the 27-year-old rapper posted and then deleted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a shirt with an image of alt-right comic Sam Hyde, who reportedly has ties to the neo-Nazi movement.
Doja’s black tee featured a pic of Hyde holding a rifle, an image often used as a meme on social media in the aftermath of mass shootings.
Hyde previously served as a co-writer on Adult Swim’s Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace, which was canceled after one reason following complaints of racist and sexist themes, according to Buzzfeed. In 2017, the comedian also pledged $5,000 to neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer after its editor Andrew Anglin faced a legal battle with the Southern Poverty Law Center over his alleged “trolling” against a Jewish woman, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Doja Cat deleted the original Instagram photo featuring Hyde, but later replaced it with a cropped version with his face removed. The second post featured a caption with numerous rolling eyes emojis. The comments section included many onlookers expressing their disapproval of the “Paint the Town Red” singer’s choice to post the controversial image.
“why are you hiding your shirt? embarrassed that you’re wearing something with a nazi on it ?” one user wrote. Another added, “girl get it together. this isn’t cute or funny.”
Many fans also took to X (formerly Twitter) to vent their frustrations with the rapper. “imagine being a pick me for incels… like doja cat is really trying her best to be cancelled and un-famous again just so she can get back to those racial chat rooms full time,” one person wrote.
Doja Cat is no stranger to online controversy. Earlier this year, she claimed that her last two albums — 2021’s Planet Her and 2019’s Hot Pink — were “cash grabs” and teased her fanbase for falling for it. She also lost nearly 300,000 social media followers after blasting her fans for calling themselves “Kittenz.” In recent years, Doja came under fire for tweeting homophobic slurs to describe rappers Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator, and was accused of participating in alt-right chat rooms.
Doja recently dropped her fourth album, Scarlet, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The new set marks her highly anticipated return following Planet Her, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and delivered plenty of Billboard Hot 100 chart hits.
She’ll be heading out on a 24-date trek in support of the album with The Scarlet Tour, which launches on Halloween in San Francisco and wraps Dec. 13 in Chicago. Opening acts include Ice Spice and Doechii.
