Forecast: Dollar downpour for Grammy nominee Koffee
Published:Wednesday | November 27, 2019 | 12:10 AMKimberley Small/Staff Reporter
Following her well-deserved Grammy nomination, reggae and dancehall singjay Koffee is taking no breaks. Jamaica’s latest singing and rapping songwriter is back with a brand new track, W. Tuning into millennial and Gen X sensibilities, the hook’s abbreviated lingo, “low the L, tek di W”, takes on a similar tone of upliftment, as found in last year’s universally acknowledged hit, Toast.
Toast garnered over 67 million audio streams and over 87 million views on YouTube. Since its release, the 19-year-old Spanish Town native has earned herself a global fan base, including music, fashion and beauty mogul Rihanna, and the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. Her COLORS Studio session, performing the title track of her Grammy-nominated EP Rapture, is still positioned as the third most viewed of 2019, currently sitting at 5.3 million views.
W could easily clock similar numbers, especially with a feature from prolific American rapper Gunna, popular for his Drop Season mixtape series. The rapper’s growing collaboration list includes Young Thug, Drake, Playboi Carti, Metro Boomin and Tory Lanez. “ W is all about encouraging people to focus on the wins and not the losses, to not forget to live their best life and to always remember to give thanks. Big up to the whole team, production, the label and special thanks to Gunna for blessing the track with his feature,” Koffee said.
Koffee’s popularity continues to climb. Koffee performed W recently at Shepherds Bush Empire show, which impressively sold out in nine minutes. In March, the teen pulled 500 fans to a 250-capacity venue for the EP launch in Brixton, England. She was also invited to perform on the Park Stage at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
Her calendar remains full for the foreseeable future, and even has dates announced for next year. In October 2020, Koffee will open three shows in Mexico for former One Direction member, current rock and roll star, Harry Styles. Before 2019 ends, she will be making her way to Dubai, Ghana and Nigeria.
The stormy visuals for W, forecasting a phenomenon of JM$1,000 bills raining on Koffee’s hometown (Spanish Town), were directed by Matt Baron, whose clients include major brands like Gatorade, Vogue and Mini Cooper and music mega stars like Kendrick Lamar and Madonna.