If you’ve been wondering why people keep saying “Bitch I’m a cow” on your timeline, look no further than internet rapper Doja Cat. Perhaps you’ve already seen the zany NSFW music video for her new song “Mooo!” and read the cheeky description for the video — “My hide is not your prom dress”— and are here for necessary explanation.
After listening to “Mooo!” and hearing Doja Cat repeat how she is actually “a cow,” you’re likely struck by how catchy the tune is. It is completely nonsensical and yet the type of content engineered to go viral in 2018. The first time I watched it, my initial reaction wasn’t about cows or the giant anime chests bouncing in the background. Nope. My first reaction was, “This is going to blow up.”
The song’s momentum is already growing. Even Chance the Rapper and Sango are tweeting about it.
https://twitter.com/CharlyBGay/status/1028854297478483968
Moo by @DojaCat is just a setup for y’all to actually listen to her other stuff b/c she’s actually a great singer and songwriter. Twitter always winning 😂.
— Kai Sango (@SangoBeats) August 13, 2018
So now im a big doja cat fan 🐄
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) August 13, 2018
You can’t help but be reminded of similar aggrandizing moments from quote-unquote Soundcloud rappers like Lil Yachty or Lil Pump, whose work appeals to the flippant ironic stance of a younger generation and simultaneously rankles hip-hop elders with misguided purist sensibilities. Doja Cat is inviting all of these reactions.
“I like to disappoint woke-hip-hop people,” she wrote on Twitter as the song blew up this past weekend. “I love that the majority of you guys are healthy and normal and then all of the people who don’t like moo are taking their lives and a song I wrote about cows all too seriously, losing hair over it. MOOOOOOOOOOOO,” she added.
Doja Cat isn’t all jokes, though. She signed to RCA Records back in 2014 has released two different projects, including her debut album Amala in March of this year. She is “equal parts Tumblr kid, Los Angeles Black hipster, and aspiring pop-rap diva,” as Uproxx described her. On her Soundcloud, Doja Cat allows her true quirk to shine through with tracks like “Muffin Man” and “Nintendhoe,” the latter of which samples the Nintendo Gamecube’s start-up screen. (Warning: The cover art for “Nintendhoe” is also NSFW.)
Whether you can’t get past the joke or find yourself randomly saying, “Bitch I’m a cow,” Doja Cat’s song and music feels very appropriate for 2018. Let’s hope this moment inspires everyone to moooove on to greener pastures. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
