KWXY Presents ● The Music of Doja Cat
Doja Cat 2021 Album Planet Her – www.dojacat.com
Doja Cat is a rapper, singer, songwriter and social media personality who, as a teenager, began uploading original music to SoundCloud. The uploads, most notably the 2012 song “So High,” caught the attention of RCA Records imprint label, Kemosabe Records. This led to a record deal in 2012 at age seventeen and later, her 2014 debut EP, Purrr!
She was born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini on October 21, 1995 in Tarzana, California to parents Deborah Sawyer, a graphic designer and Dumisami Dlamini, a South African actor. Her stage name was derived from her 2012 nickname, based on her cat and a strain of marijuana. She has since expressed disdain for the name and has since quit smoking both cigarettes and marijuana.
As an infant, Dlamini was moved to Rye, New York, living with her maternal grandmother for five years. At age eight, she moved back to California with her mother and brother, settling in a Hindu commune in the Santa Monica Mountains. Growing disillusioned with the Hindu lifestyle as she grew older, she began attending breakdancing classes and competitions while she was attending Central Los Angeles Area New High School. She dropped out at age 16, citing her struggles with ADHD. Spending most of her time online after dropping out, her first permanent SoundCloud upload, “So High,” caught the attention of producer Yeti Beats (born David A. Sprecher in California). He later became the lead producer and collaborator on the Doja Cat albums Amala in 2018, Hot Pink in 2019 and Planet Her in 2021.
Amala was her debut studio album and was only “moderately successful” as she put it. Although it produced three singles, the album was critically ignored and failed to chart. A self-published song and music video, “Mooo!”, was released on August 10, 2018 as a novelty song. The video, featuring Doja Cat dressed in a black-and-white cow print costume and backed by chroma-keyed footage from the 2010 Cyriak Harris video, “cows & cows & cows” among other cow-themed videos, was written as a joke with absurdist lyrics. The video soon became a viral internet meme, amassing over 100 million YouTube views and is credited for setting the tone for her future career. She has become well known for her absurdist humor on her social media posts. According to writer Robyn Mowatt, Doja Cat’s live performances “typically are infused with a touch of eccentricity.”
Doja Cat has been nominated for eleven Grammy Awards and has earned a Billboard Music Award, three MTV Video Music Awards, five American Music Awards and a Guinness World Record. The latter was for the 2021 collaboration with Nicki Minaj, “Say So.” The song marked the first time a female rap duo hit number one on the US singles chart.
Doja Cat is scheduled to perform at the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday April 17th and Friday April 24th. KWXY Music Radio supports musicians and artists performing in the Coachella Valley, as well as independent music labels, and emerging talent all over the country.
Listen to the music of Doja Cat on KWXY Presents hosted by Louie Comella, tonight at 7pm on KWXY Music Radio 92.3 FM ● 1340 AM ● streaming at kwxy.com and ivoxradio.com