Doja Cat / Paint The Town Red - Single / 2023
Paint The Town Red
cocky, dismissive, triumphant with an undercurrent of exhaustion
A brash, sample-driven kiss-off built on Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By," where Doja Cat answers internet criticism with defiant self-mythologizing rather than hurt. The song turns public backlash into fuel, repeatedly insisting that notoriety itself is the point, not redemption.
celebrity backlash self-mythology defiance toward critics ambivalence about fame unbothered confidence as performance
Who's speaking
A first-person narrator addressing unnamed detractors directly, sometimes slipping into third person to describe herself as a kind of character or persona being discussed by others; the voice is consistently unapologetic, though its bravado occasionally reads as compensatory rather than fully settled.
What happens
The song doesn't develop a plot so much as restate and intensify a single stance: having been scrutinized or 'cancelled,' the narrator chooses spectacle and self-indulgence over apology. Verses escalate the specifics of her excess and self-mythology, while the sampled refrain functions as a repeated dismissal of anyone trying to shame or slow her down, culminating in a final verse where she explicitly claims to no longer need the fame she's been flaunting.
How it's built
Built on a looping sample hook that frames every verse and chorus, the song uses a call-and-response structure where each line of attitude is punctuated by the sample's dismissive phrase. Two alternating choruses -- one about not caring and 'painting the town red,' another characterizing her as a dangerous, devilish figure -- trade off between verses, reinforcing the song's circular, repetitive insistence rather than building toward a narrative climax. The closing verse introduces a slight shift, claiming indifference to fame itself, which complicates the otherwise flat bravado.
Section by section
Opening sample/hook
The song opens with the borrowed refrain stripped of its original pleading address, repurposed here as pure dismissal rather than heartbreak, setting the tone of imperviousness before any original lyric arrives.first
First chorus
The narrator frames her notoriety as a deliberate choice, preferring fame's chaos to likability, and uses the title phrase as a metaphor for indulgent, unapologetic excess.not
Second chorus ('she the devil')
Switching to third person, she recasts herself as a reckless, almost mythic figure, turning accusations of villainy into a badge of identity rather than a charge to refute.not
Second verse
Details of excess and self-sufficiency pile up, asserting that her discontent or 'illness' has no fix and doesn't need one, positioning vulnerability as something to flaunt rather than hide.not
Final verse
The tone shifts slightly as she claims fame no longer matters to her at all, which sits in tension with the chorus's earlier claim of choosing fame over being liked -- a contradiction that reads either as growth or as another layer of performance.not
Craft
- Sampling as structural device
- The interpolated vintage soul hook isn't just a hook; it functions almost like a Greek chorus, repeating a dismissive gesture after nearly every line, reframing retro soul as armor against modern criticism.
- Third-person self-reference
- The narrator describes herself as 'she' in one chorus, creating distance that lets her mythologize her own persona as dangerous or rebellious, as though observing herself from outside.
- Hyperbole
- Claims of supernatural foresight, demonic identity, and exaggerated excess inflate the narrator into an almost cartoonish figure of invincibility, which doubles as satire of celebrity grandiosity.
- Repetition/anaphora
- Near-identical chorus structures recur with minimal variation, mimicking the repetitive cycle of public scandal and response that the song is about.
- Boasting as rebuttal
- Rather than directly refuting criticism, she answers accusations with unrelated flexes, implying that status and spectacle are sufficient rebuttal in themselves.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats this as a performance of invulnerability in response to real public criticism Doja Cat has faced, where bravado functions less as genuine indifference and more as controlled spectacle -- she's aestheticizing the backlash itself. An alternative reading takes the lyrics at face value as straightforward celebration of hedonism and self-assurance, with no irony intended; the final verse's claim of no longer needing fame complicates this, suggesting the song may be more self-aware about the costs of celebrity than its bravado initially lets on.
Context
Doja Cat has had a history of public controversies and online criticism, and this single arrived amid renewed scrutiny over her persona and statements; the choice to sample Dionne Warwick's classic reframes a song about romantic resignation into one about reputational indifference. I'm not certain of specific production credits or chart context beyond general awareness that this was a 2023 single.
Listen for
- How the sampled hook is used almost percussively, interrupting nearly every line
- The shift from first to third person between the two choruses
- Moments where boasts about excess sit next to lines implying something is wrong or unresolved
- The contradiction in the final verse between claiming fame doesn't matter and the song's overall fixation on status
- The way repetition itself becomes the song's argument, enacting stubbornness rather than just describing it
About Doja Cat
Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, known professionally as Doja Cat, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Pop-Rap", she is known for her musical versatility, live performance skills and humorous internet presence.
b. 1995 / United States
Full biography and catalogue