When Doechii accepted the best female hip-hop artist trophy at BET Awards 2025, she addressed the LA protests against undocumented immigrants being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Speaking to Variety, she explained she spoke up because she wanted to take advantage of the spotlight and her platform.
“I felt like I needed to use that moment, and they were live, so it wasn’t s*** they could do about it," she said.
At the award show, Doechii called out President Donald Trump for "using military forces to stop a protest" and asked the audience "to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us."
She also argued that oppressed people "deserve to live in hope and not in fear" and added, "I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate, and we protest against it."
Pivoting from her advocacy to the topic of new projects in the cover story, Doechii told Variety she's "been sonically sketching" new music.
"I know it’s gonna be a similar theme from my last project, of a real, deep vulnerability,” she said. “It’s gonna be the new lessons that I’m learning, and that’s why I say it’s hard to talk about now, because I’m still learning.”
She noted she's also trying to discover what it takes to get herself to superstar status.
"We don't really have a superstar of this generation just yet, because there hasn't been enough time," Doechii told Variety. "When I look at pop culture right now, I'm just trying to figure out, 'OK, what does a Doechii superstar look like? What does it take to make that?' I have no clue. I'm still figuring it out."
The full interview is available online.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
