- [Dometi] First of all, Doja Cat,
congratulations!
You gotta tell me what went through your mind
when you realized you won Best New Artist?
- I thought it was a sick prank.
(laughing)
No, I was really, really excited
to find that out
and I like,
I didn't know how to try to hold myself back from tears.
And I usually say that
I don't care about this kind of thing,
but I actually do.
I think
I now know that I do care about
getting this award a lot.
I mean, it means that there are people out there
who enjoy my music
and they care about me.
Like, they care about the craft.
They care about what I'm doing.
That's amazing for me because
I just enjoy doing it, period.
If people didn't like it,
I'd probably still be doing it.
But, it's really cool
that people support it.
- [Dometi] You know, I love talking to artists
when you feel like you've had a chance
to watch their growth.
You know, we saw you from a self-produced video
like "Mooo!," where we could tell that you are dope
and that you care about the music,
but you weren't taking yourself too seriously.
And you self-produced that all the way to the VMAs.
And now, with so much music out, that people have a chance
to really appreciate your artistry,
are you surprised at your meteoric rise?
Or is it one of those moments where you always knew
you'd be here, and it's just like
a "hard work pays off" type of thing?
- It's been a long time.
I mean like, a decade now,
for sure, that
I've been putting out music on SoundCloud,
putting stuff out for free from my bedroom.
I've been doing this for a long time and I--
it's not that I didn't really expect it,
I just feel like, you know,
it's funny to see where I came from,
and know where I came from,
and then to be at this point.
'Cause I blew up when I put out "Mooo!,"
which was the crappiest video of all time.
It was green screen.
It didn't even look good
and like, people know me from that.
A lot of people know me from that.
So, to come from that,
to this-- for them to see that,
I feel like they're seeing something that's like,
what I'm seeing.
Like, I feel like they get it
'cause I didn't blow up off of a huge song,
like a pop record.
I blew up off of like, a meme.
- Right. - Does that make any sense?
- No, it makes a lot of sense,
and that's why I asked the question, too.
Because it's like,
even in that meme,
you heard the talent and artistry.
Like, it was still rhythmic.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
You saw the creativity and you saw it there.
The internet has been a way for you to connect
with your fans.
We've seen TikTok
give us viral moments with "Say So,"
all the way to the remix with Nicki.
What is it like to see your songs
take on lives of their own?
Once they leave, you know, your studio,
once you jump off of that IG Live,
when you record your music, and then
it hits the ecosystem and it takes its own form.
- It's amazing.
I mean,
I know like, I started from the internet,
and that's my world.
Just to see like, that world become my real world,
that's crazy in and of itself.
- Let's get into the "Say So" video.
How'd you know that Hannah Lux Davis was the right person
to bring that vision to life,
and how did you come up with the creative vision
for that video?
- Hannah knows how to do beauty.
Hannah's very good with beauty,
and glam, and just capturing
something that's feminine and sexy,
like the song "Say So."
I feel like "Say So" is one of my more feminine, sexy songs,
and it had that disco vibe,
and I feel like that's fun.
You can play on theme.
She's really good with themes.
She's fantastic for it in that sense.
- Word, word.
Do you see yourself ever directing videos in the future?
- I direct my own videos most of the time.
I mean, I write the treatments for them.
We find a director.
I don't have like, a license
as a director or anything,
but I definitely want to direct more videos.
And yeah, do some crazy stuff.
- Let's get into the performance, man.
You know, you said in past interviews,
you typically don't like to script your performances.
You want to just make it organic.
You want to go all out.
What was the spirit of your approach
to your VMA performance this year?
- So, the VMA performance is the polar opposite
of what I usually do.
It's still me, though.
It's me on stage,
but I feel like I'm in control more.
I have a choreographed set.
Everything
is just the way that I want it to be
and it's just, it's everything.
We wanted to follow the MTV Moonman vibe.
We could have been astronauts,
but I felt like, for this one,
I just wanted to be a pink alien with green hair
and I wanted to look sexy.
I wanted to feel sexy.
I feel like we kind of amped everything up with
the LED suit.
There's a lot going on.
That's just my style.
I like, I loved the whole thing.
The dancers did amazing.
Just everything, I'm super confident with,
and I feel blessed to have done this show.
- One of my favorite interviews that I've seen with you
is when you said that,
"I'm not doing the same thing every day.
"I try to do something different every single time."
And I want to know, for the next, you know,
era of Doja Cat, for the music that's coming up,
you know, we saw a glimpse of all of that new creativity
in that performance,
what can we expect new from your music, your next aesthetic,
your next project?
What are you thinking?
- So, I'm always kind of winging it.
(laughing)
But, I have my album coming,
can't say when,
but that's pretty much it.
I really want to make it a surprise.
- Okay.
- I don't want to say too much.
- Can you tell us what the energy
is gonna be like on this new album?
- It's very similar to 'Hot Pink' in the sense that
each of the songs do have their own
kind of personality to them, and sound.
It's not gonna be perfectly consistent.
I've never been anyway,
but I definitely wanted to kind of have fun,
and just do that again.
And we have some dance-hall stuff on there,
some Afro-beat stuff,
we have some funk, house kind of stuff on there.
I'm trying to cover all bases is what I'm saying.
I'm having a lot of fun doing this album
and I can't wait for people to hear it.
And I think my fans are excited,
so I'm excited too.
- Well, you won't give us a release date,
but you said you want it to be a surprise.
Are you gonna do a rollout,
or are you gonna drop it out of nowhere?
- I don't know, should I?
- I think you should tell me the date right now.
That's what I think, personally.
- Well...
No.
But, (laughing)
I love you and thank you for this interview.
- Yes. - But, no.
(laughing)