The music industry loves a formula: a perfect, marketable pop star whose impressive discography is compiled with the help of 40 different songwriters. Their songs, while catchy, are curated to fit social media algorithms, sacrificing authenticity for streams. Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon—known by her stage name as Doechii—takes a risk by being herself and straying away from what is expected of her, standing out in an industry saturated with content constructed for virality. Despite Doechii’s recent indifference towards “TikTok hits,” she strikes a balance between authenticity and virality. As a result, several of her songs have gone viral across social media platforms. I first saw Doechii in my TikTok feed in a clip of her singing “NISSAN ALTIMA” in her performance with Tiny Desk, performing her debut album, “Alligator Bites Never Heal.” In the span of about 30 seconds, the talent of Doechii and her entourage of Black female musicians immediately jumped off the screen. I even put an end to m...