“The world can be really crazy and some people have to find something that brings them joy. That’s what my work is doing, and that’s great, that’s what I want.”
Sixteen-year-old Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini would have liked a nice pair of jeans. “I recently got a clear pair with no distressed parts. Then, I got some that had big holes in the knees. Now, I can switch between them, which is crazy.” Twenty-six-year-old Doja Cat takes me down what feels like a metaphorical morass of denim. What she’s really hinting at are the dichotomies that have hovered in her orbit since her debut: singer versus rapper, TikTok maven versus 11-time Grammy nominee, and in fleeting moments, Amala versus Doja. Or maybe she’s not. With Doja, the thrill is in never quite knowing.
Born in Tarzana, Los Angeles, Doja’s formative years play out like a pendulum of moments both familiar and intriguing. The, Alice Coltrane—also known by her Sanskrit name, Turiyasangitananda—with her mother and brother. and lessons were par for the course, but Doja’s solace seemed to lie within a universe of a different kind. “I was in high school and I was starting to get discouraged about where I was going as far as my education was concerned. I remember that the only thing that I cared about every day was going to school and making playlists or finding new music, ” she shares. Her voice is a blend of saccharine and stark, setting off the green outline of her Zoom caller box. It’s the tonal quality that, I imagine, has sparked the discourse that the only person Doja would ever need to duet with, is herself. “I was very into finding underground artists that rapped and people that had been around for a long time. It was maybe around 11th grade that I figured that this was what I really wanted to do. Performing and music was all I ever cared about.”
