Doja Cat Says She Never Claimed She Hates Her Fans: “I do like to play with that as a meme”

Doja Cat has sat down with Ebro Darden for a rare interview about her recent album Scarlet.

The two discuss her relationship with her fans after becoming “too f**king famous”, her desire to step back from the spotlight, and wanting to keep things more private these days.

Doja Cat also explains her hit single, ‘Paint The Town Red’, what she hoped people would get from her ‘Attention’ song & video, the rumors about worshipping Satan, the imagery she’s used recently to illustrate her songs, musical influences growing up, and more. See some quotes below.

[embedded content]

Doja Cat on the controversy around her “hating her fans”…

One thing that I do want to set straight is that you’ll never see a direct quote of me saying, “I hate my fans.” Not once. But it’s a really big misquoted thing where everybody is saying, she hates her fans. I never said that, but I do like to play with that as a meme. It’s definitely something, and I know that people who get it, get it, and I’m fine with that. I don’t need to have to explain my sense of humour or explain comedy to anyone. If people don’t see the joke, then they just don’t see the joke. It’s not my responsibility to have them understand.

Doja Cat on fame…

I think that I’m way too fucking famous, 100%. I’m doing what I can slowly but surely to separate myself from this narrative or whatever this world is that I built. I’m fine tuning it and tailoring it to what I want out of it. I feel like it doesn’t matter what you say, it doesn’t matter what some people know. I don’t need to explain myself, I don’t. I don’t need to prove myself to a bunch of people who are just going to project no matter what I say too. There’s people who are incredibly dogmatic. It doesn’t matter what the fuck you do, what you say make, they’re always going to stand by, that person’s evil. Or, that person’s this or that person’s that.

Doja Cat on maintaining distance and keeping certain things to herself…

I keep a lot of stuff to myself. I don’t complain about anything, but just being not creative. If I’m not making enough music at a certain time and I find myself doing photo shoots all the time, then I’m like, “How the fuck did I even get here in the first place? I was making music. I’m not making any… ” That I’m going to complain about, or just being tired. I complain about that shit, but I don’t talk about my personal life, my real, real personal life. I don’t get that in-depth about that. I don’t follow any of my friends. I don’t get that.

On “satanic” imagery…

I’m minding my fucking business. I like the idea of, I did it on purpose, and it’s this big ruse to make people react. But I also like the idea of, what it is is that I love this piece of visual art. I like this visual for this sound. I chose that visual and I applied it to the sound, and people made up what they want, which is what you do with art. You interpret it how you want to interpret it. Everybody has the right to interpret it how they want. But this whole-very confident satanism thing is like, “I’m sorry, when the fuck did I say that I was a satanist? When did I ever say anything, or even go marching outside the church talking about… No, when the fuck did I say that?” Anyway, it’s really tacky and annoying and fucking discredits a lot of the hard work that I’ve put in. It discredits a lot of the hard work that a lot of people have put in. I know from on the inside what I’ve seen is a lot of hardworking artists who are inspired and are doing the fucking work that they need to do to create these beautiful atmospheres. It’s not real. When you see a fucking CGI dragon fly by a screen, it’s not a real dragon, but people really feel that way.

On what she was trying to tell us in her video for single ‘Attention’…

It’s like a hi. It’s like a, hi, hater, bye, hater. No, it’s me showing myself in a different light, a sense of I’m not painted pink and I’m not playing a character that’s not based in reality. That was me. That was the most raw image that I could display of myself. Well, so visually, I really just wanted something toned down. I just didn’t want to do something that was surreal and crazy. It didn’t really mean that much to me. I think the people walking down the street was just more for the movement and the ambiance and the feeling and the vibe. But it did later resonate with me. Those people are the people on social media. That’s how a lot of people have interpreted it, and I like that a lot. I agree with that. That wasn’t really what was on my mind at first though.

On religion…

I’m also not religious. I’m not religious. I’m going to say it to every camera. Hey, I’m just not. People aren’t going to like that because I wear a cross, but I’m going to do what I want. I think it’s just like, I don’t really give a fuck. People are going to say whatever they want, and that’s my painting, and that’s what I wanted to do. Yeah, I’m going to do what I want regardless of what the fuck you think I’m doing. I’m not hurting anybody. Literally, nobody was hurt in the making of this video.