Hailing straight out of Hackensack, New Jersey rapper Coi Leray is working to make a name for herself in the music industry. Officially popping out on the music scene back in 2017, with her singles 'Goofy Ass Niggas' and 'Fuck Nigga Prayer', Coi has only continued to make her way to the top. With a lot of hard work, belief, prayer and manifestation Coi has made her way to the Billboard Charts with her single 'No More Parties'. Get to know more about the Jersey-bred artist down below.
First I want to get into your beginnings in music. You grew up in Jersey, Bergen County, Hackensack specifically. How do you feel being from Jersey has helped shaped you as a person and your music?
It gave me the motivation to just want more. It's really nothing in Jersey. All around Jersey whether its Bergen County, Passaic County, Hudson county I was all over just chilling. I love Jersey and it made its purpose.
I know you grew up around boys, your brothers specifically. I bring up your brothers because with your sound you can switch to a gruff rapping sound to a soft and sweet singing voice. Specifically focusing on your rap sound do you feel as if growing up with your brothers helped develop that sound?
Yeah, I mean I feel like I'm just the chosen one. God chose me. I feel like I got my gift from God. I got it tatted on me "God's gift".
I know you dropped out of high school, you moved out at 16, and you got a great job in sales. Living on your own at that age definitely sounds like fun but what lesson do you feel life taught you about the real world?
Reality. You have to work hard in order to provide for yourself and for your family. That's exactly what I did. I was busting my ass every single day in sales. I also realized I use a lot of what I learned from sales, today. Just off of communication, having good customer service, matching someone's tone of voice over the phone. I remember the boss would be like, "Oh you got to match your voice." If a customer would be like, "Why are you calling me?!" you'd have to hit em' with the [calm tone]. It's a lot I learned. I love sales for sure.
I know you stated you started to have a feeling to create music around the end of 2017 but what exactly was that feeling?
Well I love music. At the time this was when A Boogie had dropped his first project. It had 'Don't Trust Bitches' on there. Everything he said on the song was so lit and it hurt cause it was so true. He was speaking crazy about females in the most fire way and I was like I want to be able to talk about y'all niggas in my way. That's when I made 'Goofy Ass Niggas' and 'Fuck Nigga Prayer'. I was dealing with these lame ass niggas at the moment and I said I'm gonna put that shit in a song.
Speaking of A Boogie, since he motivated you to do music would you ever do music with him?
Yeah probably. I'm moreso in the mindset of it's gonna happen when it happens.
Talk about your song 'No More Parties'. You just released it two weeks ago, it's already been a lot of talk about it, and it's going crazy on Tik Tok right now. What was the story behind this song and the process of how it came about?
I got invited to go to a party and that day I got the reminder message from the party since I RSVP'ed and I just thought to myself like, "Man I don't feel like going to no party bro." I'm going to have to find this person a gift and I don't even know them like that. It just brought me to an overthinking stage where I'm just like "man fuck all this shit, I'm just going to stay home." Then me and the gang sat here, drank some liquor, smoked some blunts, and hopped in the booth. I wish I recorded that night because the way that song came about was fire.
You released your EP 'Now or Never' this past August. You had Kiana Lede, Fetty Wap, Sevyn Streeter and you got a little CoZ with Gunna but I hear you have more music on the way.
We have some fire leading singles that's eventually just going to lead into a debut project. We just want to make sure things are not rushed because everything is still closed. A lot of the songs I want to drop, I want to be able to perform. It's just finding a nice balance but this is my year for sure.
Being that we are in COVID what's the one thing you miss about the music industry?
Industry events, everything like that. Going outside. I feel like it's going to be a good summer though. I feel like everything is going to open back up. Like at first I was mad we couldn't go eat at the restaurants but they just opened that back up so that's a good start and we finally got the vaccine. I don't know who's taken that yet but you know, it's a start.
Do you plan on getting the vaccine?
Nah. If I can dodge it as much as I can, I am.
Women in the industry are killing it right now, we're literally dominating music but as a female in the industry it's said that women have a harder time coming up. Have you ever faced any tough challenges coming up?
I feel like it's hard coming up. Well, it gets hard because everybody has different situations. I feel like it's all about timing. Everybody has their moment and their time as long as you focus on yourself, stay true to who you are and surround yourself with good people. Only thing that gets hard is writing fuckin' songs when I got writers block.
How do you get through your writer's block?
Well I went away this weekend. I got so much shit I have to do in the booth. I tried to get in the booth to come up with something anI couldn't come up with nothing. I was like, "Yo I gotta get the fuck out this house."
I see you have your own YouTube show 'Cooking With Coi Leray'. What motivated that?
I love to cook. I love food. I love to eat. Also the fans love you more when you get personal with them. Not a lot of people can just relate to designer so I try to do as much as I can do to show that I'm really a real person too.
In an interview you did with Infinite Vibes, you were talking about your love situation and you stated that "success lonely". How did you come to that realization?
I'm alone but my numbers keep going up and up. I keep getting all these blessings at the same time I'm losing people. That right there was when I realized like damn this success shit is lonely. Sometimes it not even that success is lonely, sometimes it's just the person. Like success isn't lonely you just need to change your ways. But my numbers don't stop going up, I don't stop getting blessings. It's good news after good news. Even if it's bad it's nothing that compares to the good stuff that's going on.
Do you ever feel some type of way about you have to be alone while your career is going off?
It gets lonely. It gets sad. It's all about surrounding yourself with good people though. I believe in God, I have my Bible, I pray. I speak to my mom every day. That's where my sanity comes from so I just be chilling. I have everything I want plus more. I just have to be a little uncomfortable and there's nothing wrong with that.
When you drop music you talk about real life things like motivation, leveling up, and inspiration. What makes you talk about the real stuff instead of like a "quick hit record"?
I write from experience. Like when I wrote 'No More Parties' I didn't think about anything besides what I was going through. When I premiered it I didn't know what the fuck was going to happen. I always told myself I was going to go viral but I didn't know it was going to blow up like this. When you don't expect too much, life is so much easier. You just got to chill, you got to just sit back. Now I'm like on the 'Top 100' Billboard on Apple Music.
Outside of the music I hear you are venturing out into hair care products, clothing and even a line of rims for cars.
I have a baby hair brush coming out. I got it patented. It's pending right now. It's an invention made by me and it will be in stores by the end of this year.
I know you're big on manifesting, working hard, and believing whatever's meant to happen will happen, what is some advice you would leave with your fans?
Stay true to yourself, be loyal, stay loyal, and trust the process. Also be very patient. I know its hard having patience. It's really hard but you got to trust the process and know it could always be worse.