Doja Cat discussed her favorite — and weirdest — YouTube rabbit holes, going bald, loving rap with a campy edge and more as she braved the “Wings of Death” on the latest episode of “Hot Ones.”
Doja gamely embraced the challenge, knowing surefire pain awaited, though she also revealed early on that she had a particular handicap, too: A steady bit of leakage from her left eye, which presented an obvious and serious danger if she went to wipe her face after handling hot sauce. “Just be careful,” host Sean Evans warned. “Cross-pollination has been an issue here.” Luckily, Doja managed to avoid any such catastrophes, but there was still plenty of high-spice agony to endure.
During the interview, Doja spoke about wanting to bring “campiness” back to rap, referencing Nineties pioneers who were “interested in their visuals in a way where they’re ready to do something new, twist things, and do something camp,” like Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, and Left Eye. At the same time, she said she was interested in scaling back some of her visuals without sacrificing too much edge.
Referring to the recent clip for her Scarlet single, “Attention,” Doja said, “I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt and a jacket and some jewelry. I don’t have prosthetics, I don’t have a wig. I’m just me, I’m very comfortable in that video — and that was such a nice break from the hell of having to wear plastic bras and seven-inch platforms… I want to pull back a little bit, but not be lazy.”
Later, Doja was asked about the weirdest YouTube rabbit hole she’d ever ventured down — a fitting question for arguably the world’s most online pop star (and not always in a good way). After thinking about it for a moment, Doja mentioned a recent “bender” of Steve Wilkos clips while later extolling the weird brilliance of the comedy sub-genre “YouTube Poop.”
“You go in and edit [a clip] to make it sound like someone’s saying something that’s super crass and crazy,” she said. “There’s some Dr. Phil ‘YouTube Poops’ out there that are some of the best ones.”
Even as the Scoville level of the hot sauces increased, Doja cat managed to keep her game face on, especially when confronted by some of the most infamous “Hot Ones” sauces, like “Da Bomb.” After some nervous anticipation, Doja dove into the wing, scarfed it down, shuddered as she said, “Penis pussy,” then took a beat and quipped, “That’s good.”
While enduring the aftershocks, Doja proceeded to explain how liberating it’d been to shave her head. “There are hella bad bitches that are bald in this world, like why would I have to do hair all the time?” Of the hot sauce, she added, “This is not so bad after a while.”
For the grand finale, with the show’s infamous “last dab” hot sauce, Doja wasn’t asked a particular question, but rather if she would mind showing off one of her many artistic talents. After Evans mentioned her penchant for doodling monsters, he handed her a sketch pad and asked her if she would draw one based on her experiences with the “Wings of Death.” The result was perfectly weird, a crab-looking thing with pincers, bird claws, and a flames coming out of its head.