Has Doja Cat become a victim of the Hip-Hop industry’s adoration of demonic imagery? Doja cat isn’t the type of artist who usually promotes demonic themes. However, something recently changed, but the result may be more evangelistic than demonic.
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, who goes professionally by Doja Cat, is an American rapper and singer who was born in Los Angeles. She started her music career as a young teeneager, publishing her music on an app called Soundcloud. It wasn’t until late 2013 that she signed a contract with RCA Records to produce music. Ever since, Doja Cat and her music have seemed to take to new flights and she is now one of the more popular and relevant female artists in the industry.
However, her stardom light seems to have dimmed over the years, which may have led her to some dramatic act to regain this light.
This started with her outfit style. Doja Cat is known for outlandish red carpet styles. But recently her outfits have gotten even more outlandish — in a weird way.
For 2022 Paris Fashion Week, she shaved her hair and covered her skin in gold paint, looking almost like a street statue performer. She wore a full-piece oversized dress suit with a leather fur jacket.
Doja Cat leaves The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 01, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)
The weird outfits didn’t end there. Earlier this year, during Haute Couture Week, she covered herself in 30,000 red crystals from head to toe and adorned herself in a red dress with big red crystal earrings to match. This outfit definitely made some heads turn and drew attention to her in social media.
The outfit that caused her to draw the most attention, however, was at this year’s Met Gala, where she dressed to look like a cat. During an interview with Emma Chamberlain, she only responded with the word “meow” to every question she was asked.
These outlandish stunts may have just been bait to bring attention to the album she released in early 2023 titled Scarlet.
Doja Cat has made a lot of iconic, catchy songs that always seem to go viral on social media. Some of these songs are “Say So,” “MOOO!,” “Attention” and “Women.”
After not releasing a big project like an album for more than two years, expectations were high. Yet the latest album had an underwhelming debut. It is expected to sell only 50,000 to 55,000 units — small compared to her previous albums. “Planet Her” debuted at No. 1 and sold more than 109,000 units.
Perhaps that’s where the demons entered to save the day.
One of the songs on this album is titled “Demons.” In it, she talks about all her haters and the people who doubted her and how she is still doing good despite them haunting her, waiting for her to fail.
The music video that goes along with this song looks very demonic and spine-chilling.
In the video, she is the antagonist. She is dressed as a demon haunting a family in their home. The video starts with Doja Cat crawling on the ceiling as she petrifies the mother with sleep paralysis. By the end of the video, the mother and her kids are seen running frantically from the house.
Whatever her intention, Doja Cat’s fans were startled and left uneasy about what they saw.
The comments section of this music video is flooded with thank you messages to Doja Cat, but not the kind of thank you messages you might expect. People thank her for reminding them why they need to pray, read their Bibles and be in church on Sundays.
God works in mysterious ways.
Jeremiah Bullock
Jeremiah Bullock is a student at Wingate University and serves this semester as BNG’s Clemons Fellow.