Rapper Doja Cat says she struggled with cocaine and alcohol in TikTok videos

Doja Cat used a series of TikTok videos on Monday, Aug. 31 to talk about her mental health and her past use of cocaine and alcohol, and to answer people who have called her work demonic. She said she had struggled with cocaine roughly eight years ago and is well past it.

The framing came back to her own catalogue. I Don't Do Drugs, a fan favourite from Planet Her, did not reflect where she actually was at the time, and she was clear about which substances were and were not the problem. "I've never had a real problem with drugs except for weed," she said, adding that alcohol was something she had definitely had problems with while stopping short of calling herself an alcoholic.

Her explanation for the dark imagery people attach to her joined three things together: substance use, untreated mental illness and the internet. She described using online engagement as validation for the negative thoughts already in her head, thoughts she said were brought on by drinking, which turned a feedback loop into a public one.

She also described how she responds to hostility, saying she reacts more to negative comments because they affect her more, and that once you understand a person is acting out of their own difficulties it becomes sad rather than infuriating.

Growing up biracial in a mostly white neighbourhood came up too. She said she struggled with her identity and with self-hatred when she was younger, and has since found genuine appreciation for her natural hair and her appearance. "I don't hate myself. I'm not racist," she said, rejecting a set of accusations that have followed her for years, and promising to return to the subject in a different format.

The timing sits just ahead of a busy stretch. The North American leg of her Tour Ma Vie tour with Latto opens on Oct. 1, which means these videos went up while she was preparing for it. The Grammy winner, born Amala Dlamini, has spent much of her pop and hip-hop career negotiating in public with an audience that will not leave her alone, and she said this was simply the day it felt right to say so.