Doechii Reveals Why She Hasn’t Asked Lady Gaga for Advice Since They Met (Exclusive)

Doechii is at the top of her game.

The 26-year-old rapper won her first Grammy Award earlier this year with the hit mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, and she’s since earned her first top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Anxiety.” She’s been playing to massive crowds at music festivals all summer and just announced her upcoming Live from the Swamp Tour for later this year.

The “Denial Is a River” artist is also partnering with Samsung to highlight the company’s latest device: the Galaxy Z Fold7. The foldable smartphone helps bring ease to both her life and career with its many technologically advanced features — especially the Audio Eraser, which removes background noise from videos. “That’s just one of the coolest and most convenient things,” she tells PEOPLE.

Doechii recently hopped on Zoom with PEOPLE to discuss her breakthrough year, Samsung partnership and some major recent career milestones, like meeting Lady Gaga and performing with Lauryn Hill.

This partnership brings together an innovative device with an innovative artist like yourself. What made you want to get involved with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7?

I think that naturally I gravitated towards it because it literally was just cool. The first device that I actually saw that sparked my interest was the flip phone they had, and I thought it was super innovative. When I saw this model, I just thought the technology and the sleekness of it was really cool.

You’ve been performing on massive festival stages this summer. As your profile has grown, what differences have you noticed going from more intimate venues to crowds of tens of thousands of people?

Honestly, my fan base is such a special fan base that it still feels intimate even when the crowd or stage is bigger. I think the biggest difference that I’ve noticed is just the bandwidth of production — how many people I’m working with now and how much more expensive my ideas are becoming.

And now you hopefully have the funds to make those ideas happen.

I do, but we like to pinch a penny every now and then. 

We’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of your successful mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. Before releasing the project, did you anticipate this being such a breakthrough moment?

No, not at all. I wasn’t even in that mind frame. I just wanted to get my story out and say what it is that I wanted to say. It was really an experiment. I had a deadline in my head, and I was like, ‘I just feel like I have to drop it at this time, and if I don’t, I’m going to miss the mark on something within myself.’ And so I didn’t expect for it to be nearly as big because right after that I was just like, ‘I’m just going to put this mixtape out, and then I’m just going to go ahead and drop my debut album, and that would be the one.’ But it ended up becoming way bigger than I expected and pushing things back a little bit.

Of all the milestones you’ve accomplished with this project, which there are so many, what has been the most impactful to you?

I think that Billboard Women in Music night was really impactful and important to me, mainly because I got to highlight so many of the women that helped me make Alligator Bites Never Heal what it became. I realized how many women are actually employed on my team and how much I appreciate them. That was a big night for us to celebrate what the hell we just did. It was crazy, even crazier than the Grammy to me.

Speaking of other women in the industry, Lady Gaga recently praised your music as “immediately legendary” after your moment at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards. How did that feel to see?

I audibly gasped, literally. I’m the biggest Lady Gaga fan, and she is so dedicated to her creativity and pushing the limits, so for a legend like that to say that about me, it really, really validated me in a humbling way.

Have you gone to her for any advice or conversations behind the scenes?

No, not for advice. I think when you meet Lady Gaga, she naturally has an essence about her. You just kind of listen, and you don’t even have to ask her for anything. I think she just pours herself naturally onto people.

You also recently performed with Lauryn Hill in Miami, and she doesn’t share the stage with many new artists. What did it mean to get that stamp of approval?

It meant everything to me. She is a hip-hop legend. Again, another validating moment, but she’s also just so human, so kind. When we were in our rehearsal space before we went on stage, she was just so [present] with me, and what she said to me I feel is really personal, so I won’t share that. But I just know she made me feel very seen and very accepted, and it was even bigger than being on the stage. It was just being acknowledged by a legend like Lauryn Hill.

Who are your dream collaborators at this point?

Let’s see. I mean, at this point, Beyoncé. She’s the standard. Yeah, I’m going to say Bey.