It would not be a stretch to say that Doechii is one of the best rappers to emerge in the past several years, and she clearly has a deep respect for the art.In a recent conversation with The Cut, Doechii shared her thoughts on various elements of the genre, saying, “I’m gravitating towards the pure skill that was incorporated. She then added, “Anyone who doesn’t think that hip-hop is an intellectual genre, I think that assumption is rooted in racism.”Doechii also praised the women who came before her, such as Lauryn Hill, who paved the way for being vulnerable and honest in their music. “The feeling that I have when I listen to ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ is the same feeling I want some other Black little girl to have when she listens to me,” she said. “And in order for her to have that feeling, I have to talk about my feelings.”Doechii Has Strong Words For Those Who Don’t Think ‘Hip-Hop is an Intellectual Genre’Doechii’s new interview comes months after she spoke with The Forty-Five and shared how she learned to incorporate humor into her music for the sake of processing difficult feelings.“The art it comes from, the art of comedy, is about truth,” she explained. “It’s about blunt truth and darkness and making light of it. I knew that I was going to be talking about such dark topics and such serious things and I was like, ‘How predictable would it be for me to talk about these things over a sad beat? Why not just do it in a Slick Rick type of children’s story way?'”“It just comes down to my love for satire but it’s interesting because it’s not necessarily satirical,” Doechii continued. “I guess it is to other people, but it’s actually my real life and it really sucks.”“It’s not funny to me, but I think that I like doing it because maybe it makes other people digest it better and they can kind of face themselves through my music in a comedic way, “Doechii concluded. “It’s easily digestible that way.”The post Doechii Defends Hip-Hop as an Intellectual Artform appeared first on VICE.