It’s been almost two years since Doja Cat released her critically acclaimed album Planet Her and fans have been wondering what’s next for the artist. Doja released a couple of singles after Planet Her including the song “Vegas” which appeared on the 2022 film Elvis directed by Baz Luhrmann. She shaved her head, called her previous albums “cash grabs,” attended her first MET Gala, and had people thinking she was a Satanist. All of this left fans wondering what direction her next album would take, and if there would even be an album at all. Then came the release of Doja Cat’s “Attention.”
Fans finally got a taste of Doja’s next album on June 15th when Doja Cat released her single “Attention” and its accompanying music video. The new single and music video is different from the artist’s previous releases, but it still absolutely screams Doja. She’s definitely captured our attention with this latest release, and I know that I’m sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for her upcoming album.
“Attention” Music Video and Hints for the New Album
In Doja Cat’s music video for “Attention,” the artist confidently walks down the street at night and raps directly to the camera, addressing all of her haters. She addresses the hate she received for changing her appearance, cutting her hair short, and losing weight. She also addresses the hate she’s received for her rap skills. Rather than producing a pop song, Doja Cat focused more on producing rap in order to prove to people that she can rap. The music video and the song itself scream confident and unbothered and I’ve rewatched it a million times.
Within the music video, Doja Cat seems to tease a character that could play a big role in her upcoming album. After Doja rapped “look at me, look at me, I’m naked,” the camera cuts to an image of her standing naked, dripping in blood. This is the same image used as the profile picture for Doja’s Twitter account, and when I first saw her in blood, I thought it was a reference to Steven King’s Carrie. However, many fans have speculated that this could be a character named Scarlet because of a tweet on Doja’s Twitter that said, upsidedown, “Scarlet is here.” Regardless of if this is a recurring character in Doja’s upcoming album, fans have already noticed a tonal shift in Doja’s work.
Album Title and Content
This shift in tone is intentional on Doja Cat’s part. Doja has spoken about how this upcoming album won’t be a pop album, it’ll be a rap album. The artist has also talked about possibly including more punk-inspired songs in the album in her interview with Dazed. There’s a chance that we could be hearing more hardcore punk in this upcoming album.
Doja Cat has also revealed the name and tracklist of her album. While there were rumors that the album would be called “Hellmouth,” Doja has cleared these rumors up. Doja announced that the album will be called “First of All.” This reveal came after Doja tweeted “its not called hEllMoUth either its called ‘First of All’ and yes I’m announcing the album title right now” back in May.
She also released the tracklist on her Instagram stories. The tracklist includes 19 songs:
- “Love Life”
- “Attention”
- “Go Off Lil Mama”
- “Paint the Town Red”
- “Gun”
- “Demons”
- “Skull n Bones”
- “Balut”
- “Agora Hills”
- “97”
- “Wet Vagina”
- “Loon1e”
- “Cant Wait”
- “Ouchies”
- “Often”
- “Disrespectful”
- “NHIE”
- “FTG”
- “Seeing Stars”
Release Date
At the moment, there’s no set release date. All that’s been confirmed by the artist is that the album will be released in 2023. But fans aren’t the only ones anticipating the release of the album. Doja Cat herself talked in an Instagram Live about wanting to release the album immediately.
If I could release the album right now, I would. But I can’t because we have things to do to make it even more major. We gotta film videos, and wait. I’m so fucking tired of waiting.
@dojacat/Instagram
Regardless of when the album comes out, I know that the wait will be worth it. “Attention” did its job of capturing our attention! Now we just have to patiently wait until the full album is out.
