“I really love jazz music, and I love neo soul, and different kinds of rock music and indie and experimental music,” Doja Cat said during an intimate conversation with fellow rapper Jack Harlow for Present Space. “That stuff tends to get pushed to the side by the general populace, and I didn’t see it in the past for me, so I did the thing that I knew would stick.”

She continued, “Now, I feel like I can take those elements that I have from the music that sticks and put it into this soup of different genres that I really love and enjoy and respect.”

Going forward, she desires to expand the subject matter she often raps and sings about.

“That’s what I’ve always loved to do, is swirl a lot of different sounds together, but really in the future, I want to start going in a different direction sonically that isn’t supposed to just protect my pockets necessarily and isn’t just supposed to woo the younger fans or the people who only want to hear sexual themes or self-medication or stuff like that. There’s so much to life and it’s been a pattern of writing about those things for me, but now I want to stretch the canvas.”

She also discussed the impact of her fourth and most recent studio album, Scarlet, and what it means to her.

“Scarlet is a very, to put it simply, quite an angry project,” she said. “And I think the point of that album was to showcase anger and how it processes through my mind, but also it’s about coming to your own defence and love.”

She added, “It’s also a massive deal to me that I was able to reflect on love and what love means to me, whether it be towards another person or myself. SCARLET the character represents vulnerability, but also the colour red. It’s sort of my “Why I oughta!” moment [laughs] of squaring up with everyone and defending myself, telling myself that I’m here for me, and not just for everybody else’s enjoyment.”

Upon its September 2023 release, Scarlet peaked at No.4 on the Billboard 200 chart The next month, Doja Cat embarked on her first headlining tour to promote the LP, which spawned the chart-topper “Paint the Town Red.” The North American leg of the Scarlet Tour kicked off on Oct. 31 in San Francisco before wrapping on Dec. 13 in Chicago. As Blavity reported, Doja Cat made history in April by becoming the first female rapper to headline Coachella.