If the title of her new mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, wasn’t enough to prove it, Doechii’s newest and first full-length project is dragging us with her back into swamp.
Breaking onto the scene in 2020 with her Oh The Places You’ll Go EP, her playful viral hit “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” helped Doechii secure a precarious but potentially rewarding spot in the cultural landscape. The self-proclaimed “Swamp Princess’s” success landed her a deal with Kendrick Lamar’s Top Dawg Entertainment, where she subsequently released 2022’s she/her/black bitch EP to more acclaim. From the beginning, Doechii’s braggadocious flow combined with her witty wordplay and clever production choices proved she was an artist who not only understood the importance of her influences and acts who came before her but also knew how to use them to her advantage.
On Alligator Bites Never Heal, the next phase of Doechii’s evolution seems to be well on its way to completion. The album is thick with thematic humidity, touching on everything from Doechii’s struggles with her newfound fame and betrayal by lovers and friends, to difficulties with drugs and alcohol and the inability to balance her public and private lives, to trying to figure out who she is as artist when others around her are trying to pull her in different directions. One of the standout tracks, “Denial is a River” — written as a frank conversation between Doechii and her therapist alter ego — features Doechii fake hyperventilating at the end of the track as if breathing through the changes and problems can’t help her because she’s literally gasping for air. It’s her most vulnerable work yet, but she’s not wading through these murky waters on her own.
Her old school cadence, nostalgic production choices, the callbacks to boom bap and Miami jook, and her adoption of the 1990s and 2000s Southern rap lyrical style of just calling it like it is without hiding behind ornate metaphor feel brand new and newly mastered in Doechii’s hands. You can see shades of so many Florida rappers — most notably Trina, though many seem strangely hesitant to mention their names together — and musicians, but you can also see the sprinkling of so many genres that surrounded her growing up: gospel, R&B, alternative rock, and synth-heavy EDM. Doechii plays with it all on Alligator Bites and cements her place as a singular talent. She doesn’t try to pretend like she’s gotten here all by herself. Instead, she leans in, paying the best kind of homage to them by reworking them entirely.
Those familiar with Doechii’s online presence will recognize some of the tracks on the mixtape — specifically “Catfish,” “Bullfrog,” “Boom Bap,” and “Nissan Altima” — from Doechii’s Swamp Sessions where she challenged herself to write and produce a new song in an hour, shoot a video, and post it directly to YouTube. These songs, along with “Boiled Peanuts,” “Death Roll,” and “Skipp,” feature what most have come to love and appreciate from Doechii: hard-hitting lyrics presented with a comical flair and production that feels less radio- and TikTok-ready and more appropriate for bouncing to while taking a late night drive on I-75. As some of the song titles point to, many of these songs feel particularly heavy with the weight of the swampy humidity and unrelenting heat of Florida’s musical past. The warbling production of “Bullfrog” and the jazzy drums of “Boiled Peanuts” slog by as Doechii raps about trying to be herself and make the kind of art she wants to make in the face of people who keep trying to box her in. The chopped and screwed production of “Skipp” and the raunchy confidence of “Nissan Altima” pulsate with the energy of Miami’s hip hop scene in the early 2000s as she assures listeners that she’s one of the best to ever do it and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. On “Catfish,” Doechii employs a rough snarl to her delivery that helps demonstrate she’s the “tough guy” she claimed to be on “Bullfrog.”
Other tracks on the album — such as “Beverly Hills,” “Wait,” and “Bloom” — provide a little break in between all of the sweat and bravado. Although these tracks play with R&B, bossa nova, and smoother synth grooves, Doechii is still just as playful in her delivery and in her genre-mashing as she is anywhere on else on the album. These tracks provide a reprieve for both her and listeners. She gets to show the softer side of her talents, weave some singing in among all of the rapping, and tell us straight up how much she’s been struggling and how much she’s trying to regain her solid footing through all the storms she’s faced so far. For us, we get to bask in the versatility of a multi-hyphenate talent who is truly coming into her own.
The album ends with the groovy, guitar-driven, psychedelia-tinged title track, “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” but instead of bringing us to full closure, Doechii opens yet another door. This finale, combined with the rest of the work on the album, presents a clear message about who Doechii is as an artist. She believes she can do anything she wants and her work here more than proves it. She’s going to keep experimenting, keep playing, keep pushing her work and hip hop beyond the boundaries of where people think it can or should go. The Swamp Princess isn’t done with herself or with us yet. She has so much more to say and so many more places to go, and she’s bringing Tampa with her wherever she goes.
bumpin this on every florida road trip for the foreseeable future
Great lifting music, too. Especially “Nissan Altima.”