Any list of the most famous Black Jews of the 2020s would be incomplete without Doja Cat. The 26-year-old Grammy winner has received over a dozen awards during her urban music career, never slowing down from her Best New Artist wins in 2020. Doja is featured as the June/July 2022 edition of Elle magazine’s cover story, and she lets us know: she has her sights set on bigger goals than Billboard charts (and Taco Bell “jingles“).
Doja, the “music-obsessed kid of a white artist-designer mother and a Black South African dancer-performer father” (would it have hurt them to tell us her mom was Jewish?) would first appear on the music scene on Soundcloud in 2012, signing her first record deal in 2014, the article tells us. Half a decade and a few breakout hits – like “Mooo!” – later, Doja would be gracing award shows worldwide promoting hits like “Say So”, and establishing herself as “the unofficial voice of Tiktok”.
Now, in 2022, post-Coachella, and still riding high from Billboard Music Awards wins, and a Best Pop Duo/Performance Grammy win for her SZA collaboration, Doja is (almost) working on a new album, and has news for the “haters”: it’s “predominantly rap”.
“I haven’t started just because of all the rehearsal and touring. I’ve got a lot going on, but it’s coming up…I have been getting songs and things sent to me…. Oh [f*ck], I wish I could tell people!”
Doja cat, elle, june/july 2022
Album plans notwithstanding, Doja remains inspired by “her North Star, Nicki Minaj”, and intends to follow in her business footsteps. While she may not have been feeling the Taco Bell jingle on Tiktok, Doja has inked deals with Pepsi, Eek! Games and Pretty Little Thing, and launched her makeup brand in 2021. She’s working with Girls Who Code, having created an interactive, codable music video designed to introduce coding to kids.
As you can imagine, all this is very time consuming, a fact Doja is very conscious of. Doja “is serious about expanding her business ventures, most likely in fashion or beauty”, and her business goals will not take a backseat to her music career:
“It’s just not realistic and it’s not fun, to be honest, when you have to rush through things. So that is something I definitely want to do, but I want to do it only. So I would take a break from music.”
doja cat, elle, june/july 2022
I guess we should all enjoy Doja Cat’s music while it’s still around. (And good luck to Doja on quitting vaping – protect that voice!). With her level of talent, drive and vision, if Doja wants to take over the scene, all she has to do is Say So.
