Give Doechii whatever she wants. Buy the tickets to her forthcoming “Live from The Swamp Tour.” It’s time to become a paying member of The Swamp, the affectionate title given to her fans.
The self-proclaimed swamp princess is a headliner, period. And for anyone who didn’t already know that, which apparently Lollapalooza did not, then look no further than the hip-hop masterclass she put on Saturday in Chicago. She gave a theme and stuck to it. She gave A+ bars and entertainment. She gave her all.
“I’ll never forget this. Thank you,” Doechii the Dean said to a spellbound Lolla crowd large enough to pack the big ole field adjoining both the T-Mobile and Lakeshore stages. Fest goers, and even those who watched the livestream on Hulu, won’t ever forget it either.
Dubbed “Doechii’s School of Hip Hop,” the 26-year-old Tampa native kicked off the afternoon show with pristine visuals and audio of her voice reciting the lyric, “let’s start the story backwards,” from the “Stanka Pooh” intro of her 2024 critically-acclaimed Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape.
Once on stage, surrounded by school desks, her dancers, her trusted DJ Miss Milan and a towering 1980s-esque boombox, Doechii proceeded to serve hard-hitting boom-bap raps with a side of cuntiness and a sip of sexy.
She rapped “Bullfrog” into hints of Wu-Tang’s iconic 1994 record “C.R.E.A.M.” before going back into her alligator bag with “Boiled Peanuts.” She honored her Florida lineage when she flowed “Nissan Altima” into a smidgen of Trina’s 2001 Miami bad bitch anthem, “Pull Over.”
And for the longtime members of The Swamp, Doechii took the crowd back to the moment in 2023 when she freestyled over Beyoncé’s “America Has A Problem” on TikTok. It sparked a campaign of listeners begging Queen Bey to put Doechii on the official remix, but Beyoncé instead opted for Doechii’s former labelmate, Kendrick Lamar. Doechii’s performance of the freestyle at Lolla was a reminder of a rare Beyoncé miss.
“Chicago, hi!” Doechii said coyly just before bringing out the City Girls’ JT for their collab “Alter Ego.” The song ignited a round of voguing, death drops, twerking and audibly pleasing bits of 1991’s “Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee)” by Crystal Waters. Then came “Persuasive.” The crowd was jumping.
“The production was off the charts,” said Serenity Peterson, a 24-year-old Lolla attendee. “I loved how she was telling a story, and then it kind of went along with her songs and it kind of matched her music videos, too.”
Her friend, Olivia Wilson, agreed. “You really have to give her her props for how well she curates her whole aesthetic,” she said.
Another festgoer, Omojolade Oladipupo, said it was her first time at Lollapalooza. Doechii’s show was “Black as hell,” she said.
“She’s so everything. I love her,” Oladipupo said. “It’s just good to have this representation of, like, a dark chocolate woman really commanding the crowd and just, you know, being herself. And I love it.”
To some, it may seem like Doechii blew up overnight. The rollout of her second mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, turned heads: a series of Swamp Sessions including a provocative video for “Bullfrog,” a 14-city “Alligator Bites Never Heal Tour,” a memorable NPR Tiny Desk performance, an engaging rendition of “Denial is a River” with showrunner and actress Issa Rae, a 1990s sitcom homage called the Denial is a River show with funny man Zack Fox and labelmate Schoolboy Q, and a showstopping performance at the 2025 Grammys. She took home Best Rap Album.
But Doechii’s rise to star status has been brewing for a while. She slid an impeccable verse onto Isaiah Rashad’s 2021 hit “Wat U Sed.” In 2022, she signed onto Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) as the label’s first female rapper. Her artist development and intentional artistic expression has been stellar.
While Lolla attendees can grow disinterested in the middle of sets, sometimes leaving after they’ve heard the song they came for to head to another show, those at Doechii’s set stayed put the whole 50 minutes.
After her show ended, the cameras followed her backstage to a sedan wrapped in the words “Doechii Tour.” As the car drove off, on-screen visuals show an alligator and the website to sign up for details on her upcoming tour: https://www.livefromtheswamp.com.
Doechii’s set was a well-oiled machine. If Lolla was a teaser for what’s to come, her tour is one you won’t want to miss.
