s great that so many people are catching onto the talent displayed by Doechii, that talent isn’t as isolated or singular as some have made it out to be. There are plenty of women rapping with plenty to say, and a wide array of ways to say it. There always have been, and there’s more than enough credit to go around.
There’s no sugarcoating it anymore, Doechii is now on the verge of superstar status after dropping off Alligator Bites Never Heal. This is the debut mixtape from the Tampa, Florida rapper and singer and its via Capitol Records and Top Dawg Entertainment. The 26-year-old rolled out the red carpet for this project slowly but surely through her SWAMP SESSION series on YouTube. Out of all of the songs, the ones that have made the final cut include “NISSAN ALTIMA”, “BULLFROG”, “BOOM BAP”, and “CATFISH”. Throughout her career, the “What It Is” MC has always been able to mix humor and aggressiveness in her music. However, Doechii is now adding more layers to some of her tracks on Alligator Bites Never Heal.
“STANKA POOH” is perhaps the greatest example of this, as she raps about her mortality and the type of legacy she would leave behind if she were to die today. On “DENIAL IS A RIVER”, Doechii gets introspective about a wacky breakup, various stages in her career trajectory, as well as her addictions all while being dynamic and comical in her vocal delivery. Another reason why this mixtape is excellent is because of the irony of “BOOM BAP”. We talked about this track previously and how it’s about how Doechii views herself as more than a “rappity rap” MC. However, a lot of this LP sees her perform over modernized 90’s era boom bap and with great succession at that. Outside of some of the best tracks being a little too short, this will go down as one of the most underrated listening experiences of 2024. Doechii is here y’all.
Doechii may have mocked the concept of “Boom Bap” rap, but she sure is good at it. The Florida-bred Top Dawg Entertainment product made a meal out of poking fun at the idea of being a “rappity rap” rapper ahead of releasing her debut mixtape for the label, Alligator Bites Never Heal, but on the project itself, she proves adept at not only embracing and utilizing classic sounds, but also updating them to make them sound fresh.
In fact, the warm reception to the new project from fickle fans who’ve long derided or outright ignored similarly themed albums suggests that dropping the aforementioned, tongue-in-cheek “Boom Bap” as a single before the mixtape might just have been exactly the right move to get those fans on Doechii’s side. There is a sense among some fans that the “real hip-hop” purveyed by blog era holdovers and Doechii’s labelmates has calcified into self-serious stodginess; by priming her release by undercutting this perception, Doechii presented herself as a serious artist who isn’t too serious to be in on the joke.
Meanwhile, with songs like “Boiled Peanuts” and “GTFO” evoking the slinky basslines, jazzy samples, and hard-hitting kick-snare drums of the mid-90s’ best, Doechii also sets herself apart from some of her Southern contemporaries — think City Girls or Latto — while also aligning herself more closely with the backpacker-lite ethos her label has cultivated over the past decade. It’s a delicate balancing act to pull off; too far into trap and other modern production styles, and she plays into the hands of sexist critics of so-called “female rap” (or, more perjoratively, “pussy rap”). However, going too far in the other direction risked blending in with the murky sounds of fellow TDE artists like Isaiah Rashad and Ab-Soul and getting washed out amid samey production.
Instead, she embraces a little of everything that has made TDE stand out over the years: some of Isaiah’s introspection, some of SZA’s soulful heartbreak, some of Ab-Soul’s playful fascination with flipping the meanings of metaphors, and a bit of Schoolboy Q’s fearless experimentation. The result is a project that’s drawn exuberant acclamation from Megan Thee Stallion lovers and Rapsody evangelists alike. In an increasingly fractured listening landscape, that’s become difficult to do, but like Doja Cat before her, Doechii seems to have found the sweet spot between hip-hop and pop that looks very much like the route to future superstardom.
Rising star Doechii has released her highly anticipated hip-hop/rap mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, today via Top Dawg Entertainment/Capitol Records. This 19-track project captures Doechii in her rawest form, offering listeners a unique glimpse into her multifaceted artistry. To celebrate the mixtape’s release, she will host a livestream performance tonight at 6:00 PM PT, followed by a live show at Black Market Flea in Los Angeles tomorrow, August 31.
“To my Swamp, my devoted core fans, I hope you cherish this mixtape and create beautiful memories to it. Use my music to encourage you through the rough days and use it to imagine better ones. Allow Alligator Bites Never Heal to inspire you as you all have inspired me. I love you forever.”
– Doechii
On Alligator Bites Never Heal, Doechii fuses her Tampa roots with her current Los Angeles vibe, presenting an eclectic mix of genres, movements, and eras, all condensed into less than an hour of music. The mixtape’s cover art features Doechii as a regal figure in Vivienne Westwood, with beads in her braids and an albino alligator in her lap—a powerful image that demands attention.
The mixtape follows her Eurodance-inspired hit “Alter Ego,” praised by R&B superstar SZA as “the craziest song I’ve heard all year,” and its remix featuring JT. With over 15 million streams on Spotify, “Alter Ego” adds to Doechii’s momentum, along with her recent releases “MPH” and “ROCKET.”
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