Doechii Delivers Stellar Tiny Desk Performance, X Reacts

Doechii is shining brightly in the limelight, living up to the promise many of her longtime fans knew existed before inking a deal with the Top Dawg Entertainment collective. After tearing down NPR’s Tiny Desk stage in what some say is the best performance delivered on the set, Doechii is delivering anything but “Harriet Tubman Music.” Doechii, 26, hit the Tiny Desk stage with an all-Black, all-woman backing band who provided powerful sonics to match the Tampa, Fla. star’s charismatic and animated performance. The rapper and singer, born Jaylah Hickmon, first appeared on our radar with her 2020 mixtape, Oh the Places You’ll Go. It was clear then that the “Swamp Princess” was poised for stardom. TDE, as is the label’s custom, has brought the multi-talented Doechii along carefully after signing her in 2021, and it culminated in her acclaimed mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, an explosive mix of Hip-Hop, pop, and R&B music but even that simplifies her artistry. The Tiny Desk set opened with “BOOM BAP” from Alligator Bites Never Heal, one of many standout tracks from the mixtape. Doechii and the band then launched into a six-song set comprised of songs from the aforementioned mixtape, including a rousing high-energy rendition of “NISSAN ALTIMA” before toning it down and allowing her band and background singers to carry the moment over. In an emotional closing moment, Doechii took it back to 2020 with “Black Girl Memoir,” neatly wrapping up her set but doing so with a manner of pride about not only her status as a Black woman but specifically as a dark-skinned Black woman from the South. Despite a nearly universal amount of praise for the performance, a viewer of the performance by the name of @Mzthangggg took to X and dropped off what many felt was a tasteless insult regarding another acclaimed performance. Doechii was the musical guest for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, rocking the studio set with “DENIAL IS A RIVER” and “BOILED PEANUTS” via a theatrical production that was just as stirring as the Tiny Desk set. Of the latter performance, @Mzthangggg wrote, “Making those Harriet Tubman music is the cheat code to getting respected in rap,” which led to an epic dragging and charges of colorism. By now, social media and much of the world realize that Doechii makes great music coupled with stellar performance values and the culture is rallying around her. We’ve got reactions from X listed below.

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Photo: Getty

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