DOJA CAT

Biography

Doja Cat, born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini on October 21, 1995, in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer known for blending pop, rap, R&B, and internet-savvy humor into a distinctive style.[4][2] Soon after her birth, she moved with her mother to Rye, New York, before returning to California to live at the Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills, a Hindu commune led by jazz musician Alice Coltrane, where she studied Bharatanatyam dance and sang devotional songs.[1][4] Her mother, Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer, is a Jewish-American painter, and her father, Dumisani Dlamini, is a South African actor and musician, giving her a mixed cultural background that later informed her artistic persona.[2][3] After the family left the ashram, she grew up in Oak Park and then the Sherman Oaks area, studying ballet, tap, jazz, and breakdancing, joining a pop-locking dance crew, and attending a performing arts high school before dropping out at 16 to pursue music full-time.[1][4]

As a teenager, Doja Cat immersed herself in online culture and taught herself to sing, rap, and produce using GarageBand, making songs on a desktop computer and uploading them to SoundCloud.[4][2] Her track “So High” became her first significant online success and led to a recording deal with Kemosabe Records and RCA Records, under executive Dr. Luke, at age 17; she released her debut EP Purrr! in 2014.[1][4] After an initially low-key reception to her debut album Amala (2018), she broke through globally when the whimsical, self-directed video and song “Mooo!” went viral in 2018, showcasing her playful, meme-aware persona and turning her into an internet phenomenon.[4][2] She capitalized on this momentum with the deluxe edition of Amala and then her second studio album Hot Pink (2019), which produced major hits like “Say So,” whose remix featuring Nicki Minaj topped the Billboard Hot 100 and solidified her as a mainstream pop-rap star.[4][1] Her third album Planet Her (2021) further expanded her global reach with singles such as “Kiss Me More” featuring SZA, earning her a Grammy Award and multiple nominations.[1][4]

Musically, Doja Cat is known for fluidly mixing rap, melodic pop hooks, R&B vocals, and dance/electronic elements, often pairing catchy, polished production with absurdist or provocative lyrics and visually distinctive music videos heavily optimized for social media virality.[4][6] Her work is strongly tied to internet culture and platforms like TikTok, where snippets of her songs frequently become trends, helping push tracks like “Say So,” “Streets,” and later “Paint the Town Red” into the charts.[5][4] She has become emblematic of a new generation of pop-rap artists who blur genre boundaries, treat memes and visual aesthetics as core creative tools, and maintain an interactive, often provocative relationship with online audiences, cementing her as one of the defining pop figures of the late 2010s and early 2020s.[4][1]

Fun Facts

• She lived for about four years in a Hindu ashram in Agoura Hills led by jazz legend Alice Coltrane, where she practiced Bharatanatyam and sang devotional bhajans before later moving into hip‑hop and pop.[1][4]
• Her breakthrough novelty track “Mooo!” was created largely as a joke with a homemade video, but it went viral in 2018 and unexpectedly became a key turning point in her career.[4][2]
• Doja Cat has said she spent long periods as a teenager on internet forums and sites like eBaum’s World and Myspace, teaching herself to make music on GarageBand while browsing for beats on YouTube.[4][2]
• Her stage name “Doja Cat” was inspired by her early love of weed ("doja") and her affection for cats, combining both into a playful moniker that matched her eccentric online persona.[4]

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Alice Coltrane - Spiritual and artistic influence as the spiritual director of the Sai Anantam Ashram where Doja Cat lived as a child, shaping her early experience with devotional music and disciplined artistic practice. (Early exposure to bhajans and Hindu devotional music at Sai Anantam Ashram) [circa early 2000s (ages ~8–12)]
• Yeti Beats - Early career producer who provided studio space and creative guidance, helping her develop her sound and connecting her to Kemosabe Records. (Early recordings leading up to “So High” and the EP Purrr!) [circa 2012–2014]
• Jerry "Tizhimself" Powell - Producer who discovered her on SoundCloud and introduced her to Yeti Beats, acting as an early connector in her professional development. (Early demo and development sessions prior to label signing) [circa 2012–2013]

Key Collaborators

• Yeti Beats - Primary early producer and recurring collaborator, helping shape her hybrid R&B/rap/pop sound. (Early sessions associated with “So High,” Purrr! and subsequent material for Amala era) [2012–late 2010s]
• Dr. Luke (Kemosabe Records) - Executive producer and label head who signed her to Kemosabe, involved in the production and direction of her commercial releases. (EP Purrr! and subsequent releases under Kemosabe/RCA framework) [from 2013 signing onward]
• Nicki Minaj - High-profile collaborator on the remix that turned “Say So” into a No. 1 hit, boosting Doja Cat’s mainstream presence. (“Say So (Remix)”) [2020]
• SZA - Featured vocalist on one of Doja Cat’s biggest crossover pop-R&B hits. (“Kiss Me More” from Planet Her) [2021]

Artists Influenced

• Emerging TikTok-era pop-rap and internet-native artists (various) - Cited broadly in music journalism as a template for blending meme culture, genre-fluid pop-rap, and highly visual, viral-friendly aesthetics; specific named protégés are not well-documented, but her approach has influenced younger artists leveraging TikTok and internet humor in mainstream pop. (Influence reflected in meme-driven promotion and genre-blending singles across TikTok and streaming platforms) [late 2010s–2020s]

Discography

Albums

Top Tracks

1. Born Again (feat. Doja Cat & RAYE)
2. Kiss Me More (feat. SZA) (Planet Her)
3. Streets (Hot Pink)
4. Woman (Planet Her)
5. Born Again (feat. Doja Cat & RAYE) (Alter Ego)
6. Need to Know (Planet Her)
7. Paint The Town Red
8. Just Us (feat. Doja Cat)
9. So High
10. Candy (Amala)

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia
• MusicBrainz

Tags: #alternative-rock, #grunge, #hip-hop