Doechii- Alligator Bites Never heal

Alligator Bites Never Heal – Review

“Doechii the Don, Doechii the Dean, Doechii Supreme” exclaimed recently signed TDE member Doechii on the track Catfish off her newest mixtape featuring dazzling versatility and rapping prowess. Entitled “Alligator Bites Never Heal” released on August 30th of last year, Doechii makes it a point to tell us “I’m Everything” as she roars on BoomBap, and everything she is. From hard hitting, boombastic production on the beginning half of the tracklist – evident from cuts such as Stankapooh, BullFrog, and Boiled Peanuts – to tracks that see Doechii play with her voice in melodic and often angelic tones – Alligator Bites Never Heal is a progressive step forward in the young career of a rapper finding her footing in the game. Doechii spends the course of the mixtape debating her place in today’s hip-hop landscape through her slick wordplay and immense sense of self-awareness. Her proficiency in flows and overall mic presence has lended her numerous comparisons to the likes of Lauryn Hill, Nicki Minaj, and even Andre 3000 of Outkast, while her singing cadences and lyrical agility expresses influences of Missy Elliot and Mary J. Blige of the 2000’s.

I first learned about Doechii through a feature of hers on Smino’s 2022 project Luv 4 Rent on the track Pro Freak, where her and the St.Louis rapper share bars back and forth – and ever since then my interest has been piqued. After receiving universal praise from my roommate, I decided to sit down and give Alligator Bites Never Heal a chance and I can confidently say I was blown away by Doechii’s sheer rapping ability, which grabs your attention immediately on the mixtapes first track, Stankapooh. Featuring 2000’s boombap-esque production (akin to something like what an early Eminem would hop on), Doechii spends the course of the track giving you bar after bar and clever entendres stack on top of one another. From quick-witted lines such as “Talking out my a** and that’s my assumption … but” and her questioning of what her image is to others through the opening statements of the track in “Let’s start the story backwards, I’m dead, she’s dead, just another Black Lives Mattered/And if I died today, I’d die a bastard/TikTok rapper, part time YouTube actor”, it’s clear that Doechii is hungry on this one. She continues this hunger and does not take her foot off the gas in the following tracks Bull Frog and Boiled Peanuts, which feature similar Westside Gunn style production. One thing I would like to point out is how Doechii likes to play with her voice and delivery across these beginning tracks. From sometimes overtly aggressive bellowings of her vocals to other times quick, choppy flows or smooth verbratos that she can tap into, each verse sounds as if a lot of care was poured into how she wants herself to sound.

Pivoting from the more underground, battle rap-jointed first three tracks, track number four, Denial is a River, see’s Doechii’s unique storytelling ability at full display. This track begins with a conversation with an extension of her inner thoughts, wanting to get caught up to speed on the life of Doechii since her last EP, Oh The Places You Go, released in 2020. The sample heavy production is welcomed by a very modern west coast sound (think Kendrick Lamar production of his new project GNX) as her opening verse see’s Doechii recap failed relationships with a catfish before she, “moved on, dropped a couple of songs, went and got signed and now it’s 2021.” Continuing her autobiographical plotline, she begins the next verse detailing her successes with a great amplitude of swagger, “Platinum record this, viral record that, I’m making so much money I’m all over the net” and “I need a cleanse, need to detox, but we don’t got time to stop, the charts need us.” She keeps up the energy through the third verse where she meticulously denies that she has a drug problem (as her inner conscience recommends) and explains that she is merely having fun – and you can truly tell through the craft of this song. Denial is a River flows wonderfully into the next track in Catfish, where Doechii once again showcases her mic presence and aggressiveness through rapping. The instrumental here backs her delivery once again to perfection.

SKIPP next is a tad of a sonic switch up, where Doechii employs her vocals in a nearly ghostly fashion akin to an early Lauryn Hill, showcasing her mere versatility only six tracks into the mixtape. While falling on the shorter side in terms of runtime, Skipp is still a sneak peak of Doechii’s vocal talents to come across the remainder of this project.

The following track Wait features a more airy and frankly relaxing instrumental for once, as Doechii glides over it while singing in a beautiful way. She truly sounds like a different artist on this one, and once again, I applaud her musical agility here. Death Roll next features a chilling beat of high pitched piano licks on loop that creates an eerie atmosphere where Doechii’s lyrical storytelling ability shines through once again, “As sweat drips down my t**s, I contemplate how’d it ever get like this? I contemplate how’d I ever get this rich or get this bag? I wonder what a them labels see in a b**** this black? I wonder what my friends all think when I’m not there/I love the way my ideas flow when I’m not scared.” Doechii here is truly giving us an inside view of the inner workings of her mind, and does so with such breeze and candor. Similar to Denial is a River, Deathroll is a standout amongst the tracklist due to Doechii’s clear talent to draw conclusive verses of her thoughts and does so in a story-like manner.

The following two tracks of Boombap and Profit see Doechii glide over more Lauryn Hill-esque instrumentals and as the track list hits a huge momentum shift in the banger Nissan Altima. Captivated by its instantly attention grabbing repeating piano loops, Doechii flows in a way I truly have never heard another artist do before. Exclaiming herself as “the new hip-hop Madonna”, she very well might be. GTFO featuring Kuntfestish keeps up the energy of Nissan Altima with a well done interpolation of Move B**** by Ludacris, and I particularly love the featured artists’ contributions on the last verse. The track list hits a bit of a lul as we move towards the final leg of it, with the following cuts in Huh, Slide, Fireflies, Beverly Hills, and the title track all give way to Doechii’s vocal capabilities once again, yet lack much of the hunger and content that characterized the beginning of the project.

All in all though, Alligator Bites Never Heal is a mixtape where Doechii successfully demonstrates all of her strengths to an effective degree. Everything from her cold-hearted rapping and writing capabilities, smooth flow changes, incredible beat selection, cadences, singing talents, and overall knack for traditional hip-hop music is put on full display across Alligator Bites Never Heals 47 minute runtime. Each track is particularly short, often hovering under the 3 minute mark, yet for a mixtape this is okay as the concise nature of these songs allow for Doechii to effectively showcase the numerous faucets of her talents. Moving forward however, the technicalities that Doechii has employed across her first major label mixtape here make me ever the more excited to see her commit to a full length project and concept soon enough, a feat I am confident she can deliver upon now after hearing Alligator Bites Never Heal, we’ve just got to wait until that time comes.

BEST SONGS: Denial Is a River, Death Roll, Catfish, Skipp, Boiled Peanuts, Stankapoo, GTFO

OVERALL RATING: 8.1/10