Doechii reflects on ‘breakthrough moment' in music

Doechii just revealed that she never expected her second mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, to be a success.

The Anxiety rapper dropped her mixtape in 2024 and was more of an “experiment” for her than a full-fledged project.

As she sat down for a candid conversation with PEOPLE magazine, Doechii was asked whether she had thought if the mixtape would mark her "breakthrough moment."

"No, not at all. I wasn't even in that mind frame," she replied.

She continued, "I just wanted to get my story out and say what it is that I wanted to say. It was really an experiment."

The Denial Is A River hitmaker also explained that she had set herself a deadline to release the mixtape and didn’t expect it to perform.

"I had a deadline in my head, and I was like, 'I just feel like I have to drop it at this time, and if I don't, I'm going to miss the mark on something within myself,'" the music star explained to the outlet.

"And so I didn't expect for it to be nearly as big because right after that I was just like, 'I'm just going to put this mixtape out, and then I'm just going to go ahead and drop my debut album, and that would be the one,'" the Alter Ego talent further mentioned.

"But it ended up becoming way bigger than I expected and pushing things back a little bit,” she stated.

Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal reached the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200, which became her first release to achieve that milestone.

The record then earned her a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in February, making her the third woman ever to win the category.