TAMPA, Fla. — "When we get on this stage, I would feel and imagine myself on Jimmy Kimmel, on Jimmy Fallon and being at Governors Ball and being on those stages, so this stage is every stage for me."
Imagination and dreams that have all become a reality: Fresh from the stage of Jimmy Kimmel, former Blake High School chorus student-turned-star Doechii never forgets how Tampa has shaped her success today.
Born Jaylah Hickmon, at just 25 years old, she’s already seen record-breaking success. She has a growing list of accomplishments under her belt, from Billboard and MTV Music Awards to superstar features from artists like Babyface and JT of the Miami-based rap duo The City Girls.
Doechii is also the first female rapper signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, alongside big names like SZA and former labelmate Kendrick Lamar. But she’s a hometown girl at heart, making hits and incorporating Bucs gear and 813 numbers into music videos that garnered millions upon millions of streams.
"I think it’s just a part of my culture to be authentically myself no matter where I am and I feel most comfortable that way. I’m just comfortably being myself no matter where I am or where I am in my career or where I am physically in the world," she said. "I just like to remain authentic because it just feels most comfortable."
Doechii’s fans are affectionately called The Swamp. Just ahead of the Tampa stop on her “Swamp Ball Pride Tour,” she told me even though she lives in Los Angeles now, there's no place like home.
"It feels incredible. I love being back home, the weather, the highways, just the scenery. I think when I was younger, I romanticized my city a lot, and so it always feels like I know just like this fantasy. No other place feels better than my home," she said.
With fond memories of how it all started right here at Blake.
"We only got to be in the theater when we were performing our songs, and it’s actually a really special place because I couldn’t wait to come in here," Doechii said.
She has a message for anyone bold enough to create their own reality: fall in love with the process.
"This is not some end goal. It never really stops. Fall in love with the process, fall in love with what you’re doing more than how people will react to it, fall in love with your music and creating and recording more than you do the number and thinking about what happens after that," Doechii said. "Be in the moment. Be in the present moment constantly, and everything will come to you, and everything will work out exactly how it was supposed to work out. Just be yourself."
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
