Doechii Wins Best Rap Album at the Grammys and Dedicates the Award to Black Women: "You're Exactly Who You Need to Be"
The "Swamp Princess" is the third female rapper to take home the gramophone for Best Rap Album.
The Swamp Princess is officially a Grammy winner.
Doechii took home the award for Best Rap Album at the 2025 Grammys, for her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. In her acceptance speech, the Tampa-born rapper dedicated her win to Black women whose dreams have been doubted.
The rapper began her speech by honoring the history of female rappers at the Grammys. "I don't want to make this long, but this category was introduced in 1989, and two women have won: Lauryn Hill—three women have won!," she corrected herself. "Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and Doechii."
Lauryn Hill previously won Best Rap Album in 1996, as part of Fugees, for The Score. In 2019, Cardi B became the first female solo rapper to take home the award for Invasion of Privacy. Cardi passed the torch to Doechii by presenting her with this year's award.
Cardi B hugs Doechii on the Grammys stage while presenting her with the award for Best Rap Album.
"I put my heart and my soul into this mixtape," Doechii said in her speech. "I bared my life. I went through so much. I dedicated myself to sobriety, and God told me that I would be rewarded and that he would show me just how good it can get. And I have to thank God. I need to thank my beautiful mother for coaching me. I want to think my label, my engineer, Jayda [Love], for everything she did, my fans, to the swamp!"
The first-time winner went on to introduce herself to any viewers who still didn't know her background.
"There's so many people out there who probably don't know who I am. I call myself the Swamp Princess because I'm from Tampa, Florida. There's so much culture in Tampa. Whenever people think about Florida, they only think about Miami, but Tampa has so much talent. Labels, go to Tampa. There's talent there, okay? Thank you so much to my label, TDE, and everybody that helped put this together. All the producers on the project, I thank you. Thank you to hip-hop."
Doechii, holding her mother's hand, as she accepts the award for Best Rap Album.
She concluded her speech by telling Black women that they are enough, despite what "stereotypes" others may project upon them.
"I know that there is some Black girl out there, so many Black women out there that are watching me right now, and I want to tell you, you can do it, anything is possible. Anything is possible! Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you that tell you that you can't be here, that you're too dark or that you're not smart enough or that you're too dramatic or you're too loud. You're exactly who you need to be to be right where you are and I am a testimony," she concluded.
Doechii, wearing Thom Browne, walking the 2025 Grammys red carpet.
Other nominees for Best Rap Album include J. Cole's Might Delete Later, Common and Pete Rock's The Auditorium Vol. 1, Eminem's The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), and Future Metro Boomin's We Don't Trust You.
In addition to Best Rap Album, Doechii received two more 2025 Grammy nominations: Best Rap Performance for "Nissan Altima" and Best New Artist. Kaytranada's remix of her song "Alter Ego" featuring JT was also nominated for Best Remixed Recording.
