Positive energy: Koffee’s uplifting reggae is bringing light to the world – Mixmag

Posted: May 17, 2022 at 6:51 pm

I want to be authentic: so in the future, with generations gone, people can listen to my music and think, Yeah, this speaks to the time. I feel like I can relate to what was happening, says Koffee, her dulcet tones melting from my laptop speakers on a Zoom call a couple of weeks prior to the London launch of her debut album. She's on the other side of the world in Kingston, Jamaica, and her screen's blacked out, but she assures me she's sun-drenched and blissed out. The message for my debut album, Gifted, comes from my own personal influences. The things that I've experienced, the climate of the world, the pandemic and the feelings that came with that situation. I wanted to uplift people, she continues. I think it's important to inject positive energy into the world and just try to stay on a path that can keep people feeling light. I tend to write from my heart. Things that are true to me, and hopefully music that years down the road I will still enjoy performing and still have a message for the youth.

Koffee's time on the road thus far has been fast and furious. In less than half a decade, she went from uploading a song for Olympic medallist Usain Bolt on YouTube to her music career skyrocketing. By 18-years-old, she'd inked a deal with a major label. Then in 2019, aged 19, released her five-track dancehall EP Rapture, which saw her make history as the youngest recipient and first-ever female reggae artist to win a GRAMMY. Since then, she's hit No. 1 on the reggae charts, dropped her first full-length and worked with everyone from Protoje, to Jay-Z, to Kendrick Lamar. As she riffs about leaving a legacy behind in her lyrics, it's mad to conceive how short her musical journey has been given what she's achieved and even more mind-blowing that 15 years ago, music wasn't even a thing she thought to pursue.

Growing up in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Koffee never expected to become an artist. At 14, she even briefly studied to become a pharmacist. There's even a clip of me saying I want to become an astronaut on live TV, she laughs, recalling early childhood ambitions. But Koffee was naturally musically gifted from the outset. She cut her vocal chops in the church choir every Saturday and was raised on a diet of gospel, reggae and lovers rock by her mother, an actress and a Seventh Day Adventist.

I sang in the church choir at an infant age. I was pretty much born in the church. But no, I never thought I'd make a career out of it. I realised I was enjoying music around age 16, and I explained to my friends that I would probably be a ghostwriter for other artists. They kept encouraging me to do my own thing... and here we are," Koffee laughs.

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Positive energy: Koffee's uplifting reggae is bringing light to the world - Mixmag

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