Scarlet (Doja Cat album)
Scarlet is the fourth studio album by the American rapper and singer Doja Cat. It was released through Kemosabe and RCA Records on September 22, 2023. Disillusioned with pop music and dissatisfied with music critics questioning her status as a rapper, Doja Cat felt inspired to create a "masculine" follow-up to her third studio album, Planet Her. Her first project with no features since her debut extended play, Purrr!, the record marks a departure from the pop-driven sounds of its predecessor, being predominantly centered around rapping.
Scarlet produced two singles. Its lead single, "Paint the Town Red", became a massive commercial success, and marked Doja Cat's first solo number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart, the Billboard Global 200, and several other national charts worldwide. It was followed by the top-ten single "Agora Hills". Promotional singles for the album include "Attention", "Demons", and "Balut".
Scarlet peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200, becoming Doja Cat's third top-ten entry on the chart. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised its production, lyrics, and versatility in comparison to her previous albums. To support the album, Doja Cat embarked on The Scarlet Tour, her first arena tour as a headliner. The album's reissue, titled Scarlet 2 Claude, was released on April 5, 2024, adding features from Teezo Touchdown and ASAP Rocky.
Background
Doja Cat began her career as a rapper heavily involved with the underground scene in her hometown of Los Angeles. She rose to prominence as an internet meme, following the viral success of her novelty song, "Mooo!", released in August 2018. She continued to gain mainstream attention with her pop and R&B-infused second studio album, Hot Pink. The remix to its standout single, "Say So" featuring Nicki Minaj, became the first song by a female rap duo to reach number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Doja Cat's third studio album, Planet Her, continued the pop-R&B blend and was met with critical and commercial success. It became the most-streamed album by a female rapper on Spotify, and its lead single, "Kiss Me More" featuring SZA, won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.After being nominated for the BET Award for Best Female Hip Hop Artist in May 2021, Doja Cat was criticized by social media users who felt she was "too pop" to be considered as a rapper. She responded to the criticism on Twitter, by writing, "Don't ever fuckin disrespect me as a rapper. After the last song I dropped, you will respect my pen and that's fuckin that." She weighed in further on the debate during a cover story with Rolling Stone in December, saying, "Anyone who says that I'm not a rapper is in denial. They don't know what they're talking about." A few days after the profile piece was published, Doja Cat revealed on an Instagram livestream that she was interested in creating a double album; with one side focused on her pop rap sounds, and the other side containing 12 hip-hop songs produced by 9th Wonder and Jay Versace.
In an interview with Elle in May 2022, Doja Cat addressed claims that she was not a rapper in the "traditional sense" by stating that she has "rapped since the beginning, and I really couldn't even sing that well to begin with—I got a lot better. I use my voice as a tool to create these worlds, and it's fine if people think that I can't rap." She also confirmed that her upcoming fourth studio album will be "predominantly rap". She doubled down on the album's main genre in April 2023 by stating "no more pop", and that she agrees with "everyone who said the majority of my rap verses are mid and corny. I know they are. I wasn't trying to prove anything, I just enjoy making music. But I'm getting tired of hearing y'all say that I can't, so I will." Doja Cat also denounced her previous two albums as "cash grabs" and "digestible pop hits". On April 26, radio personality Ebro Darden shared that he had the opportunity to listen to approximately eight songs from the album while it was in its "early stages", stating "I heard straight rap records". After being asked about potential producers, he responded "I don't even think it's producers that we know. I think she's got her own batch of producers." In April 2023, while drafting the tracklist, she revealed the titles of several tracks that would later make the final cut. On August 27, she revealed that the album was finished, and she announced the release of the album three days later.
Conception
Imagery
Leading up to the album's release, Doja Cat adopted a darker aesthetic and image, claiming that she had "a lot of pent-up feelings and anger" which she wanted to express through beauty, further describing her new style as "punk", "experimental" and "manic". She initially shaved her hair and eyebrows, and then got a number of tattoos, including a creature from Fortunio Liceti's De monstris on her arm, a scythe surrounding her ear, and the skeleton of a bat on her back, which she claimed to symbolize a "new beginning". At times she also wore red contact lenses and blood-like makeup. She expressed similar imagery in the music video for singles "Attention" and "Paint the Town Red", the latter of which also depicted occult-like paintings by Doja Cat herself. These changes in her persona received criticism from some fans, who deemed these changes "demonic", and accused her of being a Satanist, and a member of the Illuminati. She was unbothered by these reactions, tweeting in February 2023 that she enjoyed "playing with people’s ignorance and stupidity for own happiness and personal gain", and then in April 2023 addressed her fans in saying "Your fear is not my problem". Jason King of All Things Considered wrote that on Scarlet, Doja Cat "delights in playing the 'demon' her haters and fans accuse her of being."Title
Doja Cat shared a name for the album, Hellmouth, in March 2023. By April, she was unsure of whether or not the name would stick, and later clarified to Interview magazine that she did not have an album name yet, with the working title subject to potential change. While speaking to Time for their annual list of influential people, she shared that she "might just mess with everybody and completely turn the tables on them. But I like the idea of Hellmouth because it sounds good. And it's provocative." On May 9, she revealed another title, First of All, through social media, before retracting on May 15. In an interview with Business Insider on May 26, Doja Cat revealed that the reason she kept changing the title is due to a combination of indecisiveness and crowdsourcing. She described her process for selecting an album title as her putting her "ADHD kind of on display — by accident, I guess. I thought that Hellmouth was the name of the album, but then it wasn't. But I'm good at doing things last minute. So I've been firing off random stuff and reading comments and seeing how people receive it and then, you know, saying 'no' a lot. 'Just kidding'." She concluded by saying she thinks she finally has a name for the album, and swiftly added, "It's not First of All."In an article for Harper's Bazaar, author Angie Martinez revealed the title to be Scarlet, on August 16, 2023. "Scarlet" is the name to an alter ego adopted by Doja Cat which symbolizes rebirth, "the reimagination of the self", and "the birth of a new creative, or new thought, or new way of style that you're expressing". After having tweeted "Scarlet is here" on June 16, the alter ego made her debut in the music video for "Attention" where she was seen in the nude and painted head-to-toe in red blood. Several wax figures of this Scarlet character began appearing in public locations around the United States, such as a subway station and Tompkins Square Park in New York City, and both Wrigley Field and Riverwalk in Chicago.
