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‘Doechii the Dean’: How Doechii Taught a Lesson in Hip-Hop History at the Grammys

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | February 4, 2025 |

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Header Image Source: Getty Images

I must eat crow, dear reader—it wasn’t just a suit. It was so much more than a suit.

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At the Grammys on Sunday night, Doechii, who took home the award for Best Rap Album, walked the red carpet in a suited and tied pinstripe number from Thom Browne, and in my coverage of the fashion at the ceremony, I said I wasn’t impressed by it. If you pay attention to fashion, Thom Browne’s aesthetic has become somewhat ubiquitous. So, for a red carpet, the slim gown Doechii wore—while fitting her to an absolute tee—didn’t elicit much of a response from me. The one she changed into to accept her award was more my speed because it felt more special…

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…and then I completely missed the one she wore backstage after winning, complete with bells on her shoes that jingled when she walked.

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I wanted the whimsical, special details of these two outfits in the first one, and maybe it’s just the suiting gray, but I still felt the whole situation was lacking a certain pizazz.

But I was doing the very thing that Doechii knew I would do, which is missing the point entirely. As she said in an interview with Vogue while getting fitted for the Grammys a few days prior, “You have to have a certain taste level and an eye to immediately understand it.” In other words, she read me for filth.

The whole storyline of the looks throughout the night, Doechii explained, was a reference to hip-hop history.

“In my studying of hip-hop, I observed an era where fashion shifted and became a vital part of hip-hop, and it was around the time where Jay-Z decided to put on a suit and take off jeans, and make rap highly luxurious and, like, this boss executive thing…I want to tell that story, that being a student of hip-hop and studying brought me to where I am which is nominated for four Grammys.”

And now she’s a part of that history herself, only the third woman to win in her category.

Art like this, that’s intentional and thoughtful, is so exciting. I can’t wait to see what she does next.