How Quitting Weed Helped Doja Cat Step Up Her Songwriting

“I’m actually reflecting on who I am as a person.”

After going viral last year with “MOOO!,” rapper Doja Cat earned her first Billboard Hot 100 hit this summer with “Juicy.” In anticipation of her upcoming sophomore album, Hot Pink, she sat down for a Los Angeles Times interview in which she spoke about stepping up her songwriting after quitting weed.

Doja admitted to being “super high all the time” while recording her last album, 2018’s Amala. “I thought it’d be cool to be that person smoking so much weed, that it was the only way to be respected,” she explained. “Then I realized ‘Oh, yeah, I can just be myself.’ I’m making so much more music now.”

For Hot Pink, Doja took a completely different approach that allowed her to write more meaningful, introspective music:

When I stopped and did this album, I’ve never been more concise and clear and levelheaded. People will love me and hate me for it: ‘Why doesn’t she sound like she doesn’t know what she’s talking about anymore?’ I used to write stuff where it didn’t matter. Now there are things I believe in, that get me excited and piss me off. I’m actually reflecting on who I am as a person.

As the LA Times points out, however, the project doesn’t shed the creativity and humor that propelled the LA native’s viral rise. On her most recent single, “Rules,” Doja name-drops Bob Dylan and Paris Hilton while calling herself a reptilian:

Bobs on me like Dylan, blondes on me like Hilton
 Wendys on me like Williams, shouting, digging
 Look at me like I’m alien
 Bitch, I’m fucking reptilian      

Meanwhile, another single titled “Bottom Bitch” samples the classic ​​blink-182 hit, “What’s My Age Again?,” as Doja imagines herself as a pimp.

Hot Pink arrives next Friday, November 7. Doja co-produced most of the album with her longtime collaborator Yeti Beats, with additional contributions from Ben Billions and Salaam Remi.

Article via Genius