Doja Cat doesn’t want to write hits just to “protect her pockets.”
The “Paint The Town Red” hitmaker has admitted she has done songs in the past just to be popular, but she is now keen to experiment with the eclectic mix of genres that she loves, including jazz, neo-soul, indie and rock music.
“I really love jazz music, and I love neo-soul, and different kinds of rock music and indie and experimental music,” Doja said in an interview conducted by singer Jack Harlow for Present Space. “That stuff tends to get pushed to the side by the general populace. … I didn’t see it in the past for me, so I did the thing that I knew would stick. Now, I feel like I can take those elements that I have from the music that sticks and put it into this soup of different genres that I really love and enjoy and respect, and make something new with it.”
That’s what I’ve always loved to do, is swirl a lot of different sounds together, but really in the future, I want to start going in a different direction sonically that isn’t supposed to just protect my pockets necessarily and isn’t just supposed to woo the younger fans or the people who only want to hear sexual themes or self-medication or stuff like that,” Doja continued. “There’s so much to life and it’s been a pattern of writing about those things for me, but now I want to stretch the canvas.”
The rapper stepped away from her conventional pop style on her latest album, Scarlet, focusing on hip-hop and R&B.
Doja insists that even if she gets deep with her lyrics, she will always retain her “tongue-in-cheek” element.
“I think I’m just more excited about whatever the future holds for me because I know I have more experiences to write about,” she said. “My growth makes me feel more secure about the things that I’m planning to write. I do still want to keep it tongue in cheek and fun.”
“I think sometimes when you get personal about things that maybe even bother you, oftentimes people either can’t connect because they’re such specific situations or they really connect in an intense way because it’s so specific,” Doja told Harlow. “I think when you write very simple things — partying is a big one because partying is something people enjoy — it’s like you’re giving someone a place to escape into, like a fantasy book. People really want to read that book or listen to that song that makes them feel like they’re at a party.”
“I want to still keep that energy and that spirit, but I want to keep it interesting, too. I don’t want to keep regurgitating the same thing over and over,” the rapper said.
