Doechii‘s music video for “Anxiety” opens on a familiar scene. She’s sitting on the bed, microphone in hand, bopping along to the Gotye-sampling tune that’s now become one of her biggest hits to date (on March 24, it became her first song to break through the Hot 100’s top 10). It’s a replica of the set up that birthed the song to begin with: Five years ago, when she was still a relative unknown hustling her songs on TikTok and YouTube, she uploaded “Anxiety” to her YouTube as part of a series of live videos she was creating at the time. Sitting on her childhood bed, with a mic in hand, she recorded the song direct into her laptop. To see this callback now as part of the song’s blossoming second life is effective — highlighting just how much that’s changed in Doechii’s life, and how much that’s stayed the same.
The latest James Mackel-directed visual, released Friday, is what you’d imagine Doechii would’ve wanted to create for “Anxiety” had she had the funds the first time around. From the opening bedroom scene, she enters into a nightmarish trick house of sorts, filled with kitchen fires, surprise dobermans, and creepy guests who seem to be operating on a loop, dragging her from whatever progress she’s made to escape the house back to the beginning (also, spy a sneaky reference to the OG Gotye video). When she finally does break free and escape outside, she’s ambushed by a mob of people all desperately trying to get her attention — a representation of her anxieties as a global pop star now, one might suppose.
Watching the visual, it’s obvious to see just how far Doechii’s come along in her career as it quite literally, and artfully, translates that journey in a tight four minutes. The choice to open on 2020 Doechii recording the song on her laptop and end on that same scene also feels like a visual representation of how “Anxiety” has inadvertently bookended her rise to fame, going viral in her early career and now becoming her latest smash hit. Call it a victory lap or a full-circle moment. What’s clear is Doechii’s always been a star.
