Doechii’s Glastonbury slot is all part of her five-year plan

In 2023, Doechii announced that she was three years in her five -year plan to become one of the biggest names in music.

“In five years, I want to be at my peak,” She said to Billboard magazine.

“I want to be in my fierce time in Sasha, the top of my game with a long way to go – but I want to reach my peak and never leave it.”

At the time, it looked like a daring affirmation.

The rapper and singer born in Florida had marked a few strokes – notably Persuasive, an ode to marijuana who ended up on the summer playlist of Barack Obama – but nothing that had been crossed in the traditional charts.

But jumping to 2025 and Doechi is a winner of a Grammy Award “woman of the year“, Which is about to play one of the most anticipated sets at the Glastonbury Festival.

It is difficult to identify the turning point. Some people say it was her Fascinating performance on the late show with Stephen Colbert Last December.

The hair carefully braided at her support dancers, she delivered a meticulously choreographed performance of boiled peanuts and denial is a river – a co -caricatural character, in which she entrusted her therapist that her boyfriend was cheating on another man.

Others surround him Tiny office concert, Released on YouTube two days later. The whole of 15 minutes bursts with joie de vivre, simultaneously moving and fiery, while the Hoche star through jazzy recreations and in a complete band of its mixtape, the clogs of alligator never heal.

She won even more fans of the Grammys in March, where she won the best rap album, making her the third female artist to win in the category.

In her speech, she spoke directly to young black women and queer like her: “Do not allow anyone to project stereotypes on you, to tell you that you cannot be here, that you are too dark or that you are not intelligent enough or that you are too dramatic or that you are too strong.”

She crowned her victory with an ultra -physical performance which referred to Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott and Bob Fosse – and ended with her pulling the divisions while being held in the air by five male dancers.

With three “Star-IS” performances in just four months, Doechii has become the new most spoken rapper of his generation … Just as she planned.

So where did it all started?

Doechii was born Jaylah Ji’Mya Hickmon in Tampa, Florida, and grew up in a “very Christian” single -parent house by her mother, Celesia Moore.

A studious child who liked to write poetry, she invented her alter-ego at the age of 11, after being viciously victim of intimidation at school.

“I was in a position where I thought of killing myself because the intimidation was so bad”, ” She said Dazed Magazine in February.

“Then, I had this achievement: I will not do that, because then they will all have the chance to live and I will be the only death.”

His attitude has changed overnight.

“Jaylah might have been intimidated, but I decided that Doechii would not defend that,” She recalled in an interview with Vulture.

“And then,” She said to breakfast“I went to school in a tutu and started making music.”

As a teenager, she spent four years at Howard W. Blake School of the Arts in Tampa, after finally winning a place on the choral program by finally performing Etta James.

The school unlocked its creativity, allowing it to take lessons in everything, from the design of nails and hair, on ballet, tap, cheerleading and stage production. However, it was gymnastics that left the greatest impression.

“The way gymnasts train is really, really difficult. It’s brutal and hard and difficult,” She said to Gay Times.

“But at some point in my career in gymnastics, I learned to kiss and really love pain. To see the pain as I become stronger and better. It caused a deep discipline that never left me.”

The school has also helped the teenager to accept her sexuality.

“Even if I knew [that I was queer]I did not feel as comfortable until I started to surround myself with more gay friends in my school.

“Once I had gay friends, it was:” Ok, I can be myself, I am fine, I can feel safe, it’s normal, I’m fine. “I have these same friends today and I will have them for life.”

That’s not all they gave him: these same friends convinced Doechii to give up his ambitions to become a chorister and start writing and taking out his own music.

Initially called iamdoéchii, she downloaded her first song in Soundcloud in 2016, and self-published his first single Girls Two years later.

He was already carrying the characteristics of his best work: rhythmically and lyrically dexter, and filled with personality.

“”Take nudes / none of them for you“, She reprimanded a soft electric piano, before the rhythm changed and her rap became more frantic. By the closing bars, she barely had time to resume the breath by listing her achievements.

