Last night at midnight ET, Doja Cat released her fourth studio album, Scarlet. A mild departure from the pop sound fans originally gravitated towards her for, Scarlet includes many rap-heavy songs where Doja either displays whimsical, fiery, or lyrically-focused tracks. Among these is the sixth track “97,” where her Looks like we don’t give a shit hook sets the stage for Doja’s braggadocious bars.
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To kick off the second verse of the song, Doja calls back to a viral moment at Kanye West‘s 2020 Yeezy Season 8 runway show during Paris Fashion Week. Emceed by West’s eldest daughter North, the meme stems from North singing an original song on stage with the Yeezy models. In her song, she comically raps the phrase What are thooose? These are clothes.
What made the moment particularly hilarious, though, was that the camera panned to North’s mother Kim Kardashian immediately afterward, as she’s seen in tears because of how proud she is of her daughter’s courage to go up on stage. Check out the clip below.
For her tribute of North West on “97,” Doja interpolates the now-10-year-old’s lyrics by rapping:
Yeah, said these are clothes, motherfucker, what are those?
You look like a butter face, butter body, butter toes
Later in the song, though, Doja puts on a bit more of a serious face, as she addresses the time in July when she lost about 300,000 social media followers because she told her fans she didn’t love them. “I don’t though cuz I don’t even know y’all,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. On “97,” she explains why even the hate she receives keeps her relevant.
I like when they plead, I’m beggin’ please, now where the fuck is Doj?
Pull up and they smiley instead (Actin’ stupid)
Like they wasn’t tryna fight me in threads (‘Bout some music)
In a tweet that I’ma probably still stand by (I’m ruthless)
Keep ya money, funky bitch, ’cause I don’t play about (The rumors)
They gon’ buy it, they gon’ pirate, they gon’ play it, they consume it
If you’re scootin’, let me know ’cause that’s a comment, that’s a view
And that’s a ratin’, that’s some hatin’, that’s engagement I could use
And I could teach y’all how to do this, but I’d much rather be cruisin’
[RELATED: Doja Cat Includes Sample of WWE Legend Ric Flair on New Single “Balut”]
Along with the release of Scarlet, Doja simultaneously released the music video for “Agora Hills,” the LP’s fourth song to receive a visual treatment. Likely aiming for a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200, Doja’s rollout and execution of her latest full-length effort proves the point she raised above: all publicity is good publicity.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for MTV
