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Singer and rapper Doja Cat has released her third studio album, titled Planet Her. Music critic Briana Younger discusses some of the album’s most significant songs.
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Pop singer and rapper Doja Cat is releasing her third studio album, “Planet Her”. She got her start making quirky rap videos on YouTube in the early 2010s, and now the 25-year-old has had three Grammy nominations, Top 10 hits, and her songs often go viral on TikTok. . But not all of this success is without controversy. Journalist Briana Younger introduces us to some of the album’s most memorable tracks.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG DOJA CAT, “WOMAN”)
BRIANA YOUNGER: My first choice is the first song on the album, which is “Woman”. I love that she used this song to open her album. It has that really bright and sexy Afropop flavor. And Doja herself is, of course, part South African through her father.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG, “WOMAN”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) Let me be your wife. Woman, woman, woman. I can be your wife.
YOUNGER: The album is a whole kaleidoscope of sounds, but this one is new to her, and she lives in it so well. Like, that’s the thing that really sets her apart, the feeling that she’s always looking. She is always open to change, always fluid.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG, “WOMAN”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) You can return the favor. I taste delicious. You need a woman’s touch in your place. Just protect it and protect it.
YOUNGER: Commercially speaking, you know, music rewards the comfort zones of the artist and the fan. So I thought it was good that Doja sets the tone with this album with something that stretches her and that is new to her. She just killed him.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG DOJA CAT, “IMAGINE”)
YOUNGER: One of her strongest assets, even in 2014 with, say, her debut EP, is how fluent she is in music and the internet, which made her strength, but it’s also you know, has been to its detriment at times.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG, “IMAGINE”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) Shoot like, ooh, you’re a bad guy. Imagine. Imagine.
YOUNG: People tried to cast her for various sins. There was the 2015 song she made that uses a racist term that was coined online in right-wing circles. There was the chat room debacle last year where people thought she was participating in chat rooms where occasional racism is the norm. But she’s able to get by in part because she basically understands how to browse the internet, because she just uses the internet in this weird way. But really, I feel like she’s getting around it because she’s just incredibly talented.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG, “IMAGINE”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) Sauce with my thousands on an island. I have imagination because I am childish. Imagine.
YOUNG: Pop is that superfluous space, and it’s capable of being playful and edgy and utterly freaky, and then channeling it in that super charismatic and polite way for better or for worse.
(FROM THE SONG DOJA CAT, “LOVE TO DREAM”)
YOUNGER: “Love To Dream” is that really beautiful, dreamy kind of ballad that shows how well Doja can sing as well. Her vocal tone, which is, like, super-delicate and pretty, combined with the kind of layering of form that unique and ethereal effect.
(EXCERPT FROM THE SONG, “LOVE TO DREAM”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) We love to dream. I fell asleep…
YOUNGER: It’s easy to get used to Doja and the more upbeat mischievous type of character. But when she cuts it down and does that, like a delicate, vulnerable singer, like, you really come to appreciate her range as an artist. And I think “Love To Dream” is one of those where it’s like, oh, like, you really do it all.
(EXCERPT FROM THE SONG, “LOVE TO DREAM”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) I don’t want to close my eyes. No one wants to fall after doing everything.
YOUNGER: For all the so-called cancellation attempts, I think Doja is just here to stay. And I welcome it. I think she has a lot of talent. And we watch it grow and develop, and it’s just – it’s really a pleasure to witness.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG, “KISS ME MORE”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) Can you kiss me more? We are so young, my boy. We have nothing to lose.
MCCAMMON: Music journalist Briana Younger tells us about Doja Cat’s new album, “Planet Her”.
(EXTRACT FROM THE SONG, “KISS ME MORE”)
DOJA CAT: (Singing) Baby, hold me cause I like the way you groove.
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