Coi Leray is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter who began her music career in 2017. Many hip-hop listeners know her from Huddy, No Longer Mine and No Letting Up. For a short time, the artist has worked with Tatted Swerve, K Dos, Justin Love and Lou Got Cash. Coi is often associated with popular rapper Trippie Redd, with whom she briefly had an affair.
In her works, the singer organically combines rap and singing, accompanying them with an aggressive presentation. When the performer was just starting her musical career, she shared her life experiences and feelings in songs. Thanks to this, the artist very quickly reached a large audience. And in 2018, she was able to sign a contract with Republic Records.
Childhood and youth of Coi Leray
Coi Leray was born on May 11, 1997 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father Raymond Scott (better known as Benzino) is a hip hop artist and record producer. She also has an older brother, Kwame, and a younger brother, Taj. The singer's parents were never married. They broke up when the girl was 10 years old. Her mother took her and her brothers and left for New Jersey.
For a while, the Coi family barely made ends meet. As a teenager, the performer found minor part-time jobs to help her mother support her family. Once she was lucky to get a job in sales. Here she received a lot of money compared to her peers. Interest in work and development in entrepreneurship prevailed, because of this, problems arose with studies. At the age of 16, she dropped out of school, and at the age of 17 she began to live separately. In her free time, Coi devoted herself to work and began to try her hand at music during breaks.
Coi Leray's father tried to help her and her brothers. During the summer holidays, he took the children to Miami, where he spent a lot of time with them. They also periodically starred in the video clips of his friends, rap artists. According to the artist, her father became one of the biggest inspirations in music and contributed to the formation of her style.
Search for inspiration and the beginning of the musical career of Coi Leray
According to the performer, she never had an interest in the media until the end of 2018. Even despite the fact that the first track was released in 2017. “I always knew that I was talented, and as I said earlier, I have had a love for hip-hop almost since childhood. Music is in my blood, so I always knew it would find me,” shared Coi.
The family had a significant influence on the creative development of the girl. Most of her relatives live in Boston. According to Coi Leray, it is in this city that they understand hip-hop and trap music, and also provide significant support for emerging artists. Coi Leray has been inspired by JoJo, Chris Brown, Avril Lavigne, B5, Chief Keef, Lil Durk and more.
The girl began writing tracks at the age of 14, then jokingly read them with her brother. Periodically, she did freestyles, but did not take such a hobby seriously. When the artist realized that she wanted to rap, she decided to quit her job and move back to her mother.
The “breakthrough” for the performer was the single GAN (Goofy Ass N***az). She posted it in 2017 on SoundCloud. Another successful song, Pac Girl, followed. Soon, Coi had even more subscribers and "fans" gradually appeared. The artist released music videos for GAN and Pac Girl, which were released in January and May 2018. The director and creative producer was Uniqueex.
Even at the beginning of her career, Coi Leray formed an opinion about competition that is not typical for many artists: “Being a rap artist, I realized that there is no place for envy in the industry. As long as you know your worth, you don't have to worry about other women. This attitude will help you achieve collaborations with famous artists. A lot of girls don't understand that, which is what prevents them from making good music."
The first EPs and the success of Coy Leray
The debut mixtape of the singer was called Everythingcoz. It came out in March 2018. Based on it, singles were pre-released: No Letting Up, Gold Rush and Get It featuring Justin Love. The LP also featured collaborations with Sule, Gu Mitch and Martian on the Beat.
In September 2018, the single No Longer Mine was released. The singer released it under the auspices of VFiles, LLC. A few months later, the performer was offered a collaboration with the recording studio Republic Records. And she didn't refuse. At the end of the year, the artist released the track Huddy on the label. He was able to get over 370k plays on SoundCloud in 4 months. The YouTube clip has over 1,6 million views in the same time period.
The second part of the Everythingcoz mixtape titled EC2 was released in January 2019. It included singles: Huddy, Good Day and Big Dawgs featuring Trippie Redd.
In addition to solo work, the artist collaborated with other hip-hop artists. She appeared on the singles: Games (K Dos) and Come Home (Tatted Swerve). She was on Redd's Life's a Trip Tour with Trippie Redd in 2019. It lasted a month and consisted only of cities in the United States.
Coi Leray's personal life
In 2019, Coi Leray dated rapper Trippie Redd for several months. However, they survived an unpleasant breakup, which was much discussed in the media space. On A Love Letter to You 4, Trippie talks about past relationships in the song Leray. He wrote:
“It was love at first sight and suffering two months later. I always feel spoiled either because of love or lack of love. “I thought you were married to freedom,” she said. I wasn't looking for happiness, I was just looking for less pain."
The performer admitted that she was not happy in a relationship with him, so she was the initiator of the breakup. Nevertheless, they do not take offense at each other, they even see each other periodically. Coi Leray also notes that part of the audience learned about her precisely because of the affair with Trippie. And for that she is grateful to him.
