Doja Cat Reimagines Big Mama Thornton’s ‘Hound Dog’ on ‘Elvis’ Biopic Bop ‘Vegas’

Doja Cat is taking Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” back to its original blues roots: Big Mama Thornton. On Thursday, the singer released “Vegas,” her track from the upcoming Elvis biopic set to arrive June 24. The rap-filled track samples Thornton’s vocals and adds a Doja flair to a classic.

In the lyrics, Doja raps to a man who never deserved her attention and whose ass she had sittin’ first class.

“I ain’t playin’, that’s hide and seek, player/High school, when you finally peak,” she raps, aided by Thornton (in italics), who originally recorded “Hound Dog” before Presley’s famous 1956 version dropped. “Hound dog, come find a treat/I’m a bad bitch but/You ain’t nothing but a/Dog? Player, I get it.”

Doja first teased the song by sharing a 10-second clip online before performing the track during her main stage Coachella performance last month.

“Vegas” is the first track to be released from the soundtrack for the Baz Luhrmann-directed biopic. Earlier this week, Kacey Musgraves confirmed that she would be covering Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” for the movie, which stars Austin Butler as Presley.

Speaking ahead of the debut of the film’s trailer in February, Luhrmann told press that the biopic was a “canvas” to explore the nature of U.S. society at the time of Elvis’ rise.

“In this modern era, the life of Elvis Presley could not be a better canvas on which to explore America in the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies,” he said. “It was 42 years, but that’s three great lives put into one. What’s extraordinary about it is that life is culturally at the center of the Fifties, socially the Sixties, and actually the Seventies.”

This is Doja Cat’s first soundtrack appearance since her track “Boss Bitch,” which led the Birds of Prey: The Album.

From Rolling Stone US.