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‘She really is everything!’: how Doechii became a rap icon – and bagged a Grammy

Blending technical brilliance with emotional depth, the 26-year-old beat big names like Eminem to the best rap album award. Collaborators and fans explain her appeal

Combining the sound of 90s hip-hop with neo-soul and newer rap subgenres, Doechii unpacks the trials and tribulations of young stardom – drug addiction, label disputes, the weight of expectation – with the sharpness and timing of a great comic. Fans point to her charisma, and her huge technical ability: she’s able to deliver complex high-speed rhymes perfectly on top of the beat – as was shown later on in the Grammys ceremony, in a thrillingly choreographed, relentlessly rapped performance of album tracks Catfish and Denial Is a River. “Whenever anything is popular, sometimes there are a lot of people doing a similar thing, especially in the kind of ‘pussy rap’ genre,” she says, referring to the sexually confident style of artists such as Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Latto and City Girls.

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