In a generation where anything can be labeled a “classic” too soon and too easily, Doechii’s[ Alligator Bites Never Heal is one of one. Released in August 2024, the mixtape quickly became both a critical and commercial darling. It debuted at No. 124 on the Billboard 200 and, after a steady rise in popularity, broke into the Top 10 by April—earning a Gold certification from the RIAA along the way.
And as if that weren’t enough, Doechii went on to win the Grammy for Best Rap Album this year, making her only the third woman to ever take home the award. Yet even with all of the numbers and accolades, the best thing about Doechii remains her talent: her raw energy, witty wordplay, and “Swamp Glamour Princess” aesthetic has made her a modern rising superstar.
Because of the swift rise of Alligator Bites Never Heal, some critics have tried to write Doechii off as an “overnight success” or an “industry plant,” which is false. She has been building an audience for years, and Alligator Bites Never Heal is deeply connected to the music she’s been making since she first went viral with “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake” in 2020.
Alligator Bites Never Heal is a spiritual cleanse—a Black girl’s survival and growth guide set against the backdrop of Tampa, Florida, where Doechii was born. The alligator bite metaphor is central: it’s not just about surviving pain, but reckoning with it—and still choosing to wade through the swamp of life. Created during a period of creative burnout, the mixtape explores the loneliness of self-imposed isolation and the vulnerability that comes with facing one’s fears. The image of an alligator’s death roll becomes a symbol of resilience as she navigates the industry, her vices, and herself.
With a sonic hybrid of sounds—from Classic East Coast ‘90s grit to more contemporary house-inspired R&B—and her witty, pop culture-laced lyricism, Doechii draws listeners into a world where her personal manifesto has finally connected with the masses, on her own terms.
Doechii has already hinted at what’s next, revealing that her next album—which will be her official debut—will arrive in 2025. So before she kicks off that era, let’s take one more close look at her Grammy Award–winning mixtape. Here are 10 things you didn’t know about Alligator Bites Never Heal.
During an interview with Rolling Stone last fall, Doechii revealed the deeper theatrical layer behind the mixtape’s biggest hit, “Denial Is a River.” Conceptually, the song plays out like a theatrical therapy session on wax, in which Doechii unpacks the emotional complexity of a turbulent relationship. It continues the narrative she began on her debut EP, 2020’s Oh the Places You’ll Go, which tells the story of a young Doechii attending a creative school and receiving guidance from a mentor figure who helps her begin healing her inner child.
According to Doechii, it was important to revisit this character in order to process her latest growth and experiences. “She’s been gone for a while, so I brought that character back because I felt like I needed her to talk through some things now,” she told Rolling Stone.
Doechii has been extremely transparent about her sobriety journey and how it’s shifted both her life and her music. She opened up on The Breakfast Club that partying and drinking were so intertwined with her creative process that she hadn’t realized how much they were impacting her work.
Eventually, she recognized the need for a creative reset and chose to distance herself from habits and environments that no longer supported her growth. As she has documented, this period of transformation aligned with a broader Gen Z revival of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Doechii quit everything—caffeine, weed, alcohol—in pursuit of clarity.
In an interview with STOKED, she admitted that the turning point came when she felt disconnected from her creative core. “I realized I’d forgotten the source of my creativity. And now I know, I need to take these things away and get to the root of what’s going on.”
“Stanka Pooh,” wasn’t supposed to be the opener, or at least that wasn’t Doechii’s original intention when she made the song. It’s actually one of the oldest tracks on the mixtape.
Doechii recorded it back when she first got signed, back in 2022.
The line, “If I died today, I’d die a TikTok rapper/part-time YouTube actor,” is oddly cool now, as Doechii noted, “That was before I even had stuff blowing up on TikTok,” she said on an episode of the Dissect podcast released last year. Even she isn’t sure why she said it, but it’s all just a stream of consciousness.
