Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd.

It seems like 2026 is not starting out with a bang, but a gigantic wet fart because the biggest controversy in the music industry currently is the raging hate boner that streamer, online gambler, and guy who peaked in high school, Adin Ross, has for Doechii.

Now, whether you know it or not, 2026 is actually going to be a make or break year for the rapper, singer, songwriter who is coming off of a lot of building momentum behind her breakout mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, which snowballed into a really impressive run of viral songs, music videos, live performances as well as award wins, and as good as many of those moments have been.

Personally, I'm hoping this is just the beginning. I've been hearing potential in Doechii's work for years now, really since her Black Bitch EP from 2022, and now I feel like she's finally getting the buzz that she deserves. But, her sudden growth in visibility over the past few years has also brought a lot of undue and intense hate and claims about her success that don't even fully make sense and are also easily debunked with a quick Google search, like her being an industry plant.

Because for years, Doechii was actually releasing music and even vlogging in relative obscurity. And while true, she is signed to one of the best rap labels out there today, Top Dog Entertainment – and has viable music industry connections – if TDE actually had the power to just turn Doechii into an overnight success, why didn't they do that back in 2022? And also, why aren't they doing that for every other artist on the label sitting around or below a million monthly listeners on Spotify? Could it be that Top Dog doesn't just have the magical power to make any artist famous that they want?

And maybe Doechii started blowing up because she was making music that actually resonated with people, mixed with some good marketing. Right time, right place, maybe too. But these very simple and obvious explanations just don't seem to convince the very loud group of people who don't really believe the hype. Their number in size seems to have quadrupled, especially since this old remix that Doechii did of Gotye, "Somebody That I Used to Know", got an official commercial release.

You guys may know the song as "Anxiety". It's a song I like, but one that has understandably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, either due to the subject matter of the song, or the attachment that people have to the original that keeps them from being able to see it in any other context.

Personally, I'm convinced that if Doechii did the same exact vocal line and the same exact bars over a totally different beat, most people probably wouldn't mind it. However, the Gotye song being so prominent within Doechii's track, it was probably part of the reason the labels were willing to push this song. So I guess you've got to take the bad with the good.

What I mean by bad is this level of popularity that has drawn the eyes and ears of all of these streamer dumbasses, ones like Adin Ross who sniff trafficker chairs for clout. And while there are numerous online commentators from what I've seen that have said some pretty out-of-pocket stuff about Doechii, Adin is the first, to my knowledge, to really have a big public meltdown over her. Weirdly enough, it was over this silly-ass clip of Doechii yelling for umbrellas.

Apparently, this took place at the Met Gala last year. And apparently, this was all for Doechii to hide herself so that she could make her way to the Met Gala red carpet for the final reveal of her look and her outfit.

Now, look, personally, this is not really an event I pay super close attention to every year. And there are a lot of things worth critiquing around the Met Gala itself and celebrity culture. But this is such a stupidly misunderstood moment. It's hard to believe that it went as viral as it did in terms of it being a bad look and a PR nightmare for Doechii.

Not to get nerdy about it, but think about all of the PR people and stylists and designers that put in hours of work in order to make sure a look at something like the Met Gala goes off without a hitch. If Doechii stepped out of the elevator and said, "I don't give a shit, take as many pictures of me as you want," that would be more disrespectful to her team and everybody who worked to make her look the way that she did than demanding that somebody cover her and that somebody get an umbrella to prevent it from being spoiled.

That would actually be shitting on everybody's efforts in that situation. If you didn't notice, there are other people on her team, too, at least several who are yelling as well. I've worked at a restaurant for years, and when you're there, rush hour, dinner time, I've heard people yell for help over less. "Get me this, get me that, get me this other thing." Really, we're going to flip out over that? I mean, even Adin Ross's reaction led to him calling her entitled and an industry plant.

"Don't get me started on that. Don't get me started on industry plant. Doche, the umbrella clip pissed me off. What an entitled, unintelligent piece of shit she is, bro. She stole 'Someone That I Used to Know'. She makes no good music. She's horrible. She has zero talent." - Adin Ross

He got so heated over this. Later, Adin admitted to having allegedly lost a bag and I guess some advertising or brand deals due to the Doechii hate he was drumming up.

As much as Adin did make a lot of hay out of the situation, truth be told, he's just one voice in a growing chorus of Doechii haters whose fans pull up in their respective chats and clap like seals whenever they throw hate her way. If you're the person like me who is constantly checking in on whatever music discourse is on the internet day to day, you do see a lot of random and outsized Doechii hate.

Now, finally, at the start of 2026, Doechii has seen fit to put out a new song that is not only getting fans ready for that eventual album release this year, the project that is really going to define how Doechii's career is going to move forward from here for the next 5 to 10 years.

But more importantly, this track is titled "Girl Get Up", features a very solid chorus from Sza, and the bars in its three verses address a lot of the negativity that's been getting thrown her way.

Honestly, the way I see the song, it's a very accurate and completely nonspecific way of taking head on all the stuff that people have been saying about her. And again, this has been very broad, has been said by a lot of different people. It's sad to say, but these comments are not unique to one single person.

And there are a lot of dudes out here in hip hop, in music broadly, with very falsely inflated careers and bonded streams who should be getting this criticism instead. But it's Doechii getting it?

