DOJA CAT

Los Angeles' Doja Cat is a singer and rapper known for her hypnotically wry sound rife with deep hip-hop and electronic R&B influences. After gaining buzz with her 2014 debut EP, Purrr!, Doja Cat rose to greater prominence with her cheeky 2019 viral hit "Mooo!" Born Amala Zandile Dlamini in 1995 in Tarzana, California, Doja Cat grew up in New York City, the daughter of South African actor Dumisani Dlamini and painter Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer. As a child, she studied piano and took tap, ballet, and jazz dance lessons. Around age 11, she moved with her family to Oak Park, California, where she discovered surfing and breakdancing. By her teens, she was teaching herself to sing and listening to an eclectic mix of hip-hop, indie-rock, R&B, and electronic music. She also began recording songs on her computer and in 2014 released her debut EP, Purrr! She quickly found herself with a viral hit with the track "So, High." More singles followed including the languid "Nunchucks" and "No Police," each one grabbing attention online. Another single, "Mooo!," arrived in 2018 and quickly went viral. On the heels of that success, Doja Cat issued her full-length debut album, Amala, which found her expanding upon her dreamy, meme-friendly sound with more hip-hop-, pop-, and R&B-infused tracks, including "Candy" and "Roll with Us." In 2019, she issued an expanded version of Amala that added the singles "Juicy" and "Tia Tamara," featuring Rico Nasty. Her sophomore album, Hot Pink, was quick to follow; with features from Smino, Gucci Mane, and Tyga, the 2019 LP leaned more into the sexually wry aspects of her ever-shifting persona.