A hip hop legend has taken to the Wild ‘N Out stage. Big Daddy Kane is a rap icon who first stepped into the music scene in the mid-1980s. He gave us classics like “Ain’t No Half Steppin’,” “Smooth Operator,” and “I Get The Job Done,” and now he’s making an appearance on Nick Cannon‘s long-running MTV show. Also on the upcoming episode is Doja Cat who leads the “New School Squad” against Kane’s “Old School Squad.”

Wlid ‘N Out shared a clip of the two teams facing off in a game of Turn Up for What. There were a few hits and misses, including silence after a comedian took a shot at Lizzo. He said there was a time when he didn’t like “big girls” but “after seeing Lizzo’s ass, I like girls with the same body as me.” Doja followed and took aim at people calling her a “cow”—a reference to her viral “Moo” hit—letting people know that she stays “milking the game.”

Doja has much to celebrate as of late, especially considering her Hot Pink hit “Say So” has been taking over airwaves. After becoming a TikTok viral dance video, “Say So” went on to earn Doja Cat her first Top 10 single and was certified Platinum. Check out a clip of Big Daddy Kane and Doja Cat on Wild ‘N Out below.

Other artists’ songs have gone viral after fans created TikTok dances to them, and Megan Thee Stallion is next in line. Doja Cat’s “Say So” climbed the charts after teenager Haley Sharpe put together a few moves on the social media app and danced along to the Hot Pink track. It soon became a viral sensation and tens of thousands of people shared videos of themselves trying out the “Say So” choreography.

Last week, a TikTok user came up with a few steps to Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Savage” from her recently released EP Suga. The dance lasts for the first half of the chorus of “Savage” where Megan raps, “I’m a savage (Yeah) / Classy, bougie, ratchet (Yeah) / Sassy, moody, nasty (Hey, hey, yeah) / Acting stupid, what’s happening? (Woah, woah) / B*tch, what’s happening? (Woah, woah).”

After Megan caught wind of the dance, she shared it on social media and turned it into a challenge. “Welp let me go learn this lol #savagechallenge.” The rapper shared videos from fans as they put their own spin on the smooth moves, and on Monday (March 16), Megan finally learned the steps and posted a video of herself with her friend attempting the choreography.

“Take # 552 ???? #savagechallenge #quarantineandchill,” Megan penned in the caption to her video. Watch Megan Thee Stallion and her friend twerk to “Savage” below.

YouTube just wanted to give Doja Cat a shoutout, but it ended up entangling the singer-rapper into a controversy about her skin tone. On Tuesday (March 10), the video streaming network shared its “#WCE” playlist of 81 tracks from a number of female artists. “Get introduced to these women who are rising in the ranks of hip hop. Feat. Doja Cat,” YouTube wrote. As the cover image, YouTube used a photo of Doja Cat wearing a pink headset and a matching bra. There wasn’t anything shocking about the picture, but the public had quite a bit to say about her skin color.

Thousands of comments poured in accusing Doja of bleaching her skin or criticizing YouTube for making the Hot Pink artist lighter. She was made aware of the backlash and took to her Instagram Story to set the record straight and deny allegations that she was somehow altering her image. “Hey, so if you’re stupid as f*ck you probably left a comment under this picture talking about this,” she said in a video as she showed some remarks from the public.

“Hey, how about I’m half white, not entirely black,” she continued. “My skin gets very light when I don’t tan. I was staying indoors a lot before that shoot. New f*ckin’ subject! Dumbasses.” Check out Doja Cat explain herself below.

Doja Cat will be hitting the road this spring for her North American headlining Hot Pink tour, making stops in 14 different cities including performances at Coachella for both weekends. The rising star’s popularity has kept on growing and growing ever since she went viral for her oddly charming, cow-themed “Moo” video, and with the release of her sophomore studio album, Hot Pink, she’s seen even more success than ever before.

