Track Review: Doechii & Kodak Black, ‘What It Is’

After making a sizable impact last year off the strength of “Persuasive,” her She / Her / Black Bitch EP, and a show-stealing guest verse on Smino’s “Pro Freak” — which The Bulletin named as one of the best songs of 2022 — Doechii has kicked off 2023 with a strong potential Song of the Summer candidate.

Arriving in no less than six different versions, “What It Is” is Doechii’s first genuine make-or-break moment for mainstream prominence. For better or for worse, the song clearly sounds like it. Built around a sample of TLC’s “No Scrubs” and an interpolation of Trillville’s “Some Cut” — which became a semi-viral trending sound on TikTok a few months ago thanks to a dance challenge from Victoria Monét — “What It Is” mines the late ‘90s and early ‘00s for a melody drenched in nostalgia. It feels comfortable; Doechii, J. White Did It, and Brian Kennedy don’t do much to innovate on the sample and interpolation, but they don’t really need to. Doechii’s vocal performance is charismatic enough to carry an already familiar hook, and their additional 808s help the song feel like summer.

Upon its announcement, “What It Is” drew ire from some fans due to a guest verse from Kodak Black. The decision to collaborate with Kodak, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in a larger sexual assault case which included allegations of rape, comes just a few weeks after Chlöe tapped well-documented abuser Chris Brown for “How Does It Feel,” reigniting a tense conversation about violent Black men using up-and-coming young Black women to clean up their images as well as said Black women willingly collaborating with abusive male artists. For what it’s worth, Kodak’s verse on “What It Is” doesn’t warrant all of the noise. It’s an utterly forgettable verse (save for the painfully ironic “bein’ Black in America is the hardest thing to be” line) that does more to disrupt the flow of the song and senselessly delay a truly great bridge. The solo version of “What It Is” is much sleeker.

Despite being muddied by a poor choice of collaborator and carried by easily recognizable samples and interpolations, “What It Is” is undeniably a banger. It’s breezy, fun, and feels genuinely emblematic of the carefree come-hither nature of a steamy summer tryst.

Score: 68