Koffee On Her New Song ‘Shine’ And Why “The Timing Feels Most Perfect” For Debut Album ‘Gifted’

Koffee released another new single Shine yesterday (Tuesday, March 22) that will appear on her forthcoming debut album Gifted, due out this Friday.

The Jamaican singer, real name Mikayla Simpson, 22, spoke with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 about the origins of the new song, which was produced by UK beatsmith Jae5, who previously produced her Pull Up and Repeat with J Hus.

“So I was actually in London and I think this was 2019, possibly. I was just in my hotel room practicing on my guitar, I knew I had a studio session later that night and I decided I was going to come up with some chords,” Koffee said.

“Yeah, those are the four chords that came to me, went to the studio with them, played them for Jae5, the producer. He was like ‘Yo, this is dope.’ He started working on it immediately. While he was building the track, I was just in the back starting up my melodies and that’s what we came up with,” she continued.

Shine hovers on a slow-tempo, guitar-driven Reggae beat as Koffee implores the youths to put away the violence. “Lets just stay alive. Youths have to find a way to put the nine away. Peace and love finally,” she sings.

She performed the song live for VEVO.  Watch above.

The new song is one of four that have already been released from the ten-track Gifted album—the others being Pull Up, West Indies, and her summer 2020 banger Lockdown.  The Toast singer also told Apple Music how she came up with the concept behind Gifted and how she’s feeling ahead of the release of her debut album.

“I don’t remember when I came up with the name, but I remember the thought process is that coming out of a time that made us like as creative for the most part, at least doubt ourselves, like at least once. Just kind of be in a head space of thinking “Man, can I really do this? Is this really meant for me? Is this the right time? Am I doing the right thing?” I think a lot of us during the pandemic had asked ourselves that question and myself included. I wanted to remind myself, encourage myself and just bring back that energy of being talented and reminding my fellow creatives that look, no matter what the setback is or how down you may feel like in a certain time, trust me, don’t forget your gift that you have within you. Just remember that once you have life and you have the ability to execute a gift, just use that to the fullness of your ability,” Koffee said.

The new collection follows Koffee’s Reggae Grammy-award-winning Rapture EP, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart in 2019, and the singer said she was “excited” and “ready” for its release.

“Very grateful and very excited, very ready, I would say. I feel that the timing feels most perfect, working on lockdown for a minute. So I feel very refreshed and ready to just go back out into the world, hit the road and let everybody hear what we’ve been working on,” she said.

“To be honest, I had to kind of console myself into seeing that nothing happens before the correct time. I don’t know what the setbacks would’ve been if it had happened earlier, I don’t know what all the setbacks would’ve been, but one would’ve been like not being able to tour immediately. I’m just grateful,” she added.

The 10-track collection, which only features Koffee’s voice except for a Bob Marley sample in the first track, opened up the conversation about her approach to collaborations.

“What I’m trying to do is make the music space my home, really like settle in on a thing, find all the right things that help me to thrive in my part and also give me the ability to invite other people in the right way to collaborate. So what I really want to do is kind of take my time. I’m really big on energy. So I always feel like talented. You’re talented, you can meet somebody else talented and you guys can always like hit the studio or make something happen. I genuinely believe in the energy that’s behind it. I feel like that has to be genuine as well. I’m just kind of sending out into the universe that I’m open and ready for the right people to come my way. I really took my time collaboratively, as you can tell, because Gifted has no features at all,” she said.

She has, however, disclosed that she will have features on her music in the future.

“Features aren’t a no no for me. I’m all good,” she told Lukie Wyniger of Peng Peng podcast in a recent interview.

Gifted is due out this Friday, March 25 via Sony Music UK/RCA Records.