Doechii Explains How SZA’s ‘Ctrl’ Pushed Her to Break Up With Her Ex-Boyfriend
"She inspired me to be vulnerable through my music," the Swamp Princess added of the hitmaker.
Thanks to SZA‘s debut album, Doechii was able to accept that the party was definitely over with an unsupportive ex years ago.
In a Cosmopolitan cover story published Monday (April 21), the Swamp Princess recalled how listening to Ctrl back when she was 18 enabled her to break things off with her then-boyfriend, who she says limited her creatively. “I was dating a guy who just wasn’t very supportive of my music, and it really stifled me,” she told the publication. “I stopped writing because he was just like, ‘That’s not cool.’ I took his opinion way too seriously when really he just didn’t get it.”
“I remember listening to SZA’s Ctrl for the first time, and it literally gave me the courage to break up with him,” Doechii continued. “I only bring that up because she inspired me to be vulnerable through my music in a way that I didn’t think I could be.”
The decision definitely paid off. Eight years later, Doechii is now the third woman to ever win best rap album at the Grammys — taking home the award in February for breakthrough mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal — and was crowned Billboard‘s 2025 Woman of the Year in March. She’s also in another relationship now, this time with a woman, about which she told Cosmo, “My literal existence as a queer Black woman is a major contribution to the hip-hop genre.”
“I’m speaking truthfully from a queer Black woman’s perspective, and being honest about my life through my lens is amazing,” the Florida native added. “That perspective is being highlighted, and we need queer perspectives.”
Doechii’s praise for SZA comes as the two women share slots high up on the Billboard Hot 100, with the former’s first-ever top 10 hit, “Anxiety,” sitting at No. 14 on the chart dated April 19 while the latter’s “Luther” collaboration with Kendrick Lamar spends its eighth week at No. 1. And in her cover story, the “Denial Is a River” spitfire also gushed about another leading lady in music: Beyoncé.
“I relate to her efforts as a businesswoman and her leadership,” Doechii said. “She is the embodiment of an eloquent leader. I look up to the way that she handles her job, her fame, and her fans. She is the ultimate showgirl and professional artist.”
See Doechii on the cover of Cosmo below.
