If there’s one thing Doja Cat is good at, it’s changing the game. In the arachni-demonic featureless album, “Scarlet,” Doja Cat proves to the music industry that she can rap. The album dares listeners to say “she’s not a rapper,” and while it asserts her capabilities, the album, like Rico Nasty’s “Anger Management” and Taylor Swifts “reputation,” feels like another razor-edged, betrayal-ridden call-out, that always has something to prove.
Regardless of whether or not the intentions are corny and overdone, the album includes bop after bop with specific acknowledgement to “Skull and Bones,” “Agora Hills,” and “Ouchies.” Because of Doja’s ability to create a catchy song, there was no doubt for the seven inclusions to the tracklist on “Scarlet 2 CLAUDE,” to be any less than. The deluxe tracks include “ACKNOWLEDGE ME,” “DISRESPECTFUL,” “URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!,” “OKLOSER,” “MASC,” and “HEADHIGH,” among others.
With the exception of “DISRESPECTFUL” and “URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!,” the tracks, when listened to as a collective, blend together and get pretty repetitive. Standing alone however, each track is very strong and has the ability to be your favorite off the album.
Despite “Scarlet” including no other artists, “Scarlet 2 CLAUDE” features two; A$AP Rocky on “URRRGE!!!!!!!!!!” and Teezo Touchdown on “MASC.” The inclusion of these artists was definitely exciting when seeing the tracklist, but after hearing the songs, the deluxe could’ve gone without and continued her lack of features from “Scarlet.”
Overall, only one song truly stuck with me outside of listening to the deluxe addition as a whole: “DISRESPECTFUL” is a fun call-out that adds a dance-inducing flare the album desperately needed. On every track, I feel like I can imagine Doja rapping into the mic with an angry mask glued to her face. In reality I feel like she wants to create something beyond that, but mistakenly set the fire-red mood for the album too early on and is now forced to be confined to anger.
