Doja Cat Says She Won't Work With Dr. Luke Anymore, Blasts People Who Say She Isn't a Rapper

Doja Cat addressed her extensive working relationship with Dr. Luke among other things in her new and revealing 'Rolling Stone' cover story.

Doja Cat performs onstage during iHeartRadio 103.5 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2021
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Image via Getty/Jeff Schear

Doja Cat performs onstage during iHeartRadio 103.5 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2021

Doja Cat has faced criticism for working with Dr. Luke in the past, but now the “Say So” artist has seemingly distanced herself from the producer.

In an extensive profile feature with Rolling Stone, Doja addressed her relationship with Dr. Luke, who was accused of sexual assault and abuse by Kesha shortly after Doja joined Luke’s RCA imprint Kemosabe Records. Dr. Luke is credited as both a songwriter and producer on a large number of Doja’s output, including “Say So” and “Kiss Me More” with SZA. 

Asked if she was on the same page as Saweetie, who said she wouldn’t work with Dr. Luke again, Doja replied, “That’s not a question I feel really comfortable answering.” After a brief pause, she went into more detail and suggested she’s already reduced her ties to him somewhat.

“I haven’t worked with him in a very long time,” she continued. “There’s shit that he’s credited for, where I’m like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know, I don’t know if you did anything on that.’” Pressed for more, she implied that some of his credits on her tracks don’t make much sense to her.

“The point is he’s gotten some credit for shit. And, you know, it’s whatever. I don’t think I need to work with him again. I don’t think I need to work with him in the future. I know that," she said, later adding with a laugh, “I think it was definitely nice of me to work with him.”

Although she questioned some of his credits, she later clarified in a follow-up statement that she didn’t want to doubt the legitimacy of those songwriting credits. "When asked about Luke I may have said something that someone could interpret as me saying that he had taken credit on things he didn’t deserve to," she said. "I just want to be clear that I have no firsthand knowledge of that being the case and I don’t want to participate in the rumor mill. The credits on my music are accurate, and I don’t want to imply anything else.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Doja addressed arguments on Twitter about whether she’s a singer or a rapper. “Anyone who says that I’m not a rapper is in denial,” she said. “They don’t know what they’re talking about.” This year she was nominated for Best Female Hip Hop Artist at the BET Awards, and earlier this year she called out naysayers in a tweet. “DONT EVER FUCKIN DISRESPECT ME AS A RAPPER,” she wrote on Twitter in May.

Doja also indicated that she’s attempted to change her performing name multiple times. “My image was the pothead hippie girl, and I’m not that. [SNL] made a joke the other day that Doja Cat sounds like a Pokémon. And, you know, it didn’t hurt my feelings, but it definitely hurt my feelings.”

Her working relationship with Dr. Luke isn’t the only controversy she’s faced. Last year, it was alleged that Doja previously hung out with suspected white supremacists on streaming site Tiny Chat, although she denied those claims. Nas even rapped about the controversy on his track “Ultra Black.”

"We going ultra black, unapologetically black/The opposite of Doja Cat, Michael Blackson black," he rapped on the song. At the time, she was accused of internalized racism. "It didn’t hurt me. It was just like, ‘Oh, this sucks. This is no good,'" she said of people's responses to the allegations, which circulated at the same time her old track "Dindu Nuffin" received criticism.

“It’s just like, ‘This is a human being, a real human being with feelings,’ ” she said. “[I] don’t think it had anything to do with me, to be honest. I think whatever [Nas] was talking about was something that other people kind of planted into his mind. [But] if you’re able to reach that conclusion about me so confidently, there’s no point in ever talking about it. . . . I’m also very non-confrontational, and I don’t like the vibe of trying to prove myself to somebody that I don’t need to. I don’t think I really need to respond to that without humor.” When she initially teased her song "Ain't Shit," its tentative title was “N.A.S.” 

Read the full profile feature here.

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