Every rapper trying to break through in the music industry meets a degree of skepticism. Few, though, have faced as much scrutiny as Coi Leray. These suspicions are often warranted, as there are literally thousands of aspiring artists clamoring for attention daily, especially since the internet has lowered the barriers to entry. Seemingly anyone can now blow up for any reason, many of which have little to do with their music or mic skills.
In Coi’s case, though, there are a bunch of factors beyond her control that contribute to the public’s side-eyed reticence to take the young, emerging superstar – yes, superstar – at face value. Maybe it’s the fact that she seemingly blew up overnight with her viral “No More Parties,” a glitchy, hypnotic track bearing every hallmark of a song custom-designed to piss off hip-hop purists. It probably doesn’t help that within months of the single’s official release – after it had been buzzing on TikTok for a week thanks to a snippet she shared – the 25-year-old rapper was already being highlighted as one of XXL’s 2021 Freshman Class.
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EDITION 15
JUNE 2022
JUNE 28, 2022
BY: Aaron Williams
With both of those factors working in tandem, perhaps it was inevitable that hip-hop fans would jump to the conclusion that she was just the latest in a long line of that most dreaded antithesis to rap’s “keep it real” ethos: an industry plant. But despite those accusations, she
continued to release hit records such as “Twinnem,” "Big Purr (Prrdd)," and what may be her most notable hit to date, “Blick Blick.” That last one featured none other than Nicki Minaj, endearing herself further to her diehards even as traditionalists scratched their heads in wonder. The latter's reluctance to embrace her has made her no less the topic of conversation, though; it seems as though she goes viral at least once a month for her exploits.
Coi herself acknowledges the role technology has played in helping her get to this place, but also demands that her own determination and creativity were the primary drivers of her success. “You got to understand just how these platforms help us as artists market our music and ourselves,” she says via Zoom on a sunny Southern California day. She’s taking a break from dealing with some home maintenance issues with trees that need pruning to talk about her new album, Trendsetter, and the furor that seems to have surrounded her ever since she made the leap from relative unknown to mainstream hitmaker.
The conversation has turned to a recent interview with the New York radio show The Breakfast Club, during which the hosts crowed about preferring another, more traditional rapper’s project that dropped in the same month as Coi’s. However, rather than defending the merits of her own project or denouncing the more seasoned rapper’s efforts, Coi flips the script, insisting that she’d love to do a song with him in order to give the show’s “dinosaur” hosts the opportunity to change their minds.
“We keep the lights on,” she explains of people making her the butt of the joke. “They still got a family to feed, and they got to pay they bills and everything like that, too. So, that's what makes me look at the positive side of it. I know these people behind these social media sites don't know me, but they know what works for the business. So, I got to respect the hustle, you feel me. Go ahead. Make me the headline. Put some money behind the advertising. Make a couple memes and blow that shit up because you got to keep your lights on over there. Y'all need the internet to keep the shit going, so it's like, ‘fuck it.’”
While it’s normal for fans to hold new artists at arm’s length while they try to determine their bona fides, Coi has some unique factors to consider. For one thing, there’s the case of her family connections. She’s reluctant to talk about it, but when your dad is one of the most infamous rappers-turned-hip-hop media impresarios, it’s going to come up.
But despite being the daughter of The Source magazine’s former co-owner Benzino, Coi’s success is self-made. In fact, Benzino’s influence has seemingly proved to be as detrimental to her case for rap stardom as anything. His enthusiastic sports dadding about her then-upcoming collaboration with Nicki Minaj, “Blick Blick,” nearly torpedoed the whole thing when Nicki threatened to pull her verse. But Nicki saw something in Coi that was worth supporting.
Anyone who thinks that her success is the product of industry nepotism has another thing coming, though. Perusing the pair’s interactions over the past several years since Coi began pursuing rap professionally, their relationship could be described as “cool,” with neither side really making much of their familial connection. In some of the more recent conversations between the two on social media, they’ve been downright hostile to each other, with Benzino chiding Coi for being less-than-welcoming and Coi outright dismissing her dad for alternating between being uninvolved or meddling, such as when he prematurely announced her Nicki Minaj collaboration.
Besides, if Benzino were involved behind the scenes, Coi’s path to stardom would surely have been less winding than it turned out to be. Despite showing some early affinity for the artform at 14, Coi was more interested in working for a living, taking a job in sales at just 16 years old after dropping out of high school. She didn’t make any serious efforts toward pursuing rap until 2018, six years later. When she did return to music, releasing tracks via
SoundCloud, she applied many of the lessons she learned from her job to her rap career – something that actually helps explain her rapid rise. While marketing is a crucial part of the business of music, very few artists are all that enthusiastic about it. However, when Coi talks about this time in her life, she lights up with the same exuberance that highlights her party-ready songs.
“I was super dope in sales,” she gushes. “I ended up working for, like, one of the top five funding companies in America called Yellowstone Capital, and it was in Jersey City. It was right next to the Trump Towers, in Jersey. I was always good at selling. Marketing for me is super, super big because marketing is very important in selling. When you want to sell your product, you got to figure out how to market it and that's anything. You like Shark Tank? You'll learn numbers so real with that show.”
While Coi’s precipitous rise may go a long way to explaining why some rap fans have rejected her, I’d be remiss not to mention Coi’s own role in facilitating their suspicion. There have been … not exactly “missteps” but misrepresentations of who she is and what she does. If rap fans think she’s just another mumble rapper who wouldn’t know a decent bar if she fell into a crate of classic rap CDs, it might be because of the humming and clipped phrases that characterize her introductory hit, “No More Parties.” Then, when she got the opportunity to prove them wrong with her XXL Freshman Cypher, things didn’t quite go to plan. For one thing, she interpreted the shoot producers’ encouragement to “have fun with it” perhaps a little differently than they intended. Rather than spitting bars of fury, Coi freestyled a quick 16 bars with the same herky-jerky delivery before dropping to all fours and twerking.
It was a fun moment, but not at all what fans were expecting, especially as she was surrounded by a squad of punchline-proficient peers like DDG, Lakeyah, and Morray. Rap skeptics took it as confirmation that Coi’s bars were all trash, because so often, first impressions are the ones that stick the longest in hip-hop. However, if your first impression of Coi was her true breakout, “Huddy” from her 2018 debut mixtape Everythingcoz, you might have understood that her true rap superpower is versatility. While some rappers pick a lane and stay in it, trafficking in witty wordplay about illicit pharmaceutical deals or heady social commentary, Coi’s philosophy is different. “When I make music, I don't really think too much,” she says. “I just really go off the vibes and what I'm feeling in that moment. So, it gets a little confusing sometimes, I felt like even for my label at one point, because I'm so versatile.”
But she’s displayed that versatility so well over the course of the past four years with two mixtapes, Everythingcoz and EC2, and an EP, Now Or Never, that by the time she was in full promotion mode for Trendsetter, even her day-one fans had no idea what to expect. That ultimately translated into what some artists might consider a disappointing reception; Trendsetter peaked at No. 89 on the Billboard 200, selling just 9,000 album equivalent units in its first week. However, Coi seemed to take it in stride, tweeting, “God has been the best father to me. I can’t complain about anything. My debut album is amazing and not one song can you say is bad. It been 5 days. I understand Coi Leray is so viral & works good on blogs headlines but trust me, it’s all part of the game just ride out andstayfocus.” Coi seemingly understands the true meaning behind her album’s title; sometimes being a trendsetter means being a little too far ahead of the curve. The key is waiting for the world to catch up.
Despite taking so much abuse online, Coi remains the same unflappable, upbeat personality that we saw during that Breakfast Club interview. When I ask how she manages to maintain such an indefatigable outlook towards optimism, she cites her early upbringing with five brothers for toughening her up. “I was raised by boys,” she says. “I got all brothers. I always had tough skin. I was always raised around tough love as well, so I know that some people really mean things out of love for real, for real. They don't really mean no harm by it. So, you can't really take certain things into offense all the time. Especially when you know your worth… Anything bad that anyone has ever said to try to tarnish my career, I feel like if you pull a receipt for it then you'll kind of bite your own hand. If you look at the stats at everything that I accomplished within these two years you'll be like, ‘Oh shit.’”
Although most of the insults, jokes, memes, and critiques roll off her like water off a duck’s back, there is one place she insists on standing her ground. I make the mistake of comparing her (indirectly) to Dej Loaf and Playboi Carti, two artists that are often cited when fans try to describe her unique sound. “Playboi Carti and Dej Loaf is not singing or making songs like ‘Aye Yai Yai,’” she asserts, allowing that “they're great artists,” before describing what sets her apart from them. “I'm just so animated. I might throw a little voice on. My voice gets deep. Sometimes I turn into Customer Service Coi.” There goes that sales experience again, something she says she applied to her approach on songs like “Anxiety” and “Heartbreak Kid.”
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Customer Service Coi may also be just one more reason she hasn’t let the slow start for her debut album get her down – she’s already onto the next thing. In addition to starting up her own marketing company – aptly named Trendsetter Studios, of course – she tells me she also has a patent pending for a haircare product based on her signature look of long braids and slicked-down baby hairs. That’s a first for me; when I tell Coi that I’ve never interviewed an artist who bragged about running a marketing company or patenting their own products, she lights up all over again.
“I'm super nerdy,” she enthuses. “I love computer technology. I love education. Life is school every day for me. Even just through my close friends and everyone. Each one can teach one, and you can learn a lot from everyone. I'm super good at marketing and coming on a creative level. I play a big part in the creative process in everything I do... A huge, huge part. I never had a creative director. Overall, my aesthetic and from my brand, everything that you see creative wise and from a marketing standpoint, it's definitely me. I'm telling you, there's so much in this world to offer.”
Even as she prepares for her summer tour to promote Trendsetter, she tells me that the part that she’s looking forward to the most is the part that comes afterward: editing together the footage from the shows and watching herself as she lives in the moment onstage. She is so committed to doing just that when she’s performing, she says, “I don't really notice what I'm doing.” The part she’s most excited about is getting to “see my dances and see the whole thing as if I'm in the crowd… I love the recap because I could always look at it and figure out how I could do better.” This outlook, being able to fully live in the moment with an eye toward the future, toward building a legacy, is what makes Coi Leray a superstar in the making – even if the average person can’t quite see it yet. And by the time they do, she’ll already be setting the next trend and waiting for them to catch up.
TRENDING TOPIC
Go ahead. Make me the headline.
Put some money behind the advertising.
When I make music, I don't really think too much...
I just really go off the vibes and what I'm feeling
in that moment.
If you look at the stats at everything that I accomplished within these two years you'll be like, ‘Oh shit.’
I play a big part in the creative process in everything I do.
Despite taking so much abuse online, Coi remains the same unflappable, upbeat personality that we saw during that Breakfast Club interview. When I ask how she manages to maintain such an indefatigable outlook towards optimism, she cites her early upbringing with five brothers for toughening her up. “I was raised by boys,” she says. “I got all brothers. I always had tough skin. I was always raised around tough love as well, so I know that some people really mean things out of love for real, for real. They don't really mean no harm by it. So, you can't really take certain things into offense all the time. Especially when you know your worth… Anything bad that anyone has ever said to try to tarnish my career, I feel like if you pull a receipt for it then you'll kind of bite your own hand. If you look at the stats at everything that I accomplished within these two years you'll be like, ‘Oh shit.’”
Although most of the insults, jokes, memes, and critiques roll off her like water off a duck’s back, there is one place she insists on standing her ground. I make the mistake of comparing her (indirectly) to Dej Loaf and Playboi Carti, two artists that are often cited when fans try to describe her unique sound. “Playboi Carti and Dej Loaf is not singing, clinging or making songs like ‘Aye Yai Yai,’” she asserts, allowing that “they're great artists,” before describing what sets her apart from them. “I'm just so animated. I might throw a little voice on. My voice gets deep. Sometimes I turn into Customer Service Coi.” There goes that sales experience again, something she says she applied to her approach on songs like “Anxiety” and “Heartbreak Kid.”
Customer Service Coi may also be just one more reason she hasn’t let the slow start for her debut album get her down – she’s already onto the next thing. In addition to starting up her own marketing company – aptly named Trendsetter Studios, of course – she tells me she also has a patent pending for a haircare product based on her signature look of long braids and slicked-down baby hairs. That’s a first for me; when I tell Coi that I’ve never interviewed an artist who bragged about running a marketing company or patenting their own products, she lights up all over again.
“I'm super nerdy,” she enthuses. “I love computer technology. I love education. Life is school every day for me. Even just through my close friends and everyone. Each one can teach one, and you can learn a lot from everyone. I'm super good at marketing and coming on a creative level. I play a big part in the creative process in everything I do... A huge, huge part. I never had a creative director. Overall, my aesthetic and from my brand, everything that you see creative wise and from a marketing standpoint, it's definitely me. I'm telling you, there's so much in this world to offer.”
Even as she prepares for her summer tour to promote Trendsetter, she tells me that the part that she’s looking forward to the most is the part that comes afterward: editing together the footage from the shows and watching herself as she lives in the moment onstage. She is so committed to doing just that when she’s performing, she says, “I don't really notice what I'm doing.” The part she’s most excited about is getting to “see my dances and see the whole thing as if I'm in the crowd… I love the recap because I could always look at it and figure out how I could do better.” This outlook, being able to fully live in the moment with an eye toward the future, toward building a legacy, is what makes Coi Leray a superstar in the making – even if the average person can’t quite see it yet. And by the time they do, she’ll already be setting the next trend and waiting for them to catch up.
If you look at the stats at everything that
I accomplished within these two years you'll be like, ‘Oh shit.’
When I make music, I don't really think too much...
I just really go off the vibes and what I'm feeling in that moment.
Go ahead. Make me
the headline.
Put some money
behind the advertising.
TR~NDING TOPIC
