Doja Cat’s first two projects centered on femininity, particularly her second, “Hot Pink,” and it appears that the musician is branching out with her new album, as she mentioned in a recent interview; is she switching genres?
Two years after releasing her smash single “Planet Her,” the pop star spoke to Variety to tease her highly anticipated album and discuss what fans can expect, particularly its aesthetics and sound.
Doja, the Grammy Award-winning rapper, was previously known for her hyper-feminine aesthetics; as she stated, Doja has done “a lot of pink and soft things,” but she wanted to change things up in her upcoming era. She said:
“For this next era, I’m going in a more masculine direction.”
In a hint about the project’s genre, the “Kiss Me More” hitmaker stated that the music industry has a lot of pop-punk artists today and that she would like to see more musicians explore the genre even more, but she also clarified that she is not the one “to do it.”
However, Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, the musician’s real name, stated that she will be exploring the “raw, unfiltered, hardcore punk sort of thing.”
Doja explained her sudden change in tone as something she’s doing for her “own personal fun.” She worked with guitarists and drummers to accomplish this. However, the pop star clarified that she is still unsure whether it will “make it out there.”
Although the “I Don’t Do Drugs” hitmaker has previously experimented with her music by incorporating different genres (R&B, rap, hip-hop, and pop) into several songs, her new sound will not “mesh” with each other, and she wanted the hardcore punk to be isolated.
Doja Cat has yet to reveal more information about her new album’s official release date, collaborators, or tracklist as of this writing.
This isn’t the first time the musician has spoken openly about the sound of her upcoming album; she previously stated in an interview that she was inspired by German rave music from the 1990s, which is a big hint about what her fourth album will sound like.
She later changed her mind, tweeting that she was “pranking the outlet” that interviewed her.