Doja Cat is an American rap artist of South African descent. Author of his compositions, producer. The viral hit Mooo!, released in 2018, brought her the greatest popularity. At the same time, the singer’s debut album entitled Amala was released. In 2020, Doja Cat hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with the single Say So. The girl is called a new version of Missy Elliot, compared to hip-hop stars Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj.
Childhood and adolescence years
Amalaratna Zandile is the name given by the parents to the girl who was born in autumn 1995 in Malibu. The multinational family in which she appeared, was distinguished by a creative approach to life. Everyone was engaged in some direction in art. Dad, Dumisani Dlamini, a native of the Zulu tribe, was educated in the USA, composed music, and became an actor. After filming Darrell Rudd’s musical drama Sarafina! he was able to equip a comfortable house for the family, where the newborn Amala was brought.
On the set of this picture, Dumisani met the brilliant Whoopi Goldberg, the eccentric Robert Whitehead, and John Cani. But friendly relations did not contribute to the further advancement of his acting career. The man decided to try his hand as a producer, and quite successfully.
Amala’s mother, Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, and her grandmother were in the Jewish community. Both of them were engaged in arts and crafts. Music was a constant companion in the family, not only thanks to the composer-dad. Parents often attended concerts by famous performers and took their eldest son and daughter with them.
At the insistence of her grandmother, the girl was sent to a music school. Having studied the basics of musical notation and having practiced playing the piano for a couple of years, Amala became interested in dancing. At this time, her older brother often visited rap battles. One day the girl begged him to take her with him. The girl liked the rhythm and energy so much that she decided to try her hand in this direction and wrote her first track in this genre.
According to the recollections of the performer, at first two likes were enough for her to cry with happiness, and when there were more than twenty of them, she decided that rap was her vocation. Although Amala studied well at school, she managed to ignore all her homework, but she enthusiastically studied Indian and Japanese epics. At one time, she was fond of painting and continued to write texts.
Listening to Nicki Minaj, Pharrell Williams, or PartyNextDoor, the girl thought about taking a pseudonym for herself. She invented it herself: Doja Cat. Under this pseudonym, she began to upload her songs to the Internet, where views were provided to her. Sometimes the attempts were not entirely successful, but Amala was not upset. Her initiative was supported by advice from her brother, who always believed in her success.
Breakthrough in musical creativity
In 2013, Doja Cat recorded the track So High, which she posted on the European Internet platform SoundCloud. The composition attracted the attention of not only listeners. Soon, the music label RCA Records offered the girl a collaboration. The song So High was gaining popularity: with the permission of Doja Cat, it was used on the soundtrack of the TV series Empire.
Soon the singer released her first mini-disc Purrr! In it, she presented a mix of dance disco, R&B, and rap to the audience. After the video for her debut single So High, the girl was called a follower of psychedelic music in music, a child prodigy who would soon surpass Nicki Minaj.
In 2015, the singer collaborated with Atlanta-based rapper Maco Mattox. Together they released several original remixes of previously popular hits. Doja Cat became widely known after publishing the single Candy on the viral video platform TikTok.
In 2018, thanks to the popularity of the composition, the singer recorded two more songs Roll with Us and Go to Town. After them, she released her first full-length album, Amala, and began touring America. The LP-disc, which quickly gained a huge number of fans, did not make Doja Cat rest on its laurels. She continued to work.
Her compositions began to gain popularity outside America. The video for the song Mooo, which she posted on her YouTube channel, caused unprecedented excitement. Even Chris Brown and Katy Perry left enthusiastic responses. Moreover, a flash mob began on Instagram with the hashtag #MooChallange, in which different people fantasized in their videos after Amala about what would happen if they became cows. The absurdity and surrealism of the topic only encouraged netizens.
2019 has become no less eventful. Doja Cat has created several remixes of her songs together with popular singers. So, the song Tia Tamea sounded in a duet with Rico Nasty, and the rapper Juicy quailed with Tuga. The songs hit the Billboard Hot 100 lists.
Realizing how much her music is in demand, as well as following the requests of a large army of fans, Doja Cat released a new album Hot Pink. The photo for the album was impressive: the performer appeared on it almost naked, in long gloves and a flashy pink wig.
When the singer was asked about the new album, she said that she tried to paint it in the colors that she loved from early childhood. The compositions seem to envelop the listener with warmth and dream. Colleagues helped the singer to work on the release of the Hot Pink disc: Kurtis McKenzie, Salaam Remi, Tyson Trax, and Blaq Tuxedo. The songs Bitch Boss, and Streets from this album became separate singles. The disc hit the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and the singer was invited to the Jimmy Fallon show.
