Doechii named Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year as her viral comments on ‘straight men’ spark debate
The Tampa, Fl. artist adds to her list of accolades in a year that has already seen her receive a Grammy and an NAACP Image Award.
Doechii, the female rapper who etched her name into the annals of history as only the third woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album (following in the footsteps of Lauryn Hill and Megan Thee Stallion) is set to Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year Award at a ceremony in Los Angeles on March 29.
Doechii, born Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon, is racking up the accolades. In February, she took home the Best Rap Album award for her mixtape “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” a project that took the internet by storm and was declared a critical darling by most music media for it’s brash, in-your-face raps, creativity and vulnerability. Later in that same month, she took home the award for Outstanding New Artist at the NAACP’s Image Awards. Being named as Billboard’s Woman of the Year for 2025 is another notch on her belt, and possibly another stop on the banner year that 2025 has already been for Doechii.
Since her mixtape dropped in August of 2024, she’s been on a tear. She set the internet ablaze with her performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk in December 2024, both introducing and re-introducing people to her art and her talents. In just three months, the video from the performance has over 12 million views—as a point of reference, Juvenile’s highly anticipated and celebrated NPR Tiny Desk performance has just under 10 million views. Doechii’s star is undeniable at this point.
“After receiving the Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award in 2023, Doechii has quickly gained recognition in the music industry for her bold creativity and impressive talent. With her genre-blending sound, Doechii is redefining what it means to be a trailblazer in the music industry. We are honored to celebrate Doechii and cheer on her continued success!” said Hannah Karp, editorial director of Billboard via a statement.
Doechii is the second rapper to win the award, following Cardi B in 2020. Other recipients of the industry honor have included SZA, Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez, Madonna, among others.
Along with being a celebrated musical talent, she also manages to get social media talking with her videos, live performances and even interviews on podcasts. The latest “controversy” that has the Internet talking is her appearance on “Hot Ones Versus,” where folks face off against one another and share the truth or eat some super hot wings. On the March 7 episode, she faced off against DJ Miss Milan and when asked what her relationship red flag is, she said “a straight man.” Doechii who is queer, had the Internet in shambles, with some commenters being supportive and others offended or believe she was pushing an agenda.
“It’s not about if these men can date her it’s about the obvious agenda to attack straight men , and emasculate them.” said one user on a clip of the post on TheShadeRoom.
Another user accused her of exhibiting heterophobia, which is actually a real thing: “Society tends to focus on homophobia but never really addresses heterophobia. Making statements especially as a public figure that isolate, or demoralize people of a certain gender is prejudice.”
On the other side of the coin, and illustrative of many comments, another commenter said, “I mean…she is bisexual. If her preference is dating women or non straight men, I don’t understand what’s the issue.”
No matter what, Doechii has the people talking already in 2025, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
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