Why I hate “Anxiety” by Doechii

…and NO! It’s not because “I don’t want to speak anxiety over my life” (y’all be for real)

Doechii is a force that many people in this generation love to associate themselves with and rightfully so. While I don’t believe that she is a genius, there is no denying that she has a very unique, engaging and audacious storytelling technique that has branded her with a name that most people adore. Even though I think she’s not the greatest musician of our time, I cannot deny that she is doing something different and in a world of copycats and dupes, it’s lovely to see an audacious woman turn heads in her direction. Shout out to Doechii.

However, in recent times I have been forced to ask myself over and over again if there is any difference at all anyway. A few weeks (perhaps month) ago, an audio of her freestyling over the “Somebody that I used to know” instrumental somehow surfaced on social media and became a trend quickly. This audio was called “anxiety” and despite the fact that an artiste - Sleepy Harlow - had sampled her freestyle in his song, fans wanted Doechii to give them “Anxiety”. Being the sweet and talented singer and songwriter - and rapper - that she is, Doechii decided to serve.

For a while, I tried to imagine that the song didn’t exist but TikTok would shove it in my face multiple times - that was if I wasn’t on Instagram. And even when I managed to escape those two, Spotify won’t stop adding this song to my shuffle (I don’t know how many times I have to fucking hide this song before you get the point Spotify). Originally I should ignore it, but the more this tune is forcefully suggested to me, the more I realize that I have to speak up about it. Hence, this article that absolutely no one asked for but somehow, I spent a whole day thinking about exists.

So you’re wondering why I hate this song. Or maybe you are not and just somehow got suggested this article and can’t for some reason put it down. Here are my answers

The song was built on the backbone that held “Somebody that I used to know” which I consider robbery from a masterpiece. The day I first heard the tune, I thought it was a real Doechii song that some TikTok DJ mixed with the instrumental of “Somebody that I used to know” so when I learnt the truth, I wasn’t taken aback - it made perfect sense to me. Now there’s really no problem with sampling especially if the owner of the original song doesn’t even care. However, I have noticed this trend - more with Nigerian musicians - where they take a popular line from an old song or popular song and ride on the wave of nostalgia or clout and serve us plain ass mediocrity - but somehow we gobble it up sheepishly because the trick obviously worked (I would write about that someday but not today). To me, this feels like a continuation of this trend and I can’t tell you how many side eyes that make me raise. Perhaps if it had its own sound, or stayed a freestyle, I probably wouldn’t hate it this much

The song felt like a response and not an actual intention, which I also find a very distasteful trend. An artiste does a 30 second freestyle and hungry fans beg for the full meal forcing the artiste to enter the studio and on short notice whip up something that would have had better taste and outcome if given the necessary time to cook to perfection. Sometimes the technique does work, but many times it leads to a half-baked tune with 30 seconds of “damn this is good” and the rest is just meh. Truly we can’t all be Adeles (that woman ehcn) and some find the creating process easier and quicker than others, but I believe that opportunity should meet preparation and not the desire to ride on a popularity wave.

The song lyrics had me questioning what I had just heard, and I didn’t expect that from Doechii of all people. To be fair, the only Doechii song that I dig and listen to is “Denial is a River” and that’s because she really ate with the storytelling. With “anxiety”, I just looked forward to the chorus, the part that had TikTokers re-enacting a scene from an old sitcom and begging for more sounds. This circles back to the previous point that I made about it just being a requested song, and undercooked. I don’t know Doechii that much but I know from that one song that I listen to and the hype that she gets, that she can do a lot better. It’s giving me Ayra Starr nightmares (I will write about this soon) and I can’t go through this again.

Maybe I’m tripping and shouldn’t be taking this as seriously as I am right now but I am because I have every right to. I believe that creatives should be held accountable for their art however the outcome. Besides, if she can be praised for her great work - all flowers well deserving - then I think I am allowed to point out some flaws too, respectfully of course.

Saying I hate the song might be a little over the top but can you blame me? Everywhere I turn it is “somebody's watching me, it’s my anxiety…” and to be fair it’s not all that bad but to me, IT SHOULD HAVE STAYED A FREESTYLE or at most A ONE MINUTE SONG.