Diving into the Vibrant World of Doja Cat’s ‘Scarlet’ Album

With her last album, Planet Her, released in 2021, Doja Cat makes her grand re-entry into the music scene with her latest album release Scarlet. Dropped on September 22nd,2023, what felt like a long game of music snippets, ambiguous social media posts, internet trolling and a 360-degree aesthetic turnaround has come to a close. With seventeen songs on the album and not a single feature in sight, Doja demands your attention on her.

Starting off her album with one of her more iconic single releases, “Paint The Town Red,” she speaks on how society perceives her as she takes on the “music artist turns demonic” route. Touching on fans’ disapproval of her surprising new shaved head look that she debuted a year ago. As well as her pop culture moment of her vaping in the background of a red-carpet interview at the 2023 Met Gala. Doja sets the tone of her album well by having this be the first song on the tracklist. She shows off her passive attitude towards everyone who wants to add their two cents about her life. Leading it into her second single release “Demons.” If you haven’t seen the music video for either of these songs, I highly suggest you do. But the album doesn’t really pick up till the third song on the track.

“Wet Vagina,” hits you with a new sound that I don’t think has been showcased on any of Doja’s albums before. You can tell the artist is trying to steer away from the Pop genre train that she got trapped on after her beloved album Hot Pink. The grunge, underground sound is a theme that is heavily influenced in the bulk of this album. Especially, as a majority of her songs have her rapping and not singing as much. This is something that fans have been begging the artist to bring back ever since her album Amala in 2019.

"You gon’ see me sleepin' in courtside
You gon' see me eatin' ten more times
Ugh, you can’t take that bitch nowhere
Ugh, I look better with no hair
Ugh, ain't no sign I can't smoke here
Ugh, gimme the chance and I'll go there (Yeah)"
Lyrics from "Paint The Town Red"

As the album continues, you get to “Ouchies.” A song that sounds like it should be played at a secret backroom fight club. Then followed by “97,” Doja gives the sultry vibe that she is known for. It’s impossible to not want to bob your head as she raps over this repeated beat. The rap rhythm remains consistent throughout the next songs; “Gun,” “Go Off” and “Shutcho.”

The 10th song on this whirlwind of an album, “Agorga Hills,” deserves an honorable mention. Personally, it is my favorite song, probably topping above “Demons” and “Paint The Town Red.” In this song, the singer gives this soft e-girl cyber girl vibe with not only the tone she uses in this song, but also with the synth-pop beats she has chosen to rap over. As you get to the second verse, you hear the rough rap tone that Doja has used for the majority of this album, and it becomes a back-and-forth switch between Soft Doja and Rough Doja. An oddly satisfying pairing that fits well with what the song is trying to convey.

Yeah, yeah
Y'all been pushin' "Satan this" and "Satan that"
My fans is yellin', "Least she rich," you need that pact
Lookin' like I got some things you hate I have
And trust me, baby, God don't play with hate like that
So you gon' be real upset when he pick Cat
To be the one up on them charts all over the map
And you could keep on tellin' yourself it's all in my tats
And you could keep on addin' the numbers and doin' the math
Lyrics from "Skull and Bones"

This album definitely has a different vibe that you haven’t seen from Doja before. You can tell she took her time with this album, specially curated it to speak what she wanted to say to the world. From a new look, style and lifestyle, which created much controversy online, her lyrics are used to give a middle finger to everyone and anyone who has something to say about her and her music. It even stirred up a bit of discourse. As well as her recent dislike and mistreatment of her fans, you can tell she put something new into this album to prove a point. What point is that specifically? You’ll have to listen to Scarlet to figure that out yourself.