Watch Doechii’s Badass Performance on ‘Colbert’: ‘This Is Blackness’

Doechii took Alligator Bites Never Heal material to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, performing “Denial Is a River” and “Boiled Peanuts.”

During the performance, Doechii and her two dancers tear through the mixtape cuts in syncopated, precise movements, their long braids connected as they scratch a turntable while decked out in Gucci.

“This one is for hip-hop,” Doechii said of the groundbreaking performance on X (formerly Twitter). “I felt heavily inspired by the lineage of hip-hop and how it contributes to who I am today. This is my first self choreographed performance, and one of the most important things I wanted to highlight was my connection to black women through hip-hop. With the help of hair artist Malcom Marquez, we were able to make this symbolic art performance come to life in just a short week.”

Doechii also praised her inspirations, Solange and the late rapper MF Doom. “This is my take on the future of hip-hop,” she added. “This is blackness. This is luxury. This is history.”

Doechii dropped Alligator Bites Never Heal, her third mixtape, in late August. It landed at No. 9 on Rolling Stone‘s Best Albums of 2024, while “Denial Is a River” ranked at No. 68 on the Best Songs list.

Last month, the mixtape earned her two Grammy nominations, receiving nods for Best New Artist and Rap Album of the Year. In September, she told us about Alligator Bites Never Heal and her aim for a Grammy. “There’s a space that I feel like that we need to fill in hip-hop right now,” she said. “This project, sonically, feels nostalgic, but it also feels forward and it feels fresh … I think we just need to take a beat for a second and get back to maintaining traditions in hip-hop, talking about our feelings, being vulnerable in hip-hop again, and making sure that the heart of hip-hop stays alive.”