Tampa rapper, Doechii, was named Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year

Doechii making waves in music industry

FOX 13's Ariel Plasencia reports.

TAMPA - Tampa native and Grammy-award-winning rapper, Doechii, was named Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year.

Monday’s announcement comes one month after Doechii, whose real name is Jaylah Hickmon, won the Grammy for Best Rap Album.

Tampa rapper, Doechii, was named Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year.

"I call myself the Swamp Princess, because I’m from Tampa, Florida!" Doechii said during the 67th Grammy Awards in Feb. She mentioned Tampa again in her acceptance speech, encouraging major labels to check out the talent in the Bay Area.

MORE: Tampa native Doechii wins Grammy for Best Rap Album

With this latest award of Woman of the Year, the rapper from Blake High School joins past winners that include Madonna, Taylor Swift, and Beyonce.

The backstory:

"She's always had it," Khadijah Jones, Doechii’s former science teacher at Blake High School said. "And none of this surprises me."

Jones told FOX 13 she remembers one "pivotal conversation" she had with Doechii one day in science class.

"She actually wasn't working on her science, and I knew that she was writing music. I knew it! She was working on what her passion was," Jones said. "And we had a conversation about, you know, this is what you really want to do. But right now, to graduate, you got to focus on what you have to do right now. And even though science may not be your passion, it's still one of the steps to graduation that's going to then propel you or get you where you need to go next, which hopefully is your music."

Doechii released her third mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, in August 2024 with ‘Nissan Altima,' ’Boom Bap' and ‘Denial Is a River’ released as singles.

"Trust me, the ways in which she is transforming how we understand hip hop -- and pop music in general, especially for women -- you will see her stamp everywhere, because she's a game changer in music," Aisha Durham, USF communication professor in media and culture, said.

Tampa rapper, Doechii, was named Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year.

The Blake High School grad will be officially honored as Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year at an awards show in Los Angeles on March 29.

The Hillsborough County public school (HCPS) district said Monday they are very proud of Doechii and will continue to pour resources into the district’s music programs to inspire more students.

"We are expanding our programs. We're expanding our buildings. We're doing refurbishes on some of our buildings. And we're trying to make sure that we are getting in front of AI (artificial intelligence) with music technology being introduced in a couple of our schools," Jon Sever, HCPS’ supervisor for secondary music education, told FOX 13. "So we're just trying to stay ahead of the curve."

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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Ariel Plas

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