Despite having flame-throwing rhymes that allow her to spit with the best of them, Doja Cat is poised to be pop music’s next big star. While most with her rapping ability would shy away from the concept, Doja Cat welcomes pop stardom and all of its spoils.
During her cover story for Billboard, Doja Cat explains that being a pop star is akin to being a “deity” and she “lives for” things like that.
“I live for it when a pop star comes off as, like, a deity,” she said. “They carry themselves as very mysterious, and you’ll never know anything about them, only that they’re incredibly talented and always have profound sh-t to say. I love that, and I always wanted to be like that.”
Although she’s always dreamed of being a pop queen, she’s careful not to put that pressure on herself so that she can continue to be herself. But, to The Weeknd, being herself and the world she’s created is why she’ll be a superstar.
“Doja is a star, and has created a unique universe you just want to lose yourself in,” The Weeknd told Billboard. “She’s got such drive and vast creative vision that we will be seeing her impact for a very long time to come.” This “unique universe” includes a partnership with Intellectable Holdings to create her own Juicy Drop NFT marketplace. The debut collection for Doja Cat’s marketplace will release on Friday.
The Weeknd will appear on Doja’s upcoming album, Planet Her which will start her trajectory to fulling this pop prophecy. To Doja, this is the first time a project has felt like her own creation and it’s the start of more to come.
“I think in the beginning, I was just trying to be solid and be what a pop artist already was: what I’d seen on TV and what I thought was the right thing to do,” she said. “But as I move on into this Planet Her era, I want to introduce things to people as opposed to just re-create and rehash. It’s just more inspiring to start from a more innovative spot.”
Producer and songwriter Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, who is in an ongoing legal battle with Kesha, shared with Billboard that Doja Cat’s persistence allowed her to fully arrive as the superstar she’s supposed to be.
“I would play her for people all the time, and it was strange to me how some people didn’t seem to get it,” he said to Billboard via an email. “t’s like people weren’t listening with their ears but were more concerned about how many followers she had. I don’t know how it happened, but she just got better and better, and one day, she was like, totally there.”
