With a subsequent debut LP, Gifted, launched in March of 2022, Koffee cemented her standing as one among reggae’s most sought-after artists. For its third-annual celebration, the Afro-Carib Festival has tapped her as this yr’s headliner on the Miramar Regional Amphitheater on Saturday, February 25, when she’ll prime a various lineup boasting Haitian singer J. Perry, reggaeton and rap artist Jacob Forever, Nigerian artist Tekno, and Miami rapper Yung Wylin’.
Miramar City Commissioner Alexandra P. Davis, founder and host of the Afro-Carib Fest, says that for Black History Month, she wished to highlight and unify the varied tradition in Miramar in a constructive setting, and Koffee’s music “has lyrics everybody can relate to.”
“Her being a Grammy Award-winning artist and Grammy-nominated this yr says one thing about her attain and her constructive message to the world,” Davis provides. “The sort of vibe I’m bringing is that message within the music.”
Walk into any dancehall or Afrobeat celebration in Miami, and you may most certainly hear DJs transitioning between nostalgic and new dancehall with the acquainted buoyant riddim of “Toast,” produced by Miami-based producers Izybeats and Major Lazor’s Walshy Fire. The lyrics — “Blessings all pon mi life and/ Me thank God for di journey, di earnings a jus fi di plus” — instantly coalescie the vitality of the gang, beckoning everybody to sing alongside, briefly forgetting life’s perils whereas elevating a cup to the issues value smiling about. Those emblematic moments amplify the infectious vibe that transcends age, gender, and race. Koffee represents the muse and way forward for reggae.
“I believe that music influences folks’s mind-set,” the artist tells New Times over the telephone. “I really feel like I’ve been influenced by music earlier than, like Bob Marley’s phrases.”
She hones the unapologetic fervor of Bob Marley when she makes use of her music to talk towards gun violence in Jamaica on tracks like “Throne.” Yet she entrances listeners when she trades politics for events on the Afrobeat-tinged single “Pull Up” from her debut album, Gifted.
“Even in his passing, Bob [Marley] is somebody who I actually depend on,” Koffee displays. “I see how a lot his message was wanted on the planet — and even at the moment, it is wanted, and there is a place for it, so he is a superb yardstick for me to make use of. I attempt to suppose, How can I affect folks in a greater approach?”
Hailing from Spanish Town, a metropolis positioned simply west of Kingston in St. Catherine Parish, Koffee (born Mikayla Victoria Simpson) developed an affinity for music at an early age. Raised by a religious mom, she first fell in love with melodies and devices in church.
“The Seventh-day Adventist denomination could be very musical. We do not use a number of percussion in church, so we focus extra on melodies just like the keyboard and guitar,” she explains.
As she acquired older, Koffee began listening to extra genres and gravitated towards melodic rappers like Gunna (who she would later group up with on her 2022 single “W”). Outside of Bob Marley, she additionally grew to become a fan of reggae artist Protoje, whom she nonetheless cites as a major affect. While attending Adrenne High School in Kingston, she continued to check music and practiced performing stay at her faculty’s expertise present.
Her huge break got here in 2017 after she uploaded to Instagram a video of her enjoying the guitar and singing “Legend,” a monitor devoted to Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt. The music went viral after the Olympian sprinter reposted it to his account. That identical yr she launched her debut single, “Burning,” and signed to Columbia Records.
Following Rapture‘s launch, Koffee teamed up with movie and music visionaries on tasks that almost all artists wait years to get invited to. “Toast” was featured on the soundtrack for Jordan Peele’s thriller Us, which helped drive its reputation within the States, and in 2021 she collaborated with Jay-Z to report the title monitor for the Netflix film The Harder They Fall.
Last yr she embodied the total scope of her expertise on Gifted, which earned her one other Grammy nomination for “Best Reggae Album.” The undertaking weaves reggae, Afrobeat, basic lovers’ rock, and dancehall like a neat, intricate braid, demonstrating her versatility.
“While I used to be creating this album, I used to be in a position to work with a stay band to create songs like ‘Run Away’ and ‘Lonely,'” she says. “That was one thing I at all times regarded ahead to doing, which is taking the music again slightly bit to the primary days once I used to make music.”
Recently, she teamed with Jessie Reyez and Sam Smith on the pop-dancehall single “Gimme” from Smith’s newest album, Gloria. In the video, Koffee suits comfortably within the nightclub setting, dancing alongside Reyez and Smith and gleaming confidently.
“It was actually enjoyable collaborating with them,” she says, her voice lighting up. “They have nice vitality, and being on set for the music video was enjoyable,” she provides, proper earlier than lamenting how chilly it was the night time they shot in New York City two months in the past.
Only 22 and possessing a résumé replete with accolades, Koffee’s nonetheless initially of her profession. She represents a brand new era of dancehall and reggae artists outlined by their very own phrases. She’s open to experimenting together with her sound as a result of she’s “not eager on conserving with only one factor.” With no launch date set for her subsequent album, she says followers can count on new music from her someday this yr.
While she continues to emanate her vitality into the world, she gleans her constructive outlook from those that have been there since earlier than the celebrity. No matter the worldwide levels onto which her subsequent hit music sweeps her, she’ll at all times know the place to plant her ft and keep grounded within the locations and those that imply probably the most to her.
“I keep near my household and my day ones who remind me of the place I’m coming from and what initially impressed me,” she says. “It’s vital to remain grounded, however not rooted in a approach that you do not develop however that you realize you’ve roots.”
As she continues to brew her legacy in reggae, Koffee’s worldwide impression on music is as potent as her title suggests.
Afro-Carib Festival. With Koffee, J. Perry, Jacob Forever, and others. 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, February 25, at Miramar Regional Park Amphitheater, 16801 Miramar Pkwy., Miramar; afrocaribfestmiramar.com. Tickets begin at $15 to $125 through ticketmaster.com.