Vie by Doja Cat

The career of meme queen turned pop-rapstress Doja Cat is a tale of two artists.

Her 2021 LP Planet Her served up sugary pop jams with an R&B edge, with tracks like “Woman,” “Need To Know,” and the top-ten single “Kiss Me More.” She appears on the album cover hyperfemme: long hair, curvy body, perfectly painted face.

Just two years later, however, Doja suddenly made a hard left. She announced “no more pop” on her Twitter, shaved her lengthy locks to a buzzcut, and began posting photos of herself on her platforms that can only be described as deliberately ugly. While fans contemplated whether she was losing her mind, she was actually in the lead-up to her fourth album Scarlet. Described as a “masculine” counterpart to Planet Her, that album was all rap, no pop, Doja proving to critics (and herself) that she can spit bars with the best of them.

Now, another two years have passed, and Doja has split the difference to a degree with her fifth record Vie. Over sumptuous 80s-style dance beats replete with bouncy bass and groovy saxophone, she amps up both her singing and rapping game to create what is easily her best album since Planet Her.