Streets

Album: Hot Pink (2019)
Charted: 12 16
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • During this melancholy R&B ballad, Doja Cat laments a failed relationship. By the second verse she's concluded they'd been made for each other and she'll never find another man like him.
  • The song title does not appear in the lyrics. It comes from the title of boy band B2K's cut "Streets Is Callin'" from the You Got Served soundtrack. Doja samples part of its chorus at the beginning of "Streets" then the track continues to borrow from the 2003 tune throughout.
  • Doja Cat wrote the song with:

    Her go-to collaborators Yeti Beats and Lydia Asrat, whose other credits include "Juicy" and "Like That." Asrat is also her tour manager.

    Sacramento sibling duo Darius and Dominique Logan, who record and produce under the name of Blaq Tuxedo. They also produced the track.

    Demarie Sheki, Ron "NEFF-U" Feemster, and Christopher Jefferies also get credited as they wrote "Streets Is Callin.'"
  • Doja premiered a live performance of the song on March 5, 2020 for Vevo Lift, which promotes emerging artists. The one-take video shows Doja in a square pool of milk while wearing a pearl swimsuit.
  • On Christmas Eve 2020, Doja uploaded a video to You Tube of her performing the song while walking in urbanwear. It caught on with users of the video-sharing platform TikTok, who used the song to soundtrack clips about how hard it is "to keep my cool" when other women are trying to get with their crushes.

    Though "Streets" was intended as an album cut, it began charting worldwide once it started trending on TikTok. It appeared hundreds of thousands of videos as background music for the the "Silhouette Challenge," an online challenge in which participants danced while illuminated from behind with red lighting.

    The viral challenge uses a mash-up of "Streets" and the first 12 seconds of Paul Anka's 1959 hit single "Put Your Head On My Shoulder." Doja Cat had sampled the same Paul Anka song in her 2018 doo-wop track, "Freak."
  • Christian Breslauer (Tiesto's "The Business") directed the song's music video in which a taxi driver, played by Coffey Siriboe (Queen Sugar, Girls Trip), gets caught in a traffic jam. He looks over to a store display with a mannequin and when the beat drops, a silhouette of Doja Cat appears against a red background doing the TikTok challenge.
  • The video version of the song replaces the sample of "Streets Is Callin'" with "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" as homage to TikTok.
  • Doja Cat dropped a remixed version of "Streets" incorporating "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" on March 12, 2021. Dubbed "Silhouette Remix," she released it alongside a reworking by Disclosure, which transforms the track into a disco dancefloor filler.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Sarah Brightman

Sarah BrightmanSongwriter Interviews

One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.

Al Kooper

Al KooperSongwriter Interviews

Kooper produced Lynyrd Skynyrd, played with Dylan and the Stones, and formed BS&T.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

90210 to Buffy to Glee: How Songs Transformed TV

90210 to Buffy to Glee: How Songs Transformed TVSong Writing

Shows like Dawson's Creek, Grey's Anatomy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed the way songs were heard on TV, and produced some hits in the process.

Van Dyke Parks

Van Dyke ParksSongwriter Interviews

U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.