The newly Grammy-nominated rapper brought Black girl power to her first Tiny Desk
Doechii continues to tie up 2024 with a bang as the latest star of NPR’s Tiny Desk Series, where she and an apparent ensemble of exclusively Black women in complementary cornrows tore through their set.
They kicked things off calmly with “Boom Bap,” a sarcastic single from her debut mixtape with Top Dawg Entertainment, Alligator Bites Never Heal. Her takes on songs like “Boiled Peanuts” and “Hide and Seek” skewed jazzy, and she even introduced a mellow version of the second verse of “Denial is a River,” a frenetic rap recounting of a tumultuous couple of years that Rolling Stone recently named one of the best songs of the year.
However, she went hard rock for “Catfish,” growling before launching into her intimidating bars. Her horn section laced the track with a riff reminiscent of C-Murda’s “Down for My Niggaz.” She took on parts of her flawless fast-rap performance of “Nissan Altima” a capella, and in another moments, was complimented by just one or two instrumentalists, like her bassist (who gave great bass face). Doechii and the band rolled the high-energy track into a higher-energy praise break before it was over.
She only performed one song from a previous project, “Black Girl Memoir” from her 2020 EP Oh, The Places You’ll Go (which also spawned the TikTopk hit “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake”). “I decided to perform this record because I think there’s been a lot of heightened emotions with the current state of our country,” Doechii said, introducing it. “I wrote this song specifically for Black women. I feel like as a dark-skinned woman there’s a very unique experience that I’m trying to internalize…So I dedicate this to all the beautiful Black women in the room.”
Doechii has been nominated for three Grammys at the 2025 awards, including Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, and Best Rap Performance. Kaytranda’s version of her song “Alter Ego” featuring JT was also nominated for “Best Remixed Recording.”
Alligator Bites Never Heal landed at No. 9 on Rolling Stone’s Best Albums of 2024 list. Just this week, she unleashed another creative performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. In November, she had live conversation with Brittany Howard at Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians event at the Apollo, where both women put on striking sets, as well.
