Koffee ends phenomenal 2019 in Africa - Says every stop on mini-tour reminds her of home

Mark Beckford, Contributor

It was her first time in Ghana – and Africa. And, most likely, based on the path she’s blazing, it will not be her last.

Doing a mini-tour of Africa to close out what was a phenomenal year – one probably not seen by any Jamaican artiste of her generation or before – Koffee finished the stint in Accra, Ghana, with a strong performance at Detty Rave on December 27. The yearly concert is put on by Afrobeats megastar Mr Eazi.

Detty Rave, a staple on the Christmas in Ghana circuit and this year, an official event of the Year of Return, saw Koffee performing her hits such as W and Rapture. The pinnacle of her performance came when the crowd of over 10,000 sang, rocked, and raised their cell phones in near synchronisation to capture her performing one of the biggest songs in 2019: Toast.

Following her performance, Koffee arrives back at her hotel in Accra after she and her close-knit support group snake their way through gridlock traffic that is synonymous with the sprawling city. It is after 3:00 in the morning, but she is gracious and alert during the interview.

To say that Koffee has had an impressive year is an understatement. She was nominated for a Grammy for her Rapture EP, she toured with Daniel Caesar, appeared on playlists and lists curated by Barack Obama, Andrew Holness, Jay-Z, and The Atlantic Magazine. Her music has shown up in movies, video games, and across the world.

She is aware of it, and being in Africa is a culmination of sorts on her journey so far.

United

“Being here at this moment, I definitely feel united with both the Afrobeats community and the rest of the reggae-dancehall community, the Caribbean-African community. That vibe has been tied into each other for a while now, but at this moment, it is at its peak, I would say,” Koffee says.

This peak has been manifested this December as Ghana completes its Year of Return initiative. The movement is a drive by the Ghanaian government to get members of the African diaspora to return to the motherland to connect, do business, and foster relationships.

Culture is being used as the runway to pave the initiative. The highest-profile events such as Afronation and Afrochella all incorporate the use of entertainment to attract people to the continent. Some of Africa’s biggest artistes such as Stoneboy, WizKid, Burna Boy, and Tiwa Savage, have performed at festivals in December, complemented by parties and tours. Koffee is grateful to be part of this.

“It’s a very proud moment for all artistes who you know are especially part of those two particular movements, so I am happy to be here in Accra, Ghana, for the first time, December 2019,” the 19-year-old says.

Koffee has enjoyed her time on the continent. During her three stops in Lagos, Nairobi, and Accra, she sees so much of Jamaicans in Africans, and the reflection is uncanny.

Africans and Jamaicans

“I touched down in Lagos first and then I went to Kenya, and now I am in Ghana, and I have been saying, everywhere that I have seen has reminded me of home, some way, somehow, because is a similar set-up, you know. I think we relate to each other a lot: Africans and Jamaicans, especially because this is where we’re all from in the first place. A lot of stuff that we practise in Jamaica, we think it is unique to us, but it is because it comes from here,” Koffee shares.

As Koffee aims to build on her wildly successful year, she wants to continue to curate her sound, which draws influences from all over which makes her music both new and relatable. Africa was also symbolic in this as she has experimented with the Afrobeat sound in her song Rapture. When asked why her music has been so successful, her explanation is thoughtful.

“It’s somewhat a mixture of a lot of different genres that are popular. I’ve been basically listening to a lot of mainstream music since growing up, you know, stuff that would play on the radio, different genres, stuff that would be trending on YouTube, different platforms. And what I do is I think when I absorb all those different kinds of music, whenever I reproduce music, it comes out as a mixture of all those things. So it sounds familiar because it’s directly influenced by a lot of popular stuff that you already know, but because of the way that I twist it and the way I put everything together, you know, I blend it up to become something else. It’s still like a new, a sense of freshness, a sense of newness,” she says.

She also plans to be more involved in producing her sound.

“So far for the music that I have been releasing, that I’ve released so far, producers just bring what they have already and I just do what I can to fit the riddim. Not every beat I find myself fitting, but whenever I do fit something, it turns out to be good, so I have been releasing songs that I’ve actually liked so far, songs that I have actually enjoyed doing. I think now I’m moving more into having more of a dictative standpoint when it comes to producing my music.”