"Streets" is a song by American rapper and singer Doja Cat from her second studio album, Hot Pink (2019). She wrote it with David Sprecher and Lydia Asrat, alongside its producers Dominique and Darius Logan. In "Streets", an R&B ballad with elements of trap music, Doja Cat sings and raps about her desire to return to a former romantic partner. Some critics who reviewed Hot Pink praised the song for demonstrating her versatility as a musical artist.
"Streets" became an Internet-driven sleeper hit in early 2021. It gained commercial success after the "Silhouette Challenge", an online challenge in which participants struck poses while illuminated from behind with red lighting, used the song as background music and went viral on TikTok. Reacting to its online popularity, Kemosabe and RCA Records promoted "Streets" to US contemporary hit radio stations on February 16, 2021. With this, the song became Hot Pink seventh and final single. Assisted primarily by streams and digital sales, "Streets" peaked at number 16 and number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200 charts, respectively. It received platinum certifications in nine countries.
Doja Cat performed "Streets" in three videos posted to YouTube during 2020; she also included it in performances at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards and the 2022 Coachella festival. A music video for the song, directed by Christian Breslauer, premiered via YouTube on March 9, 2021. It depicts Doja Cat's attempt to seduce a cab driver by performing her version of the Silhouette Challenge, after which she proceeds to trap him in a giant web. Critics described the video as erotic, horror-fantasy, and reminiscent of film noir.
Background Doja Cat released her debut studio album Amala in March 2018, four years after the viral success of her first single, "So High". The album received little media coverage. Meanwhile, in August of the same year, she self-published a music video for "Mooo!", a novelty song that incorporated elements of Generation Z humor and meme culture. Achieving unanticipated popularity on several social media platforms, it bolstered Doja Cat's rise to mainstream fame. This prompted her to issue and promote a deluxe edition of Amala. She included "Mooo!" in its tracklist, along with the single "Tia Tamera", featuring the rapper Rico Nasty, as well as the song "Juicy".
A remix of "Juicy", with a guest appearance from the rapper Tyga, served as the lead single for Doja Cat's next album, Hot Pink (2019). Commercially successful, the single became her first to reach the US Billboard Hot 100. Furthermore, it went viral on the video-hosting application TikTok, where several dance challenge clips used it as background music. During 2019, Doja Cat released three more singles in promotion of Hot Pink: "Bottom Bitch", "Rules", and "Cyber Sex". By September 2021, "Rules" and "Cyber Sex" had appeared in 64,200 and 171,400 TikTok videos, respectively.
TikTok's users contributed to the popularity of two more tracks from Hot Pink. One of these is "Say So", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Doja Cat her first number one on the chart. The other song, "Like That", received a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Pitchfork writer Cat Zhang believed that the TikTok-driven successes of "Say So" and "Like That" demonstrated that Doja Cat had an "unimpeachable[...] reign" over the application. Aliya Chaudhry of Slate argued that TikTok users' propensity of making songs go viraloften due to an Internet challengefactored into solidifying Doja Cat's status as a household name.
Production and songwriting
Doja Cat, David Sprecher, and Lydia Asrat wrote the original version of "Streets" with the track's producers Dominique and Darius Logan, brothers who comprise a band called Blaq Tuxedo. It incorporates a sample from a 2003 song entitled "Streets Is Callin', performed by R&B band B2K for the soundtrack to the film You Got Served (2004). The song was written by Theron Feemster, Christopher Jefferies, and Demarie Sheki. Because of the sampling, the three received writing credits for "Streets".
"Streets" is an R&B ballad that contains elements of trap. It has a duration of 3 minutes and 46 seconds, and has been described as "sultry", "melanchol[ic]", and "soulful". Jade Gomez of Paste called the song's vocal performance an immersive blend between a "wispy" singing voice and a "raspy" rap delivery; AllMusic reviewer Fred Thomas described this as a transition from "breathy" verses into "unexpected scattershot rhymes". With regards to the composition in "Streets", Thomas explained that it was a slow-paced track, complete with "dark harmonies, trap hi-hats, and psychedelic textures". In the lyrics, Doja Cat admits that she cannot imagine herself without her ex-partner after their breakup and proceeds to, in the views of Billboard editor Jason Lipshutz, demonstrate her emotional depth:
Silhouette Challenge
Hot Pink, the album in which "Streets" appears, was released on November 7, 2019. Initially, the song was not intended to be sent to radio stations as a single. Although the senior staff in RCA Records considered it a highlight of the album, they did not think "Streets" would gain a similar level of recognition as "Say So", "Like That", or "Juicy". Speaking on behalf of the label in an interview with Billboard, the chief operating officer John Fleckenstein thought that he and the others had "moved on" from Hot Pink with the amount of singles the album produced.
