For Paper Magazine’s 40th anniversary celebration this month, Top Dawg Entertainment artist Doechii has reinvented herself as ‘Ricardo’, a bisexual beefcake from Panama with a ‘tache and glistening abs, posing in a white GYM jockstrap on the cover of a special zine edition.

The stunt isn’t just funny, it has a point too. Says Doechii in an accompanying interview: 

“Last year, I started seeing comments from people who would say, ‘She looks like a man.’ Or, ‘She has on too much makeup. She looks like a drag queen.’ All these comments never bother me, because I just find it interesting. But I was like, ‘Since they keep saying I look like a man, I’m gonna fucking give them a man. An eight-pack, mustache man.’ That’s what inspired me to do the look and I think it turned out sick.”

She also confessed to finding Ricardo hot, fake abs and all, saying “Literally, when I put on the prosthetics, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m attracted to myself right now. I wish I could fuck me.’”

Comments on Doechii’s Instagram post sharing the image include SZA’s enthusiastic “EXACTLY!!!! EGGGSSUHFUCKINZAACCTLLYYY” and Katy Perry with the classic “I’m crying screaming throwing up.”

The Florida-born rapper and self-described “thespian” recently released an ambitious new 19-track mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, via TDE, including the previously released tracks “BOOM BAP”, “NISSAN ALTIMA”, “CATFISH”, and “BULLFROG”.

Speaking to Paper about her forthcoming debut album, Doechii says:

"The album has evolved in so many different ways, but where it is right now is telling the story of who I am and where I am. I'm being very honest about being 26 and how weird that feels and my adolescence, but also being an adult now coming into money early and growing up in Florida... all of these different experiences from the lens of a Black woman. I'm being honest about those things. That's where the album is right now, and a lot of people are going to relate to the rawness of my life and relationships."

Read the full interview here.