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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Jonathan Kanengoni

Why is everyone talking about Doja Cat? Here’s all we know on why the claws have come out

Doja Cat has been a big talking point online for the past few days – and not necessarily for the right reasons.

The rapper and singer, 27, whose real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, has enjoyed a stellar rise since gaining mainstream exposure with her viral hit Say So, which went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the US, and peaked at number two in the UK, following its huge popularity on TikTok.

Since then, Doja Cat’s industry influence has grown substantially, as she won a Grammy Award for her multi-platinum Kiss Me More collaboration with SZA, taken from her third studio album Planet Her, which has become the most streamed album by a female rapper in Spotify history, at more than 6 billion streams on the platform.

Doja Cat saw major success with her Planet Her album (Handout)

Naturally, the rapper has built a legion of fans, many of whom keep up to date with the singers’ movements, releases, tour dates and interactions.

However, as Doja Cat enters her next musical era with her recently released Attention single, which dropped earlier this year, and promotes her upcoming tour, which starts in October, her fans have been focused on the matter of her dating life.

The singer and rapper has been romantically linked to social media star Jeffery Cyrus, known as J Cyrus, since June, after the couple were snapped kissing on a yacht in images obtained by TMZ.

Neither of the pair have commented on their relationship status, but fans of Doja Cat have not been best pleased about her potential new flame.

This has led to her fans criticising J Cyrus on social media, leading to conflict between the musician and certain parts of her fan base.

On Instagram, the star responded to a comment left on a post by one of her fans, who wrote: “Girl everyone’s unstaning you even if you paint yourself gold it won’t make thing better.”

She responded: “I WANT YALL TO READ THIS COMMENT AND TAKE IT AS A MESSAGE. I DONT GIVE A F*CK WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT MY PERSONAL LIFE I NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL GIVE A F*CK WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT ME OR MY PERSONAL LIFE GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE MISERABLE H**S НАНА!.”

The relationship between Doja Cat and some fans has been tense ever since, with some of fans alleging the singer has been blocking online them since they commented on her dating life.

Over the weekend, the singer was embroiled in yet another fan conflict, this time through new platform Threads.

Doja Cat posted on the platform: ”My life my rules my style my attitude.”

An international fan account of the rapper responded: “I wanna hear you say (I do love you guys) As usual you say to your fans”.

Doja Cat replied: “I don’t though cuz I don’t even know yall”.

The singer and rapper also dismissed fans who called themselves “kitten” or “kittenz”, a nickname coined by her fan base to describe themselves, though not actually approved by Doja Cat.

“My fans don’t get to name themselves s**t,” she said, adding "if you call yourself a ’kitten’ or f***ing ‘kittenz’ that means you need to get off your phone and get a job and help your parents with the house.”

She also went on to dub the use of her real name by fan accounts on social media as “creepy.”

In turn, some of her biggest fan accounts have been deleting their accounts, as criticism grows following her recently hardline approach to fans.

We have reached out to Doja Cat’s representatives for comment.

With Doja Cat due to embark on the first date of her US run of The Scarlet Tour on October 31, as well as the release of her currently untitled fourth studio album, its yet to be seen how the conflict between the musician and her fans will play out.

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