NEW RELEASE: Planet Her - Doja Cat

 You probably hear "Say So" for the 200th time on the radio, and maybe you wondered who the heck it was. Well it is Doja Cat, who I presume to be the future claim to Nicki Minaj's pop/rap trailblazing throne. They both have similar rapping tones and they can both sing and make standard pop music. Doja's original music actually leans more toward pop with rapping elements. I haven't exactly been wowed by her work but I still see the potential, so I decided I would check out her new one when it dropped. 

The album starter "Woman" actually has some jazz and latin elements which is very cool. Honestly the song has a nice flow, even into the rap elements. Very smooth and honestly pretty original compared to what I usually hear. It is something that would be easy to leave in the background. 

Ah yes, you aren't listening to a rap album until someone's talking about getting naked. No really, the song is called "Naked". I think she is really playing off the success of Say So with this album, she leaned right into that sound. I think that is pretty smart in a sense, to keep the cross-appeal. 

Yes you are...also not listening to a rap album until you have a song about MONEY. "Payday" falls right into place. But the cool thing is this album doesn't actually sound exactly like a rap album...It actually sounds like...a pop album. The music is very pop. She does more singing than rapping thus far. 

"Get Into It" is the first song that start right out with rap, but it follows more old early RNB elements than pure rap. I love how she is expanding where rap beats can go. A lot of rap follows the same beats, but she is having fun with it and innovating and I appreciate that. Even if it is just trailing it more into pop, she's doing something other rappers aren't totally doing right now.

"Need to Know" doesn't appeal as much to me. It sounds like she attempted to jack the Travis Scott sound and he is very hit and miss with me. I really rather not hear someone else trying to do it.

"I Don't Do Drugs", which frankly is a surprising title for a rap album song, includes Ariana Grande and she shows she can sing with her which is very cool to me. I hope Doja stays within this element, because her singing is as good as her rap. I always appreciated that with Nicki Minaj as well. Look up Grand Piano if you wondered why I still talk about Nicki Minaj being a singer too.

I do really like her singing voice but here it is even nicer. "Love to Dream" falls into ballad territory and she shows she could really do RNB/Pop music really well.

"You Right" has my favorite trashy guilty pleasure The Weeknd, and honestly their voices actually go well together. That's a lot, I usually don't think his collaborations are very good. His timbre is unique in tone so. 

Man, what sophomore slump? This is better than anything on "Hot Pink". This album has a vibe. You could definitely just leave it on and let it play through and enjoy it. "Been Like This" takes some of those Travis Scott elements and dream-pop elements and sounds a lot better. 

Getting to "Options", I don't think I feel justified calling Doja Cat a rap artist anymore. I think she must be pigeonholed there. This song sound very Beyonce inspired. Pop music with rap elements. If Doja stays in THIS element, she should earn some serious success.

I am now at "Ain't Shit" and frankly I am glad I decided to check this out. I'm a bit of a shameless enjoyer of pop music. This song is not as good as the others, but it isn't necessarily a skip.

I had to do some brief reading where Doja said this is the first album that feels truly her and she was excited to release more RnB inspired music. So it seems this shift was intentional! Keep in this lane girl you can sing! I will say I have my first skip in "Imagine" though. The vocal effects do not work and the melody doesn't blend well.

"Alone" I think is my personal favorite on listen. It is a slower pop/rnb song with some slower rap which makes me think of the Pinkprint. 

The album closes with big lead single "Kiss Me More", which isn't bad but honestly is not my favorite song from the album or from her work. I sometimes just don't enjoy singles. I didn't actually like Say So, but saw the potential of movement to pop from it. Kiss Me More sounds like another Say So and I am not interested. But it isn't a skip song either.

Lyrics: 5/10 - Rap lyrics from mainstream artists is rarely...stellar. 

Music: 7/10 - The melody and music elements REALLY worked on this one.

Overall: 7/10 - I think I'll pick this one up. If you like some strong female RnB/Pop music with some rap elements to it, I highly recommend it. I am VERY picky about this kind of music so for her to get that high of a score from me, says major things for her.