Look, case in point, the song isn't even about Adin Ross, but Adin saw this song and said, "You know what? This is about me. If Doechii is addressing her haters, this track is about me because I am the number one Doechii hater, Aiden Ross."

"She came at me very first, and you guys could say it wasn't intended to you. It was." - Adin Ross

And he even recorded this hot diarrhea straight from an ass song with child case haver 6ix9ine and some other loser who you can see here reacting to 6ix9ine having a child case.

"I'm going to keep it a buck, bro. He showed me the most love out of 97% of people I've ever had on stream on God. Motherfucker calls me up randomly, 3:00 AM, 2:00 AM. 'What you doing? Let's gamble.'" - Adin Ross

Yeah, real cool dude there. Anyway, yeah, the song exists, and it's about as cringe as you can imagine. I will leave it to Austen to decide how much of it you will get tortured with right now.

And Adin has just been going crazy. I don't get it. Did this woman steal more money from you than Playboi Carti did? Did she run over your dog? Did she piss in your Baha Blast? I'm not here to be a hypocrite and police anybody's speech per se, because Lord knows, I don't have the cleanest mouth in the world.

Sometimes, sure, I can get mean, but what is this man's obsession with this woman? Why is he so angry at her? Why is he so pissed directly at her? It's almost as if there's some bias there.

So Aiden is really going scorched earth right now, and it's getting to the point where a lot of people in the music industry are tired of seeing it. For example, you have LA heavy hitter, artist, and commentator, Glasses Malone.

Rather than take this man's words to heart and maybe chill out and stop and think, "Hey, maybe I've taken it far enough," Aiden has instead decided to call Glasses Malone a fat simp.

"You won't admit it, you're a simp. You're fat as fuck. She's not going to fuck you, fat f. I don't know what to tell you. This falling off podcast of you. Look at these two old heads. Can you guys go take care of your kids, please? Guys, it's actually getting embarrassing. You guys have children. I know you do. You probably have multiple baby mamas. I'm not stupid." - Adin Ross

And has also said he's called the cops. There's even a clip here of him on the phone with DJ Akademiks whining and crying about the whole situation.

"And I've already contacted police about that. I'm not a street rapper. Why don't these guys go slide on their ops? Go slide for their people and go after their ops. Don't worry about me, the little Jewish streamer kid." - Adin Ross

Why don't they all just go slide on their ops? Because you know what? Real gangsters move in silence. Yeah, I think Adin has been off a little bit more than he could chew. And nobody with two brain cells likes it. Even Joe Budden, apparently, would like to see this man get beat up.

"Also, Joe Budden, you're a pussy. Fuck you. Let's link up. You know where I'm at? I got police with me, too. I'm not gonna lie, Joe Budden, I got police with me, and I'm in your city. What's good? What do you want to do?" - Adin Ross

And you know what? If this creates a broader conversation around misogyny in the hip hop industry and whether or not it's a good idea to basically allow Adin Ross to hate on any artist he wants for whatever reason he wants, I think that's a good thing because if you care about music and you're actually critiquing music or a song from a constructive place, or the criticisms, at least, that you have centers on the music itself.

I mean, I know I'm not a perfect person, and I'm not the most well-informed critic in the world, and I make mistakes for sure. But I'm not out here with no provocation whatsoever, calling artists dirty bitches and smelly whores, because that's just uncalled for and so unnecessary and doesn't make sense. It doesn't benefit anyone, fix anything, or contribute to any net positive.

I hate that the words and actions of people like Adin Ross end up inflaming this discourse about whether or not white people or people outside of hip hop culture should be able to have any thoughts or opinions on the music or certain songs, certain albums, whatever.

Because this dude is obviously going about it in the most toxic way possible. It's also not even just a matter of Aiden being an alien and an outsider within hip hop culture. The guy doesn't even give a fuck about music. The only reason he says he likes Drake's music is because Drake pays him.

Okay, jumping in for an update. Now all of a sudden, Adin is going to be donating $100,000 to underprivileged communities in LA. How exactly he's going to implement this right now is not fully entirely clear.

He was PRESSED to do this. Throwing money in front of a problem doesn’t solve anything. I’m sure that the people that he’s talking about donate money to the at risk communities in LA but they don’t have to announce it on socials like this clown. https://t.co/p4s1CHjJL3

— James Williams (@photojimmy) January 8, 2026

"That these people that want to fight so hard about certain shit, why don't you guys do anything good for where you come from? I give out $100,000 to my city. I'm going to give out $100,000 to a lot of other people's businesses and stuff. Why can't they do it, too?" - Adin Ross

But the thing is, Aiden's intentions behind doing this are purposefully opaque because he's clearly offering this donation as a means of getting all of his critics off of his back right now. But simultaneously, he's avoiding acknowledging that his own behavior and own words have put him in this situation and is saying that those who have been criticizing him, he encourages them to donate money in the same way that he is right now.

Which, again, he's just pretending he's doing it randomly out of the goodness of his own heart, almost. He wants to save face for all of his annoying, stupid, prepubescent fans who don't want to see him apologize and think he's in the right by virtue of him mirroring their idiocy because they see themselves in him. So they don't want to see him take an L here.

Either way, very sad, pitiful stuff. I'm going to leave it there. You all are the best.

Anthony Fantano, Doechii, forever.