Doechii slays her Saturday ACL Fest set with power, prowess — and a wardrobe rip

Doechii, clad in a cropped white tank and low-hanging jeans, made her entrance onto the stage, which was decked out in dark-green Florida swamp moss. Her long braids — tucked under a denim newsboy cap — waterfalled to her hips alongside a cast of gold chains. There was a small tear in her pants right by the tushy.

Before the music even started, Doechii simply saying her name into the mic garnered an eager roar from the audience. That energy never wavered and the crowd howled, as if watching a lion devour a warrior in the Roman Colosseum, with every booty shake. Doechii, a.k.a. Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon, has mastered her unique flow of smooth, intentional rhymes. She clearly understood and appreciated the power she was wielding onstage and puppeteered the mass of concertgoers with a wag of her gold-braceleted wrist.

She commanded the crowd to scream “Alter Ego” to usher in her 2024 song of the same name that she made with JT. The song began with house music structure, then built up an irresistible bounce as the heavy bass set in. At the peak of the song, Doechii leaned backwards, as if about to do a back bend, and paused upside down to soak in every moment that the experience offered her: thousands of screaming fans surrounding her on ACL Fest’s coveted American Express stage.

The rip at the seat of her jeans started to grow. Not a single person paid any mind — the crowd was possessed. Her call and response commands were so second-nature that it seemed like not a single person in attendance has ever had an original thought.

Tyler, the Creator held a similar space on ACL Fest’s big stage last year, but even his magnetism couldn’t fill out the space quite like Doechii, who’s only onstage company was a DJ. Her control of rhythm, presence, and audience was all-encompassing. We were hers. Completely.

The rip tear in her jeans traveled even further. “I ripped my pants—my whole (expletive) is out right now!” Deochii said after she viciously twerked for the thousands-strong crowd. “That’s so crazy, guys, don’t look.”

She followed up with a playful prompt: “Put a finger down if you’ve ever been in love. Put a finger down if you’ve ever been cheated on.” Moments later, she launched into her breakout song “Denial Is a River.”

At the end of her performance, Doechii faked a goodbye with seven minutes still on the clock only to reappear at the catwalk with her DJ, amping the energy even higher. She spent the final minutes greeting fans, taking selfies and sprinting along the barricade’s perimeter to connect with anyone she could reach.

Doechii didn’t just perform — she conquered.