“”Earning money from my phone, huh / Doechii finally in your area. “”

The lines were more prophecy than of reality. Doechii had a solid suite on Youtube, but she was still working at Zara to reach both ends.

In 2019, she was reserved for a window in New York and jumped on a bus – without the money for her return trip.

“At night after, I slept in a McDonald’s,” She recalled in an interview in 2022.

“And then I had to call one of my mother’s friends … and, as, beg her to let me sleep at her house. And I ended up living there until I come back to my feet.”

Things started to turn around with the outing of the 2020s Fruit cake Lucky Bluckythe name of the children’s book by Junie B. Jones, in which Doechii sketched his own childhood.

Depending on the lyrics, she was early (“I try to act intelligently because I want a lot of friends“), competitive (“I become a little violent when I play tag game“) And often broken (“My mom used stamps because she needs a little help“).

The song marked a breakthrough in her writing.

“I lacked this feeling of vulnerability and honesty in my music”, ” She said to BillboardUntil “I learned precision and say exactly what it is, as on Lucky Blucky Fruitcake”.

The song has become viral, winning a recording contract with Top Dawg Entertainment – the label that launched Kendrick Lamar and Sza.

She followed with the hook effortlessly Persuasivewinning praise from Sza (which jumped on a remix) and former President Barack Obama.

“I can’t imagine that Obama just blocked my song,” she exclaimed. “I don’t think so, but if it really does it – it’s crazy.”

Doechii then collaborated with Kodak Black on the single 2023 What it is (block boy)Which won its first top 40.

Then everything stalled.

Summary subsequent singles collapsed, and Doechii was, as she wrote later on social networks, “drowning in my own vices, fighting the differences with my label and a creative numbness that broke me”.

Initially, his alligator bites never heal the mixtape similar to repeat the pattern. Released last August, he entered the American charts at number 117 and disappeared a week later.

But the criticisms were ecstatic.

The criticisms loved the acerbic and funny words, which have seen Doechii unpack the tests and the tribulations of the last two years; And praise on bars that recalled adults such as Q-Tip, Lauryn Hill and Slick Rick, while following the rhythm of contemporaries like Kendrick Lamar.

After a period dominated by the mumbled bars of Souncloud Rap, his precision was a breath of fresh air.

“One of the most made albums in small groups of the year”, ” wrote Rolling Stone. “If it is the sound of Doechii which pushes against constraints, a little friction may not be the worst thing,” Addition of fork.

While the word spread, it was reserved to play Colbert’s show and the small office. These performances lit a rocket under his career. In April, Alligator collapsed in the top 10 of the United States and the UK top 40.

Around the same time, she bowed to the pressure of fans by freeing her 2019 Youtube song, AnxietyA pop-rap crossing based on a sample of someone I knew.

With a catchy video that has recreated a complete panic attack, he hit number three in the United Kingdom, and even earned Doechii a quote in medical psychology today.

“The song and the accompanying video work so well by showing exactly how anxiety feels in our body and our minds,” wrote Professor Sandra Chafouleas.

“Think of fast and short breaths, racing thoughts and worrying about things that have not yet happened. Anxiety looks like” anxiety “, with a brilliant reflect of the way the experience can divert us.”

Since then, Doechii has been working hard on his first album. There had been rumors that she would release him in time for her glastonbury niche on Saturday evening, but perfectionists must perfect. At the time of writing, she is still in the studio.

Addressing Dazed, she dropped some signs of what is in store.

“In Alligator Bites never heals, the archetype was a hip-hop student. For this next project, I think of the way this student develops.

“Who is developing? What she learned? I always unpack how this character develops in this next project.”

Despite the delay, the title of Doechii remains one of the largest prints in Glastonbury.

It may only be 45 minutes, but it will count each of them.

As the star boasted on her single Nose bleeding: “Will she never lose? Dude, I guess we will never know.“”