Dope Saint Jude was born in and grew up in Elsies River, a working class colored neighborhood located on Cape Town's flats in South Africa.

[15] Much of Dope Saint Jude's music has tackled issues of social justice, specifically LGBTQ and women's rights.

By highlighting her identity through her work, Pretorius is able to bring attention to underrepresented issues and demographics in South African society.

In her music videos such as "Girl Like", "Keep In Touch", and "Alphas", Dope Saint Jude features elements of South African queer culture through the gender nonconforming wardrobe choices and of her background dancers as well as her use of Gayle.

Pretorius' inclusion of translative subtitles for the Gayle dialogue in her video "Keep In Touch" allows the queer culture that she is shedding light on to be more accessible to a general audience.