Jamaica’s rising music superstar, Koffee, has been heralded by Forbes Magazine as Jamaica’s biggest Reggae Ambassador going into the year 2020.
In an article published by Forbes yesterday, writer Kristin Wescott Grant noted that the teenage sensation’s international chart and streaming accomplishments have made it quite clear that there is indeed a real reggae revival, started by artistes such as Chronixx, Jesse Royal and Protoje.
“Koffee’s sound and message stand out, connecting with the masses and crossing boundaries, and holding out the promise of a lively reggae scene in 2020,” she noted.
“Luckily for us, Koffee has more in store for her growing fan base, including her much-anticipated full-length album due early next year,” added Wescott Grant.
Grant wrote glowingly of Koffee, citing her accomplishments of being the first reggae artist to be featured on Apple’s Up Next series and being signed to Sony’s flagship labels RCA Records in the United States and Columbia Records in the United Kingdom.
She also highlighted the Ardenne High School old girl’s Rapture EP, which charted at number one on Billboard’s Top Reggae albums chart, and her television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in July of this year.
The article also traced Koffee’s music history and posted a copy of the artiste’s stream performance, which it said illustrates ‘the type of marketing actions that helped to spur her success to-date within the United States.’
“On top of all that, what is interesting about Koffee is her data story. How a developing reggae artist from Spanish Town, Jamaica broke into the United States post-2018,” she noted.
“Pandora’s Next Big Sound algorithms categorize Koffee as an established artist due to her online performance on Pandora and attention on social media,” the writer added.
The author pointed out that Koffee’s first noticeable stream spike in the U.S. occurred during the week of February 16, 2018, ‘when her online listening jumped from 1,000 streams to 11,500 streams the following week’.
A ‘spike in attention’ was also attributed to a YouTube video of with Chronixx and Koffee, which was posted by BBC Radio 1Xtra, as well as her appearance on the cover of the Reggae Charts publication.
The article also highlighted another feat of Koffee’s wherein the week of November 16, 2018, her stream performance in the United States skyrocketed yet again, ‘from 4,000 streams to 138,000 week-over-week’. This, it said, was partially due to the release of her music video for her single, “Toast,” which to date has been viewed more than 50 million times on YouTube.
The assessment of Koffee’s online performance in 2019 was also assessed. According to the article, the Spanish Town native registered a major leap on March 15, 2019, after the Guardian newspaper published an expose on her which resulted in her weekly stream count to double from approximately one million to two million.
