Ric Flair famously claimed, “To be the man, you got to beat the man” — and now, Doja Cat has used “The Nature Boy” to declare how she’s hip-hop’s new heavyweight champ.
The 74-year-old WWE Hall of Famer’s voice opens Doja’s new song, “Balut,” released Friday, September 15. “Remember, girls. None of you can be first, but all of you can be next,” says Flair in audio taken from audio recorded earlier in the year, per Complex. Whereas Flair was using it as an invite, Doja used the audio to issue a warning to all her competitors.
“I’m the shit, you a real piece of s—t / I am needed, you a real needy bitch,” raps Doja in the song (which takes its name from street food where a fertilized duck embryo is boiled or steamed in its shell.) “I’m competing, you are incompetent/ You are fleeting ’cause you can’t copy this / Copy this, copy that / Every bitch that is here copy ‘Cat / Copy the greats, that’s my number one strategy / But beware that you can’t copy stats.”
The song conveys Doja’s confidence and cool demeanor as her floor pairs well with the dreamy production courtesy of Yeti Beats, Rogét Chahayed, and Kurtis McKenzie (The Arcade). It also acts as the fourth single from her upcoming album due on September 22.
“Balut” caps off a banner week that saw her light up the stage at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards with an epic medley of his songs “Attention,” “Paint the Town Red” and “Demons.” Doja also walked out of the September 12 ceremony with a Moon Person, as her video for “Attention” won the award for Best Art Direction.
Even before the show began, Doja made a splash on the red carpet by getting into the Spooky season with her outfit. Doja walked into Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center wearing a custom spider web-like dress made by Monse. It was giving haunted house by way of New York Fashion Week, as Doja – who went topless in the barely-there gown – looked scary good in the sexy outfit.
Doja will end September on a high note by releasing her fourth studio album, Scarlet. “I know that I’ve done a lot of pink and soft things, a lot of pop and glittery sounds,” Doja said in a 2023 interview with Variety, “but for this next era, I’m going in a more masculine direction.”
In the interview, she referenced “Vegas,” her single on the Elvis original motion picture soundtrack. “That was one of the greatest experiences,” she says, “because everyone knows [Elvis Presley’s] ‘Hound Dog,’ but I was able to give it my own spin. I went in and I was like, ‘Finally, I get to rap again.’ A lot of people discredit me, so it’s nice to just put another one in the f—kg bucket for a great rap song.”
The year hasn’t been without controversy for Doja Cat. In July, she attacked her fans describing themselves as “kittenz,” saying that nickname was one that she came up with “when I was an alcoholic teen” and that it was time for fans to “get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.” This drama was the final for some ex-“kittenz,” as some of Doja’s top fan pages deactivated their accounts following this incident.