Artwork
On August 29, 2023, Doja Cat initially shared an album cover to Instagram which featured a painting of a big pinkish arachnid and a small drop of blood; containing no text. Fans then noticed that it looked almost identical to the cover for Of Gloom, the third studio album by German metalcore band Chaver, which was slated for release on the same day as Scarlet. Both covers were designed by American artist Dusty Ray, whom Chaver wrote had "been with since first album". Doja Cat then deleted the post from her Instagram the following day, while Chaver's post remained online and the band continued to promote the album with this cover. She revealed an "updated" cover the day after, which was also designed by Ray, featuring two pearlescent arachnids instead of the single pink arachnid. The original cover is the album's alternate art for its CD packaging.Notably, Scarlet is the first Doja Cat album where she does not appear on the cover.
Composition
During a cover story with Variety in February 2023, Doja Cat expressed that Scarlet will diverge from the "pink and soft things" and "pop and glittery sounds" that she has been noted for; opting instead for a more "masculine" sonic direction. She claimed to have purposefully misled journalists and fans into thinking that her album would be inspired by 1990s German rave music, rock, experimental jazz and R&B, rather than rap. However, it was later confirmed that the upcoming album would exclusively contain rap songs. She admitted that she had become tired of creating pop songs, adding that the genre is not exciting to her anymore. In an interview with Rolling Stone in June 2023, Doja expanded on the influences and inspiration for her upcoming album, saying that she had been reconnecting with the music that she was raised listening to, such as Erykah Badu, John Coltrane and 90s hip-hop. Doja Cat explained that "Attention", "Paint the Town Red", and "Demons" were all written during a period before she recorded the rest of Scarlet in Malibu, California within the space of ten days, noting that the songs recorded during the second period are very different in nature.The standard edition of Scarlet opens with "Paint the Town Red," a boom bap song where Doja asserts her stance as a performer against critics and fans. Sampling Dionne Warwick's version of "Walk On By," the song lambasts her detractors as she "refuses to settle for the disrespect she faces and will say whatever is necessary to prove that she is indestructible." The following song, "Demons," is a horrorcore trap song in which Doja coyly acknowledges the demonic accusations, rapping in a "clipped baby voice." The third track "Wet Vagina" is a rage rap song where Doja juxtaposes her possession of wealth and luxury clothing with references to nudity and sexuality, such as her "brand-new chest" with a "tongue-in-cheek delivery also recalls the humor of prime Ludacris in the way that it adds a more nuanced sense of performance to her rapping." The fourth track is "Fuck the Girls ", a rapped track that has been characterized as "'90s hip-hop with the slinkiness of 2010s trap," sees Doja opine on the misogyny prevalent in hip-hop, responsible for the constant comparisons and competitions between female rappers. The track has also been cited as a dismissal of fans that exacerbate said misogyny and "all the malice towards women in stan culture." "Ouchies" sees Doja get more threatening with her critics, issuing confrontations with the "cadence of street fighter video games." "97" follows as the sixth track, with Doja continuing the theme of indifference towards pressure from others as she raps about "flaunting luxury and extravagance without care for societal judgment." "Gun" continues the album's aggressive motif, where Doja refers to her partner's penis as a gun and lyrically opting for firearm metaphors, asking her partner to "let the trigger spray" and "shoot it... with a silencer" with other women who may appear as competition. "Go Off" is more laid-back song encouraging confidence and self-empowerment amidst the opinions and beliefs of the self by others.
"Agora Hills" is an R&B-style song with ethereal instrumentation above a trap beat. Sampling "All I Do Is Think of You," Doja raps with a "valley-girl accent" about her unabashed desire to physically indulge in her love with her partner, regardless of ever-present spectators. The ninth and transitional track of the standard album, as the aggression and materialism of the first half of the track are replaced with intimacy and introspection.