Early this month, Doja Cat announced she would take an Instagram hiatus to preserve her mental health (although, being Doja, she would never put it in such a cliche way). Today, she reactivated her account, which now only includes one post: A extremely close-up photo of Doja’s hair with a caption announcing the imminent release date for her new single, “MASC.” The song drops on April 5.
Doja was one of a bunch of artists who seemingly flourished through social media interactions with fans. Whether she was previewing new music or trolling followers with sh*tposts and bad jokes, the California rapper always appeared to be in her element. However, over the past couple of years, fans’ interactions have become increasingly combative.
When she debuted a new haircut, they complained she wasn’t sexy enough. When she shared photos of her new tattoos, she was accused of Satanism. Even her wardrobe was subject to scrutiny, albeit somewhat justifiably so.
So it makes sense why, on March 9, Doja wrote, “Hey, I’m gonna deactivate because I’m not really feeling this anymore. You guys take care of yourselves. I like coming here to find inspo and see people being creative. But I just feel like this is getting to be too much. The way I’m spoken to on here and treated makes me have f*cked up thoughts. Please watch how you talk to and about people on the internet. Bye.”
It looks like the time away was productive, though; we’ll see what she’s cooked up on 4/5.
