Doja Cat, real name Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, is one of the most controversial artists in the game right now, even with her new album Scarlet being released on Sept. 22. From being accused of devil worship, to not appreciating her fans, Doja has hit every category of “canceled” this year, and it seems to be working just fine for her. Amid the controversy, Doja released four singles: “Attention,” “Paint the Town Red,” and “Demons.” As of Oct. 5, Doja’s single, “Paint The Town Red” is #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, which raised the question of whether or not Doja is actually canceled in the eyes of the public.
It all started on April 11, when Doja deleted all of her Instagram posts, leaving fans concerned but excited for new music in the future. Four days later on April 15, Doja revealed a new tattoo of a scaled, hybrid creature that some fans interpreted as “demonic.” Her response? Going to Twitter and shooting some sharp replies at angry fans, ranging from simply, “slaytanic” to “If ur calling me demonic honestly werk cuz like i love that u ate fr,” which was not received well by the general public.
Another instance of Doja attacking fans since the rise of her new era was also a social media fiasco. This time, it was on her now-deleted Threads account, a new social media linked to Instagram, where she discovered that her fans had coined the term “Kittenz” to represent her devoted following. In response to this, Doja stated, “If you call yourself a ‘kitten’ or f*cking ‘kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.” When asked what the alternative was, she said her fans shouldn’t have a name, and that the fan in question should delete their account. Apparently, Doja’s fans were less willing to let this slide, and Doja ended up being the one to delete her Threads account. She has since lost over 500,000 followers.
Despite this controversy, which is arguably one for the history books, Doja’s newest album hasn’t seen the threats of fans come to fruition. In fact, the song with the least number of streams, titled “WYM Freestyle,” still has just over 3 million, while “Paint The Town Red” has over 375 million, as the top-rated song on the album and #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Not too shabby. While this isn’t even the end of the controversies Doja has gotten into over the years, it sure won’t be the last. Doja reportedly feels “free” after shedding half a million followers in the last month and remains active on other social platforms besides Threads. She still sits at a comfortable 24.5 Million followers on Instagram, and millions of streams on her latest album. Is the controversy enough to stop her fans from listening to her music? It doesn’t seem like it. Only the future will tell what more there is for Miss Doja, and the internet is on the edge of their seats to see it play out.