Doechii (the Don, the dean, the swamp ruler) is now the third woman to ever take home the Best Rap Album Grammy, and it’s worth reveling in.
From her 2019 Coven Music Sessions to her 2024 NPR Tiny Desk performance, Doechii has carried a heavy pen and a ruthless devotion to remain her truest self.
The Swamp Princess is now garbed in gold, but let’s take a look at what got her there.
Coven Music Sessions, 2019
In what seems to be her childhood bedroom, a 2019 Doechii dives into her “Coven Music Sessions”. Fully accessible on Doechii’s YouTube channel, the CMS is a series of minute-long raps and freestyles showcasing the freshman artist’s innate sense of flow. Coven Music Session Volume 1 is the only full session available on Spotify and stands proudly next to projects Oh The Places You’ll Go, and Alligator Bites Never Heal.
Although a seemingly “humble beginning” compared to Doechii’s most recent projects, her potential in the CMS recordings is undoubtedly present. We taste an appetizer of what’s to come for Doechii’s future career in her Coven Music Sessions. She’s still the quick-witted, authentically creative, breathwork goddess that we know and love — just a tad younger and shy an outlet to release her ingenuity.
It would be sacrilegious to paint the picture of a 2019 self-employed Doechii without giving her flowers for “Spookie Coochie”. While this track isn’t technically her claim to fame, it’s a gorgeous, heated highlight that feels like the older sibling to “NISSAN ALTIMA”. It’s the real first glimpse of the mile-a-minute bars and refreshingly vulgar lyricism that Doechii owns confidently in her artistry. “Spookie Coochie” (without a doubt) could stand tall alongside Doechii’s recent work. It’s a testament to the fact that she’s always had a fear-gripping flow and scintillating verbiage.
“Now I’m makin’ TikTok music, what the f*ck?”
2020 marks the year that TikTok users, and day one Doechii fans, were hit with “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake”. “Hi, my name’s Doechii with two I’s” jolted the Swamp Princess to the top of TikTok sound charts, and thus Doechii’s name became a topic of discussion. “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” is another trophy of the bold, enlivening talent that Doechii possesses (even as a younger artist). It’s not every musician’s first choice to be discovered on TikTok, but regardless, she gained traction here and cocked numerous heads.
The addictive track serves as an “introduction to the class”, where Doechii raps unapologetically about her deepest truths, confessions, and off-the-record thoughts. It’s colorful, and catchy, encapsulating her ability to excel in storytelling sonics. Listeners can feel this song’s lineage loudly in Doechii’s “DENIAL IS A RIVER”, another anecdotal rap tune off of her most recent mixtape.
“Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” rests among six other tracks in Doechii’s 2020 album, Oh The Places You’ll Go, a tribute to her favorite Seuss book. Staying true to its inspiration, this album doesn’t fall short of a story. It embodies the art of preaching, soliloquizing, rhyming, and expanding genre boundaries. Doechii capitalizes on all of these attributes in her modern work. It’s an enlightening experience to see her same colors bleed from her first project to her Grammy-winning mixtape.
TDE Bound
An independent artist no longer, Doechii signed with Top Dog Entertainment in 2022, becoming the first female to join the label. Placed amongst artists like ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock, the young artist found her grounds to blossom. With killer features, singles that stung, and production to back her up as a punchy creative, 2022 made for a fruitful Doechii.
Clad in her iconic lime green Balenciaga fit, Doechii performed the song “Stressed” for an exclusive Colors performance. She switches vocal pitches numerous times in this performance and it’s wonderfully perplexing.
After that, she dropped the hit track with SZA “Persuasive”, obtaining one of her first top dog features in her career. “Persuasive” fell onto Doechii’s 2022 EP she/ her/ black bitch, a beautiful mixture of tantalizing femininity and ruthless bars. 2022 laid the groundwork for her eventual 2024/2025 (much-deserved) recognition.
I’M EVERYTHING!
In the span of a month, Doechii created and released her empowering and introspective mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal. This was an extremely momentous album for Doechii and gave her already-flourishing name divine independence. This saturated yet incredibly fine-tuned mixtape dove deep into all things unrepentant, and made Doechii the vanguard of the female rap game.
For Doechii, this project was a middle finger to doubt and showed listeners a polished ornament of her musical talent. “NISSAN ALTIMA” and “DENIAL IS A RIVER”, two feverish tracks from the mixtape, skyrocketed her media recognition with their clever vigor and bouncy movement.
Even more, devoured her 2024 Alligator Bites Never Heal tour, adorning each stage with a swampy set-up that paid homage to her Florida roots. Soon after, ABNH hit centerstage at Camp Flog Gnaw in November of 2024 where Doechii gave a sensational mainstage performance bringing out guests SZA and DJ Miss Milan. Her Flog Gnaw stage presence was entirely electrifying and set her up for an astounding three Grammy nominations. 2024 was the year of the swamp princess, but she didn’t cut it short there.
Doechii Swamps Out the Grammys
At the 2025 Grammy Awards, Cardi B announced that Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal won Best Rap Album. “DENIAL IS A RIVER” circulated through the venue as the tear-ridden artist accepted her well-deserved Grammy, draped in Thom Browne. Doechii delivered a speech that respectfully tugged at our hearts, and empowered every woman listening. There was something so beautifully authentic about Doechii’s Grammy acceptance that radiated, “I’ve finally made it, and it was all me.” It was enough to make any viewer melt from pure felicity.
“This category was introduced in 1989, and two women have won. Lauryn Hill- THREE women have won: Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and Doechii.”
Doechii, 2025 Grammy Ceremony
Doechii’s 2025 Grammy appearance was accompanied by her groundbreaking performance of “CATFISH” and “DENIAL IS A RIVER”. This fresh step into her Grammy-winning evening left the crowd with mouths agape. It’s a necessity to add that the entirety of the performance was done with no backing track, only Doechii and the mic. She danced across a built-in conveyer belt and contorted her body while delivering heavy bars, and in none other than her signature Miu Miu set.
Doechii is an unstoppable force, and her Grammy appearance was a monument to her growing success. She followed up by releasing a post-victory hit “Nosebleeds” — a zany and berserk track that polished her mic-drop moment. The Grammys were knee-deep in the swamp this year, and rightfully so.
