Doja Cat Hits: How ‘Need to Know’ and ‘Paint the Town Red’ Showcase Her Genre-Blending Mastery

When it comes to modern pop disruption, few artists innovate quite like Doja Cat. Rather than simply borrowing from different genres, she bends, flips, and layers them, making her compositions stand out. This results in Billboard chart-toppers that feel unpredictable but are addictively precise. 

Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, professionally known as Doja Cat, has built a catalog that's as comfortable on rap playlists as it is in mainstream pop rotations. Doja Cat has made hybridization her identity at a time when many artists pivot between sounds. Her biggest hits, such as “Paint the Town Red” and “Need to Know,” are catchy and resemble mini genre-melting labs. 

Critics have called her a post-genre artist, which is a fitting description of her creativity. Let's see how her most successful tracks display fine genre-blending skills through production choices, melodic construction, cultural fluency, and more.

Doja Cat's evolution has been far from linear. She first went viral in 2018 with the absurd, hilarious, low-budget track “Mooo!” This song seemed like a joke, but hinted at her fearless willingness to experiment.

Fast forward to 2019's Hot Pink, and she was already stitching together disco (“Say So”), funk, R&B, and trap with admirable cohesion. Throughout 2021's Planet Her, she created high-concept pop-rap that earned her GRAMMY nominations and secured her a permanent spot in the A-list conversation. 

Then came a clean pivot, Scarlet (2023), which was less glitter and more grit. While critics called it a return to her rap roots, Doja Cat saw it as a correction. Songs such as “Attention” and “Paint the Town Red” leaned hard into rap flows, minimalist beats, and sample-heavy production, all while keeping her genre fluidity intact.

Did You Know: “Paint the Town Red” topped charts in 19 countries and became the first solo female rap song to hit No. 1 on a streaming service's Global Top 50.

The Dionne Warwick “Walk on By” sample can't take all the credit for making “Paint the Town Red” brilliant. The way it's flipped is the real viral element. The song earned its biggest streaming service milestone shortly after its release: 6.3 million streams in a single day.

Producer Earl On The Beat chopped “Walk on By” into a two-chord vamp (G minor 7 to A minor 7). It was looped into a hypnotic structure; Doja Cat rode the beat with half-spoken delivery and clean, brassy confidence. The production was deceptively simple:

The song is written in G Dorian mode, giving it a melancholic yet glossy sheen, but harmonic resolution is deliberately withheld. Though it never quite lands, it keeps the tension alive; the repetition becomes its hook. 

If “Paint the Town Red” is all laid-back swagger, “Need To Know” is pure cyberseduction. Released in 2021 on Planet Her, it's a neon-lit display of Doja Cat's range, from glitchy vocal effects to quick-fire raps and floaty falsettos. Set over a spacey, sci-fi-sounding beat with deep bass and crisp trap drums, the track offers:

It's technically sharp, bold, and playful. Doja Cat moves between vocal styles like it's second nature; one moment she's singing a melody, and the next she's snapping into fast rhymes that hit like percussion.

Let's talk about what gives her songs that “Wait, why does this feel different?” vibe. One reason is the way she and her producers build her sound behind the scenes.

For instance, “Paint the Town Red” uses stacked note patterns that aren't typical of pop music. Instead of simple chords, it layers notes in fourths and fifths, a technique often heard in jazz. It gives the track a floating feel that doesn't resolve the way you would expect but makes you curious to hear more.

Then there's the Dorian mode, a slightly brighter twist on the usual minor key. Instead of feeling gloomy, it conveys a smoky kind of confidence. The song feels moody yet bouncy.

The best part is that none of this feels technical when you're listening. That's her team's genius. They use complex musical tools, but package them in a way that feels totally effortless.

Doja Cat's songs seem tailor-made for TikTok and streaming, but not in a desperate way. She's even said she doesn't plan for virality. However, “Paint the Town Red” has been used in more than 618,000 TikTok videos, thanks to its:

She has a genius for making music that crosses boundaries. A Doja Cat track might hit just as hard for a rap fan as it does for a Top 40 listener. That's rare, and it explains why she pulled in over 26.5 billion streams, with “Paint the Town Red” alone generating 1.39 billion plays.

While Doja Cat is very hands-on with her lyrics and delivery, her genre-blending success is also about the people she works with. For example, on “Paint the Town Red,” she teamed up with:

This mix of modern beatmakers and legendary songwriters reflects what Doja Cat does best: combine the past and the future. According to American Songwriter, Earl On The Beat had this to say, “Sometimes as a producer, you have to be ahead of the wave.” 

From switching styles, such as rap, talk, whisper, and singing midsong, to pulling musical phases from the 2000s, R&B, ‘90s rap, and futuristic pop, Doja Cat nails her tunes better than many artists today while still experimenting with blending digital and real-world sounds.