Image  HNHH

After performing the track on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night, Doja dropped the visuals for “Say So,” which took the dreamy disco aesthetic of her late night set to a whole new level. “Say So” was made popular on Tik Tok, after a user named Haley Sharpe invented a dance routine to the airy track that went viral and led to Haley making a cameo in the visuals to show off her choreography. Now, Doja is taking her talents around the country (with one show in Canada), making her first stop on the Hot Pink tour in Chicago on March 25th.

Doja will then make her way from the East Coast to the West, with opening acts Ashnikko and Big Klit performing on select dates. The artist will travel from Austin, Texas, to Coachella Valley for the first weekend of the music festival on April 10th-12th. Remaining in California, Doja will make stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco before heading back to the desert for Coachella Weekend 2. Tickets go on sale on Friday at 10:00am and can be purchased here. Check out the full list of dates below:

March 25th – Chicago, IL – Patio
March 26th – Detroit, MI – Majestic Theater
March 27th – Toronto, ON – The Phoenix
March 30th – Philadelphia, PA – Fillmore
March 31st – Boston, MA – The Big Night
April 1st – New York, NY – Brooklyn Steel
April 3rd – Charlotte, NC – Fillmore
April 4th – Nashville, TN – The Cowan
April 6th – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
April 8th – Dallas, TX – Canton Hall
April 9th – Austin, TX – Emo’s
Avril 10-12th – Indio, CA – Coachella, Empire Polo Club
April 14th – Los Angeles, CA – The Novo
April 15th – San Francisco, CA – Regency Ballroom
April 17th-19th – Indio, CA – Coachella, Empire Polo Club

Her album Hot Pink continues to be a hit worldwide, so it's no surprise that Doja Cat found her way to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon stage. Doja's single "Say So" may have debuted on the Billboard chart at No. 95, but it's become a viral sensation after social media users have stormed apps to create dance routines to the track. On Wednesday (February 26), Doja performed her nostalgic, groovy single to the talk show audience while wearing a pink, body-hugging, sparkly, bell-bottomed bodysuit. 

Alexander Tamargo / Stringer / Getty Images

With a TikTok "Say So" dance that circulating online, Doja had to throw some of the moves in with her routine. The singer-rapper's notoriety gained steam after her "Moo" video went viral, but as she continued to release music, the public wasn't taking her seriously as an artist. Now that she's collaborated with the likes of Tyga, Rico Nasty, Anderson .Paak, and Gucci Mane—not to mention receiving a co-sign from Nicki Minaj—it seems as if the world is ready to accept her for the true artist that she is. 

The response to Doja's "Say So" performance on The Tonight Show was overwhelmingly positive, so check out Doja Cat along with a few reactions to her appearance on the talk show below.

At a time where it can feel like we’re being presented various shades of the same product, Doja Cat brings another flavour entirely. Equal parts inspired by Erykah Badu, Pharrell, Partynextdoor, video games and Japanese culture, the Los Angeles-born Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini has gone from being a tertiary artist gasping for the air of publicity to sending fans into hysterics with the news that she’d be heading out on tour or getting bankrolled to contribute to superhero movie soundtracks.

Doja Cat at the NYC HNHH office – Image by HNHH

Far from a placid carbon-copy of what’s gone before, the raunchiness of Doja’s music is teamed with a vibrant sense of humour and an insistence on not taking herself too seriously. Brought into the major label sphere by the disgraced Dr.Luke and his Kemosabe imprint, it’s easy to forget that she’s not some overnight sensation when the volume of stories and fan accounts dedicated to her has risen at such a rapid rate over the past few years. Setting off with her 2014 EP Purrr! the talented vocalist began in the vein of a sultry R&B vocalist, producing music that shared more DNA with Jhene Aiko and Summer Walker than it does with her current contemporaries such as Megan Thee Stallion and Rico Nasty. Intoxicating as tracks such as “So High” and “Control” were, they lacked a real sense of identity. In her words, this came from an instinct “to collect all the things that interested me.”

