She is everything Driven, sober and honest, Doechii is US rap's new hero

Sunday's Grammy awards were a celebration of widely known blue-chip talent: Taylor Swift was there, handing an award to Beyoncé.

- Shaad D'Souza

Shakira performed a medley, as did Sabrina Carpenter, a relatively young star who was quickly pulled into the pop firmament last year.

But the very first award given out, for best rap album, went to a relative unknown. Accepting the award for her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal - having beaten legends such as Eminem, Future and J Cole - the 26-year-old Florida rapper Doechii got tearful: "I put my heart and soul into this mixtape. I bared my life," she said. "I dedicated myself to sobriety and God told me that I would be rewarded, and that he would show me just how good it could get."

Doechii, born Jaylah Hickmon, is only the third woman to ever win the best rap album trophy - after Lauryn Hill with Fugees in 1997 and Cardi B in 2019 - and her Grammy capped a banner year. She started releasing music in 2016, but in 2024 she finally made good on the promise of early viral singles with a madcap, immensely personal record hailed by critics as one of the year's best. Combining the sound of 90s hip-hop with neo-soul and newer rap subgenres, Doechii unpacks the trials and tribulations of young stardom - drug addiction, label disputes, the weight of expectation - with the sharpness and timing of a great comic.

Fans point to her charisma, and her huge technical ability: she's able to deliver complex high-speed rhymes perfectly on top of the beat, as shown later on in the Grammys ceremony in a thrillingly choreographed, relentlessly rapped live performance of album tracks Catfish and Denial Is a River.