Tampa-born rapstress Doechii is not just an emerging star, she’s got a big fan in Kendrick Lamar. That alone moves her to the top of the list of rappers not named Nicki, Megan or Cardi. But unlike them, she’s added a potent mix of jazz, funk, blues and R&B to her repertoire, which got its moment on NPR‘s famed Tiny Desk series in an episode that dropped last weekend.

Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape, her first full-length release, came out to rave reviews on Aug. 30 on Top Dawg/Capitol Records. In an IG Story post from October, Lamar declared the first female rapper signed to his former label as “the hardest out.”

In her Pitchfork review, Lily Goldberg writes, “On her most ambitious and musically diverse project to date—19 tracks that feel more sensitive and self-possessed than her recent spate of club-ready singles—she makes room for vulnerability. It’s a formidable full-length debut, fluid yet focused, that reprises her playful and melodic sides without skimping on hard-hitting hip-hop.”

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Doechii’s Tiny Desk performance, viewed by 1.4 M people in just three days highlights the new album but ends with “Black Girl Memoir” from her previous release Oh The Places You’ll Go.

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“I decided to perform this record because I think there’s been a lot of heightened emotions with the current state of our country, and I wrote this song specifically for Black women,” she told the Tiny Desk audience. “As a dark-skinned woman, there’s a very unique experience I’m trying to internalize.”

Created by former NPR music editor Bob Boilen, the performances at his former desk have become a popular music industry rite of passage. Like Doechii’s, the shows on Tiny Desk often bring out another side of an artist who performs a half-hour or so set at the desk in front of rapturous NPR employees. Usher went viral with his “looking at you” gesture during his Tiny Desk and other acts who were at first viewed as too “urban” for the show like Juvenile and The Lox have recently been featured.

Watch Doechii’s full Tiny Desk below:

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The post Why Doechii’s ‘Tiny Desk’ Became An Instant Classic — And Cemented Her As Rap’s It-Girl appeared first on MadameNoire.