In the beginning of 2021, around 15 months after its initial release, the track experienced a surge in popularity on TikTok. There, user Giulia Di Nicolantonio created a mashup of "Streets" and the 1959 Paul Anka song "Put Your Head on My Shoulder". The mashup became the soundtrack for the "Silhouette Challenge", an online video trend. Participants of the challenge would pose and dance to the rhythm of the two songs; Anka's part played first. Once "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" ended and the beat dropped to signal the beginning of "Streets", TikTok users would then show themselves covered in red lighting, backlit to give the impression of a silhouette.
The Silhouette Challenge went viral. Consequently, it helped to propel "Streets" up the Billboard Hot 100 and Spotify Top 200 charts. Within one month, the mashup had appeared in over 300,000 videos on TikTok, and clips that contained the hashtag "Silhouette" had been viewed around 526 million times. Recording artists who took part in the trend include Cardi B, Lizzo, and Chloe Bailey from
Critical reception Consequence of Sound Lucy Shanker, in a review of Hot Pink, argued that "Streets" presents Doja Cat "in her most serious form". For Lakin Starling of Pitchfork, the track fell under the "ultra-soft and chill" side of the album. Shanker hailed "Streets" as one of Hot Pink best songs and cited how it demonstrated Doja Cat's musical versatility: "[in the previous songs, she] sounds great, but just as you settle into hearing her in that manner, she switches it up again." Starling shared a similar opinion about this versatility, but wrote that Doja Cat ran the risk of having listeners mistake her for another artist due to Hot Pink use of several musical styles. Nonetheless, Starling praised Doja Cat's slow and raspy voice which was present in tracks like "Streets", believing that such vocal performances constituted one of the album's clearest.
In an analysis of "Streets", Aaron Williams of Uproxx opined that Doja Cat's reaction to its growing popularity was an example of how to properly handle fame online. He wrote that she can adapt to her audience's interests and activities, consciously capitalizing on the Internet trends that her fans create and letting them determine which songs she should promote as new singles. Williams described this behavior as "rid[ing] the changing tides" whenever any of her old releases eventually go viral. Similarly, staff writers at Billboard believed that the track's gradual rise to fame demonstrates Doja Cat's "innate ability" to produce hit singles and prolong the commercial success of her albums, "in an era where artists are moving between records faster than ever".
Commercial performance and release
"Streets" was a sleeper hit that gradually acquired Internet-driven success. It began to gain traction on social media platforms in the early days of 2021 after three live performances of the song, released to YouTube during the previous year, sparked interest in the track.
United States In January 2021, "Streets" entered Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number 26, where it would remain for 20 weeks. The same month, it debuted at number 18 on the chart's constituent Hot R&B Songs, spending 21 weeks there. "Streets" initially received a negligible amount of airplay; the song's chart performance was driven predominantly by streams and digital sales because of its online success. During the tracking week ending February 4, it accrued 4,000 downloads and 18.7million streams in the United States, according to MRC Data. It reached its Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs peak on the week of February 13, at number 7. The event marked Doja Cat's second song to enter the chart's top 10 after "Say So" in 2020, which spent two weeks at number 1. By March, "Streets" peaked at number 3 on the Hot R&B Songs chart.
The track first appeared on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of January 23, debuting at number 91 and rising to number 39 the subsequent week. It jumped to number 25 on the chart issue dated February 6, 2021, with 16.1million streams, 2,000 downloads, and 192,000 airplay audience impressions. "Streets" climbed to number 18 during its fourth week on the Hot 100. With this, it became Doja Cat's second top 20 entry (as lead artist) on the chart after "Say So", which reached the top spot. Due to its boost in recognition, "Streets" was promoted to US contemporary hit radio stations on February 16, 2021. Subsequently, it became the seventh and final single from Hot Pink. By March, "Streets" had accumulated over 333million streams and reached its Hot 100 peak at number 16. In 2024, it was certified 6×platinum by the RIAA.
Other markets In Europe, "Streets" peaked within the top 20 of singles charts for Greece (2), Lithuania (4), Ireland (9), the United Kingdom (12), and Slovakia (15). It received a double platinum certification in the United Kingdom from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which denotes 1,200,000 certified units consisting of sales and on-demand streaming. "Streets" was Doja Cat's third biggest song in the country upon the release of her third studio album Planet Her (2021), having garnered 53.6million UK streams at the time. It was also a top-40 chart entry in five other European territories, peaking at number 21 in Portugal, at number 23 in Iceland, at number 24 in Belgian Flanders, at number 27 in Switzerland, and at number 37 in Hungary. "Streets" was certified two-times platinum Poland, and platinum in Greece, and Portugalin France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, it received a gold certification.
The song also peaked within the top 20 of charts in New Zealand (10), Australia (12), and Canada (19); it was awarded platinum certifications in all three countries. Specifically, "Streets" was certified 4×platinum by Recorded Music NZ and by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and 6×platinum by Music Canada. In Latin America, it received a triple diamond certification from Pro-Música Brasil (PMB) and a Diamond+2×Platinum+Gold certification from Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON).
International