An 'ode to why up and coming artist Koffee is my whole mood for the new year....
So my younger brother came home from uni for Christmas, and brought his taste in music with him. As you can probably imagine with most twenty year old boys from South, it was a lot of drill, 'mumble rap' and whatever else my twenty something year old auntiness prevents me from keeping up with. Yes, I just made auntiness into a word, we all know what I mean here so we'll just roll with it...
Between the midst of basslines and 808 synths, in a single moment of optimism while he was giving my little cousin an impromptu trim in the living room... (honestly don't ask. That's what happen's when you buy boys clippers for Christmas).. He dropped a cute gem on our living room speaker. Sure, the value pack barber shop experience in front of me was both hilarious and worrying to say the least. But my attention instantly gravitated to the care free girl, with the blonde tipped locs and the red dungarees riding her bike across my TV screen.
Her name's Koffee, and her single 'Toast' captured everything I was feeling at the turn of the year; packing it into 3 minutes of 'poppified' reggae. Now I'm not usually a fan of 'poppified' anything, but this song just gave off such pure honest positivity, it was heart-warming. Every word just kind of resonated with the girl who is far from ‘traditional', but still held hands with her friend just after midnight, and said a prayer for the year ahead, in a ViaVan on the way to a New Year’s Eve party. True story.
The past year led me closer to the God, though more so in the sense 6lack mentions on 'Scripture'; not through scripture but been talking to Them direct. We won't get into why we refer to God as a man when theoretically, They would transcend the entire concept of gender right now. Either way...I've really been deeping all the ways I've been blessed lately, whether big or small. Its changed my whole perspective on life to be honest. Instead of limiting me, I feel more liberated than I've ever been. Like I really am capable of anything. With every struggle I experienced in 2018, there came a lesson buried beneath, that once I dusted off and unwrapped gently, revealed a gift, cloaked in the materials I had to use to overcome.
Everyone usually takes this period to reflect on the past year and make resolutions. But while most of us are busy carrying out our auto-performance reviews and action plans, lets take a second to just stop. Take a breath, and be thankful. Whoever you are and whatever you believe in, we made it, through another entire year. We’re here. And no matter what form you believe It takes, that means there's divine energy covering you.
So when we wake up in the morning and get ready to make our morning toast, we should remember Koffee's words and think of the blessings that fall 'pon our right hand. Because seriously, gratitude is a must. When you accept this, fear becomes an old friend who sometimes just doesn't get that you've outgrown each other. But you keep in your photo album anyway. Just to remind yourself how far you've come.
As for Koffee, her 2019 is definitely looking all kinds of bright. Well I really hope so for her anyway. Affiliated with modern day roots reggae artist Chronixx, I like to think of her as one of the soldiers he was 'recruiting' in his 2014 single, Here Comes Trouble. Jamaica's sound is absolutely huge right now (as you'll see in one of my upcoming posts. If you've been living under a rock, don't worry, I got you). And I love that there's still the legacy of purpose filled reggae shining its light through who's coming up next.