From building burritos at Chipotle to biting her way through the charts, Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon, better known as Doechii, has secured a spot as Hip-Hop’s favorite “new” artist (as well as Kendrick Lamar’s). Pulled up by her bootstraps — or better yet, her Southern grit — her nearly decade-long breakthrough is one of relentless persistence. Hickmon spent years navigating trial and error, with a self-help book ultimately acting as the catalyst for her creative success.
The 26-year-old Tampa, Florida native began recording music in high school, signing with Independent Beginnings, only to be dropped due to low streaming numbers. Defeated yet determined, Hickmon refused to give up, growing a YouTube channel where she shared honest, unapologetic content.
She documented her experience as a creative who wasn’t handed a nepotism-fueled shortcut or a basket of Hollywood connections. While working at Chipotle, where she even filmed “How to Get Hired at Chipotle” videos, she spent unemployment checks on music videos during the pandemic. In a vlog from this era, she vented, “You have to have rent, it’s fucking up everything — my creative process, my inspiration, and shit.”
Admitting she would do anything for a spot in the industry, especially at the top, she documented the entire experience on YouTube, facing a series of relentless setbacks. Despite her music resonating with an initial fanbase, her audience wasn’t expanding. “BITCH, NOBODY IS HERE,” she deadpanned in an early YouTube video, sitting fully clothed in her bathtub with a fresh bob and slippers. “I’ll be doing it regardless of my audience’s presence anyway. I’ll be doing it regardless.”
Despite her unwavering work ethic and financial commitment to her craft, success remained elusive. “I feel like everybody’s life is better without me in it, and I feel like my life sucks. I participate in self-help courses and books to scapegoat the fact that my career isn’t progressing. I fear that I’m at a standstill because I don’t feel like my projects are moving fast enough for my audience.”
Then, one seemingly ordinary day, a pile of scattered books caught Hickmon’s attention as she walked through her neighborhood. Something compelled her to take a closer look. Hidden next to a John Lennon biography was another book — “The Artist’s Way.”
“I was drawn to it for some reason, so I picked it up. It’s a course in discovering and recovering your creative self.”
So, she did exactly that. Hickmon documented the entire 12-week journey on her channel, completing assignments and journaling her way back to her truest creative form.
Five months later, her next song, “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” from the album “Oh, the Places You’ll Go (2020),” exploded. TikTok videos featuring the track skyrocketed from just two to 50,000. Paying her team out of pocket with her last unemployment check, she funded the entire set.
Inspired by Barbara Park’s “Junie B. Jones” series, the song tells Hickmon’s own coming-of-age story. With full confidence, she declares, “I am a Black girl who beat the statistics / fuck the opinions and all the logistics.”
The song’s viral success led to a deal with TDE Records in 2022, ending her independent journey. The momentum from the same EP sparked the immediate release of her 2021 follow-up, “BRA-LESS (2021).”
By 2023, she had dropped an EP with SZA, performed at Coachella and opened for Doja Cat on the Scarlett Tour.
Hickmon credits her Southern roots and Florida’s swampy backdrop for shaping her sound, as well as the vibrant LGBTQ+ community that influenced her artistry. She told Billboard, “Whether I’m working on choreography or undergoing a glamorous transformation, I draw inspiration from my memories of resilience, the artistry of drag queens in Ybor City and the energy of ballroom culture in NYC.”
Her most successful project to date, “Alligator Bites Never Heal,” launched her into the limelight, earning the star a viral Tiny Desk Concert and an unforgettable performance on The Late Late Show, where her cornrows were dramatically tied to her backup dancers.
Hickmon made history as the third female rapper and the first artist to win Best Rap Album with a mixtape at the 2025 GRAMMYs for “Alligator Bites Never Heal.”
Speaking directly to young Black women, she told America and a celebrity-filled audience at the 2025 Grammys:
“I know that there is some Black girl out there, so many Black women out there who are watching me right now, and I want to tell you — you can do it. Anything is possible. Don’t allow anybody to project stereotypes onto you that tell you you can’t be here, or that you’re too dark … or you’re too loud … You’re exactly who you need to be. And I am a testimony.”
Like a miner who stops digging just before striking gold, Hickmon proved that perseverance is everything. After all, her greatest instrument has always been resilience.
