Doechii Cements Herself as the Future of Hip-Hop at Irving Show

Doechii’s career has long been built on risk. From the moment she released her debut single “Girls” via SoundCloud in 2016, she knew she had something special. It was in 2020, when she was fired from her day job, that she decided to seek work in studios, fully committing to her music career. In 2022, she signed to Top Dawg Entertainment — home to SZA, Isaiah Rashad and formerly Kendrick Lamar — with a lot under her belt. She already had a viral hit with her pandemic-era single, “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake,” and collaborations with Missy Elliott and Bia to her credit. Her ongoing Live From the Swamp Tour — which stopped at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on Wednesday, Oct. 29 — shows that her creative investment paid off.

Following an energetic set by Doechii’s frequent production collaborator Kal Banx — a native of Dallas who was sure to include Big Tuck’s “Southside Da Realist” and Lil Wil’s “My Dougie” in his mix — expectations were high for Doechii.

The Tampa native rapper’s set began with a clip of her instructing a classroom. She then emerged from a sideways turntable, where she sat at a desk, opening her set with “Stanka Pooh” from her Grammy Award-winning debut mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal. As she delivered choreography from the desk, the 27-year-old showcased a masterclass to people in her school of hip-hop by being a student of the game herself. Performances of “Bullfrog” and “Boiled Peanuts” contained samples of Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” and Jay-Z’s “Can I Live” respectively — as one of the current landscape’s greats, it’s only natural she paid homage to the legends who came before her.

The online space has been vital for Doechii’s catalog, and this was evident as she performed her freestyle of Beyoncé’s “America Has a Problem,” which has never been released to digital streaming platforms, with fans rapping along to every word. She maintained her momentum as she performed her house-driven “Alter Ego.” 

Throughout her performance, Doechii showed love to her LGBTQ+ fans, shouting “where my gays at?!” mid-song. A loud roar from the fans could surely be heard from miles away. 

The beat smoothly wound down as she performed her ode to weed, “Persuasive.” Like everyone in the building, she noticed the pungent cannabis aroma throughout the venue. A cloud of the finest kush permeated the air of a packed pit. “Where the weed at?!” she shouted. “I smell it.”

In between songs, Doechii displayed hilarious clips on set. In one clip, she continued the teacher bit, offering a lesson in sex education. Acting as a health teacher, she shared a classic banana instructional on how to ensure a condom is on securely. Specifically, she reminded the audience to “make sure [the condom] is the right size, because [men] are lying.”

Of course, fans were expecting Doechii to perform “Anxiety” — a Gotye-sampling cut which she first released in 2019, then re-recorded and re-released earlier this year. The song has become Doechii’s biggest hit to date, peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and already garnering much Grammy buzz for the 2026 ceremony. As she delivered a rock version of the song, feeling the grooves of everyone in the audience doing the viral “Anxiety” dance from TikTok felt therapeutic.

“Denial is a River” came later in the set, with her taking command of the stage as she rapped the ad-libs and main vocals. Needless to say, Doechii never missed a beat. And the party continued late into the night.

What some people may not know is that Doechii and Alligator Bites Never Heal have a connection to Dallas. Not only is Banx from Dallas, but so is Miles “Super Miles” Franklin, who is also credited as a producer on the mixtape.

So naturally, she showed love to Dallas after the show. Following her performance, she paid a visit to LadyLove in Bishop Arts for her afterparty, where she was recorded dancing on top of the DJ booth as Banx and Joaqu.n were spinning the 1s and 2s.

The Live From the Swamp Tour is a strong indicator of Doechii’s mainstream rap star status. With the audience fully invested in Doechii’s sketches, choreography and lyrics — even those from SoundCloud loosies over the years — her catalog, despite being very fresh, feels timeless. Even if the charts may not reflect it, the fans, especially those in Dallas, are listening.

See more photos from Wednesday’s show: