New York, NY (Top40 Charts) After winning Best Rap Album at the 2025 GRAMMY Awards, Doechii is now breaking the internet by reuniting FreshPrince of Bel-Air siblings Will Smith and Ashley Banks (Tatyana Ali) as they take part in the viral dance trend inspired by their show and her song, "Anxiety." Doechii makes a surprise cameo in a brand new video posted by Smith as the actors recreate the widely imitated scene from a classic episode.
"Waited 35 years for this dance to trend," Smith wrote along with the clip. Set to Doechii's "Anxiety" - a song that she originally recorded in her bedroom for her 2019 self-released Coven Music Sessions mixtape - people have been remaking a beloved moment from Fresh Prince, where Will walks in on Ashley dancing to the music in her headphones, then matches her step for step. Smith recently shared the original clip, adding in Doechii's music!
Doechii and Smith teased fans yesterday with a video leaning into a second trend associated with the song playing off of the lyric, "Somebody's watching me, it's my anxiety". Her original version of "Anxiety" was never released to DSPs but due to fan demand, Doechii re-recorded her vocals and released a new version this month.
The reaction was extraordinary from the moment she teased the release of "Anxiety" on TikTok, since surging to an average of more than 200,000 creates per day — resulting in 11.2 billion views across 2.3 million creates. The older video has jumped from 200,000 to 6.1 million views in short order, and elicited thousands of comments from fans relating to the song's subject matter. Outlets like TODAY and Yahoo! have issued explainers, even quoting psychotherapists about the health benefits of dancing away one's anxiety. Meanwhile, "Anxiety" itself is getting streamed more than 7 million times a day globally, quickly approaching 50 million this week.
On DSPs, "Anxiety" has been bundled with her single "DENIAL IS A RIVER," which she gave a stunning performance of at the GRAMMYs last month. The song hails from Alligator Bites Never Heal, which not only won Best Rap Album that night, but also came in at No. 1 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 20 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2024" and placed in the top 10 of their overall "Best Albums of 2024" tally. Critics at NPR, Paste, Consequence of Sound, Stereogum, and UPROXX also hailed Alligator Bites Never Heal as one of 2024's best albums.
Doechii followed with the sold-out Alligator Bites Never Heal The Tour, which brought her to the U.S., Europe, and the UK. In December, she performed "DENIAL IS A RIVER" and "BOILED PEANUTS" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, did a Tiny Desk Concert on NPR Music, accepted the Hip-Hop Disrupter award at the eighth annual Variety Hitmakers celebration, and visited the GRAMMY Museum in L.A. for a discussion and special performance of Alligator Bites Never Heal. As he introduced Doechii at the museum, Killer Mike hailed her as "an artist who I feel is the present, the future - and who's going to change music forever."
