Doechii, Doja Cat, and circa 2021 Nicki Minaj — The Audio Mood Board for “Breakout, On Tour”

I’m not going to lie: for the first two PNK KanD albums, I definitely used some “audio mood boards” to set the tone.

I’m fairly certain that every artist does it at some point in their timeline… and I’m also very proud to be getting out of that phase with my music.

BUT, with the release of “Breakout, On Tour” drawing nigh, I can’t help but talk about the album’s roots.

Nicki Minaj, circa 2021

There was a period of time, back in like, 2020, when Nicki Minaj was in retirement.

But then, the Barbz took to social media and convinced her that we’d always need new music, so we got songs like “Seeing Green,” “We Go Up,” and “Fractions.”

And I definitely channeled that energy for a couple of the songs on this upcoming album.

Since the book is about KanD dealing with rumors, lies, and cancel culture, it only made sense to have a couple of songs defending herself from the haters.

Doja Cat — Queen of Sexy Rap

In my humble opinion, Doja Cat is the Queen of Sexy Rap.

Her ability to say incredibly raunchy things in insanely delicate ways is thus far unrivaled, simply because all of her albums leading up to Scarlet were sexual.

In a different blog article I will dive into the finer details of why Doja Cat is the rap game’s sex goddess, but today I just wanted to shout out the fact that I am always ridiculously inspired by her.

So, even though sexy rap isn’t PNK KanD’s forte, “POWER PLAY” and “Feelin’ Feisty” were both definitely inspired by Doja Cat’s style.

Especially because Doja Cat is still a good role model, even though she hit that sexy-pocket super hard when she initially became a sensation.

There’s an old Doja Cat song called “Beautiful” where she goes on and on about how beautiful she is, and then clarifies in the second verse that “beautiful” is referring to her smarts and her soul. 🥹

Shit like that is why I let Doja Cat to inspire me.

Doechii - The Don, The Dean, The QUEEN

I could definitely discuss Doechii for days.

The innovator is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise seemingly arid landscape of female rappers selling their bodies to gain acclaim.

Doechii is also an incredible role model in her lyrics.

She is someone I truly look up to.

But, when it comes to taking inspiration from Doechii, the only inspiration to take is “just be yourself.”

Doechii is an entire VIBE, she doesn’t belong in a box. She sings pretty and raps hard and always just stays true to herself.

AND I didn’t actually take notice of that until this year… while I wrote the lyrics for this album back in 2023.

So, the places where Doechii’s influence truly shines is the vocal arrangements and the fact that at least two of the song titles are not what you’d expect them to be.

Some of the songs only have one vocal track… but others have layers and a juiciness that I definitely learned from listening to Miss D-O-E.

E.