Don’t push play on Doechii‘s new single “Boom Bap” expecting its content to match its title. Instead of employing a Pete Rock-esque, jazz-and-breakbeat-sampling instrumental and spitting cerebral battle raps full of witty double entendres, the Florida native instead lampoons such expectations with a jokey, largely improvised vocal performance, scatting and freestyling her way through repeated chants of the title. It’s a wink at the reputation of her label, Top Dawg Entertainment, which for the past decade was largely defined by its roster of heady rappers like Ab-Soul, Isaiah Rashad, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as production that favored ’90s-era styles.
Doechii, however, has done things differently since her first-ever single for the label, “Persuasive,” which employed house production and set her apart from her labelmates in some important ways (she’s also the only woman rapper signed to the label, although SZA’s pen skills have been praised as being very rapper-like). She returned to that style on recent single “Alter Ego” with JT of City Girls, putting her in conflict with Azealia Banks, but further establishing that she’s willing to do things her own way.
“Boom Bap” is due to appear on Doechii’s debut TDE mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, which is due on August 30. You can find more information here.