How did superstar Doja Cat survive being ‘cancelled’?
AMALA Ratna Zandile Dlamini, better known as Doja Cat, has cemented her place in the music industry.
Having recently released her highly anticipated third album, Planet Her, the Kiss Me More hitmaker’s album, has received overwhelming praise, getting a 7.8 rating on Pitchfork, four stars on NME and 77% on Metacritic.
Planet Her is one of the best albums to be released this year. From the Afrobeats-inspired opening track, Woman, to Get Into It (Yuh), which pays homage to female hip hop star Nicki Minaj, Doja seamlessly weaves together trap, pop and various other genres for an eclectic mix of songs that show her versatility as a rapper and singer.
However, there was a period in her rise to stardom that she was close to being cancelled.
Last year, the hitmaker landed in hot water when videos of her in a Tinychat forum, where she is seen making sexually suggestive comments and stripping for what some said were alt-right/white supremacist users, surfaced.
She initially addressed what happened in an Instagram post and said: “I’ve used public chat rooms to socialise since I was a child.
“I shouldn’t have been on some of those chat room sites, but I personally have never been involved in any racist conversations. I’m sorry to everyone I offended.”
She later deleted the post and tackled the accusation she was facing after #Dojacatisoverparty was trending online.
Taking to Instagram Live, she explained that she wasn’t aware of any alt-right/white supremacists in the Tinychat rooms with her.
Furthermore, she debunked the accusations that she was “stripping for white supremacists” and had a moderator on the website who was banning users and deleting comments and users that said anything racist.
“The narrative that it’s a white supremacist chat room is absolutely 100% incorrect,” she said.
This all happened during the time Say So climbed to No 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chat and this was the type of bad publicity she didn’t need since her star was on the rise.
When it comes to cancel culture, the main thing to remember is that it doesn’t exist. Many celebrities who have been cancelled – including Ellen Degeneres, Kevin Hart, Chris Brown and Chris Pratt – continue to have successful careers, so it’s clear that cancelling someone is not a group effort but a personal thing.
And as long as you have fans that will excuse problematic behaviour, you can still have a career.
How did Doja Cat make it through the storm? We are all aware how black women are rarely given wiggle room for making mistakes and then coming back like she has. Well, it’s simple. She attacked the storm before it got out of control and took accountability for her actions.
Youtuber Smokey Glow says it perfectly when he suggests that instead of calling it cancel culture, we should call it “accountability culture”. Since being cancelled has become a badge of honour from those that fear the woke police, we instead need people to hold themselves accountable for their problematic behaviour, not only in words but in actions.
Doja reacted quickly and instead of a PR statement, she spoke directly to her fans – and not in the Youtuber apology hoodie with fake tears. She earnestly gave a rundown of what happened and quickly put the flame out before it became a forest fire.
Many celebrities make the mistake of just giving us an Note App press release and then never address it again. And if you are a cisgender white man, black man or white woman, the chances are that you can get away with this bare-minimum response.
However, when you’re a black woman, this same kind of grace isn’t extended – just look at Azealia Banks’s career.
Doja Cat’s core fanbase is filled with queer millennials and Gen Z youngsters who have very little tolerance for problematic behaviour and will cut you off with the quickness, again ask Banks.
And it isn’t that hard. Just by doing some introspection and the work to unlearn things and be truly apologetic and sincere with her words, the musician hasn’t made a wrong move since then.
Instead, she has become of the biggest pop stars, one whose performances are eagerly anticipated at awards ceremonies.
Yes, she’s a bit of a weirdo online, but she’s also surrounded herself with a great team and has given some of the best live performances of 2020. And so we have no choice but to stan.