The 26-year-old rap dynamo Doechii, who recently won a Grammy for |"Alligator Bites Never Heal," didn't just take home hardware but walked out of Staples Center and into a web of Internet rumors insulting her as a lip-syncing hack following one of the latest editions of Grammys, edged in accusations suggesting she had sneaked through her electrifying performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards singing along to someone else's voice. But instead of allowing the trolls to dominate, Doechii met the detractor's full force with a spell of conviction and clapback.
"That is my DJ's voice toeing the lines that I couldn't say because I was mid-somersault," she explained in a video shortly after her performance aired in February. "That was all live!"
Doechii's not just rapping but performing, with a physicality most of us would run out of breath trying to maintain before that hook even falls. So, yeah, she gets a pass on the mic with a moment for the DJ.
In a chat with Cosmopolitan regarding the backlash, the Tampa native was light-hearted yet firm. "Like, with the Grammys, I was half-kidding. I mean, for the love of god, please don't play with me," she said. "I don't cheat. I don't half-ass anything, and my performances truly mean so much. So I was clapping back a little bit."
It's a unique combination of humility and edge that makes Doechii so magnetic she doesn't scream out into the void for attention, but when it feels right, she won't hesitate to set the record straight. And though she's not out here trying to become a full-time keyboard warrior, she's no stranger to standing up for herself when it matters most.
"Will I have to be a face online all the time, answering to everything? "Uh, no, that's not how I like to practice," she said. "But I do 100 percent believe that there are times and places when I defend myself. If that is online, then maybe."
Still, she knows she's paying a heavy price to be engaged. "I can't spend my life just going back and forth and reacting to what people are saying on the internet," she noted, a familiar enough feeling for artists and public figures in this age of instant backlash.
In this era when the court of public opinion renders its judgment in 280 characters or fewer, Doechii is a potent reminder that real artistry doesn't have to scream to be heard. She carries herself purposefully, speaks when needed, and performs as though her life depended on it.
0 Comments