Thrust into the industry during her teens, Doja has since been able to deconstruct why she reached something of a standstill when it came to increasing her profile in those early years. “I was high half the time. I was smoking hella weed. I was being a fucking delinquent,” she told The Face.​”I had no idea how to be a businesswoman, and it took me about six years to realize that’s what I need to do.” Then, one fateful glint of inspiration would change everything. Made over the course of one day including filming a video with a makeshift bedspread green screen, the humorous yet undeniably catchy refrain of “Mooo!” changed everything. The kind of subject matter that could only be taken on by someone who was making YouTube tutorials at 14, Doja is very much a disciple of the internet in every sense and despite not being a conscious effort to create a meme, the “shitposting” mentality had naturally bled into the track.  

Without trying too hard, Doja had found a way to harness virality and in turn, found a niche that completely altered her fortunes. “I proved to myself that I could do something that was worth watching,” she claimed. “It’s a fucking crazy video. Like, how do you not click that?” Organic as its creation was, with “Mooo!” Doja Cat found the crossroads between musical merit and comedy, a tone that her career has continued to carry. For her, it’s an integral part of the game as she told The Face that “I feel like you need to be a little bit of a comedian to be a rapper.”

After it brought new eyes and ears to what she was doing, the increased name recognition of rapping about a cow could’ve been the death knell for her legitimacy. In Doja’s case, her awareness of the internet’s practically non-existent attention span meant that it was time to feed them more content. As such, her March 2018 debut project Amala was reissued with the meme-worthy track in tow. Allowing those who’d came for the absurdity to stay for unique R&B and hip-hop hybrids such as “Go To Town” and “Candy.”

Doja Cat performing at the 2020 Adult Video News Awards –  Ethan Miller/Getty Images 

As the buzz around Doja as a major artist has grown, she’s remained mindful of what allotted her this favourable position in the first place. Thus, when it comes to social media, she offsets thirst traps with comedic hijinks, while her elaborate live streams give fans a chance to observe the creative process in real-time as well, and offer an opportunity to hear Doja’s trademark candidness— which is part and parcel with her approach to music, too. Meanwhile, Doja’s repertoire of YouTube-based acapella performances such as the Mark Morrison-inspired “Return of The Snack” ensures that there’s still an outlet for her frivolous fun-having antics, even when the stakes are a lot higher.

“That’s a small portion of my career, taking a moment to do something stupid,” she said. “I have a song called ‘Waffles Are Better Than Pancakes.’ If I can’t be goofy, I’ll go insane.” As her stock continued to climb, the natural impulse would be to follow the blueprint to the letter. Yet for Doja, the release of her November 2019 sophomore offering Hot Pink was a chance to show the world how she could infuse her more gaudy lyricism and jol edge with elite-level output.

“With my first album it was a little bit like I was practicing,” she informed The Fader. “It’s like, you know the first time you do anything, you kind of have to figure out who you are? I feel like with this second project I know who I am and I know what I want and I know what I want it to sound like. I’m really proud of this.”

Tasked with an unenbly thin line to walk, Hot Pink kept the spirit of the no-rules, no-consequences approach that defined her earlier work and allowed it to manifest in previously unanticipated ways. Sampling Blink-182, working with Gucci Mane and above all, approaching the record with a clear head, the exponential rise in chart position from Amala’s peak of #95 to Hot Pink’s massive push to number 19 on the Billboards goes to show that all the hard work is paying off.

Doja Cat at the 2019 BET Awards – Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Although “Mooo!” is behind her in some ways, everything from her more whimsical bars to her IG interactions means that she now judiciously walks a tightrope between being typecast and expanding far beyond the repressive limitations of a comedy rapper. Hitting on that sweet spot between zaniness and credibility that recalls Luda, Missy Elliott and De La Soul, what remains to be seen is whether this cross-sectional approach will allow her to crack that top 10 in the years to come. Either way, don’t expect the dalliances with social media-ready comedy to go anywhere fast.

“I just like to do the fun stuff,” she informed Billboard. “If I’m not having fun with it, I’m not going to do it for the rest of my life, I just wanna bring something fun — the current climate is so uptight and serious and it’s just good to have something stupid to laugh at.”