On that same episode, Doechii also revealed that the song wasn’t written with any narrative in mind. It’s just her unpacking fears and existential thoughts without knowing exactly where it would lead.
The title of Alligator Bites Never Heal might seem like a Florida swamp homage—think Southern Gothic with a hip-hop Gen Z Cowboy Cartertwist—but that’s not the vibe or intention.
It’s more personal. In an Apple Music interview with Ebro, Doechii said she’s still unpacking its meaning. But from her interviews and social posts, one thing is clear: the alligator’s “death roll” is central. It drags prey underwater, spinning and drowning them in a brutal fight. Doechii connects this to her own struggles—with burnout, personal demons, and a sometimes rocky relationship with her label, TDE.
What’s striking is the research she did on real-life gator attacks: she points out everyone who survived an attack “fought back.”
The breathing exercise on “Denial is a River” wasn’t always there. It became the final piece to click for Doechii after adding the therapist aspect. While recording the song, she was trying to figure out how to give the song a little more life, so she got the idea to channel Doug E. Fresh-style beatbox.
The only problem was that she didn’t know how to beatbox. So, like any real one would, she dove into old videos of Doug E. at his peak, according to an anecdote revealed on the Dissect. It’s a small but intentional homage that means a lot to “real hip-hop” fans.
What ties Alligator Bites Never Heal together, aside from Doechii’s lyricism and that eccentric blend of musical sounds, is the way she uses voicemail recordings as interludes. The tactic provides a realism to this homecoming story for the Swamp Princess.
On “Bloom,” the track opens with a conversation between Doechii and an older woman. The audio was captured during a game night with friends, featuring the voice of a friend’s aunt offering advice as Doechii navigates big dreams, limited time, and the weight of reality.
Doechii shared on Dissect that she began recording voice memos with women in her life while working on what was initially meant to be her debut album, believing the advice might one day prove meaningful. These recordings would also go on to inspire the song “Wait.”
According to Miss Milan, who’s Doechii’s DJ, Alligator Bites Never Heal almost didn’t happen. The original plan was a debut album, but after creative differences between Doechii and her label during an album camp in Miami, that project was scrapped. Just a month before the intended release date, Doechii pivoted and began working on the mixtape.
“I literally called my label and I was like, ‘I am going to drop a mixtape on August 30th. This is what I want to do,’” Doechii revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone.
In a space of creative rejuvenation, she returned to her roots as a rapper and relaunched the Swamp Sessions—a series where she freestyles or writes at least one song a day. Milan told Complex that the only songs originally meant for the scrapped debut that made it onto the mixtape were “Boom Bap” and “Slide.”
“Boom Bap” is not only a standout but one of the singles off the tape. It was also done in one shot. The moment where she starts speaking in tongues? That was completely spontaneous, and she kept it in the final cut.
According to Doechii, the track’s layered contradictions are intentional. On Dissect, she explained how she recorded it after the success of “What It Is.” While everyone wanted more of the sing-song, catchy material, she was feeling frustrated—torn between her love for real rap and the industry’s narrow expectations for women. What we hear in “Boom Bap” is the tension between Doechii’s desire to rap freely and being told what “real” rap should sound like for a woman. It’s a Gen Z rebuttal to the bullshit idea that women need to act or sound a certain way to be taken seriously as an MC.
“There’s this narrative of this type of female rapper…” Doechii said. “It’s not real rap cause you’re not rapping like or rapping like that.” But Doechii flips the script and instead chooses to mock the entire thing because, well, she is everything.
Doechii isn’t mad that her ex had a male lover; she’s mad that he couldn’t even be honest with himself and her. Of course, Doechii being Doechii, she adds a playful layer to it, recreating the moment with DJ Miss Milan in a promo clip.
Inspired by a real-life situation from Doechii’s past relationship, “Denial is a River” is a track that takes its name from the iconic “Denial is a river in Egypt. Your husband is gay” clip from the Wendy Williams radio show.