East Coast emcee
Coi Leray delivers melodic sung/rapped verses over skittering beats and heavy bass, balancing uncompromising toughness with her charismatic attitude. Early singles "G.A.N." and "Pac Girl" bubbled up in 2017, with both tracks landing on her first mixtape, 2018's Everythingcoz. Subsequent singles like "Huddy" (from 2019's
EC2) continued to push her into the mainstream, and she added collaborations with
Fetty Wap,
Wifisfuneral, and
Gunna to her catalog. The hit track with the latter appeared on her 2020 EP
Now or Never. In 2021, she hit number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "No More Parties" before collaborating on tracks like "Big Purr (Prrdd)" with
Pooh Shiesty and "Blick Blick" with
Nicki Minaj. Those tracks appeared on her official studio debut,
Trendsetter, which arrived in 2022.
Born in Boston and raised in New Jersey, a teenage
Leray quit her day job to pursue music, issuing her first viral hit, "G.A.N.," in 2017. Follow-up "Pac Girl" fared just as well and both singles landed on her first full-length, Everythingcoz, which arrived in 2018. She also joined the superstar roster for the soundtrack to
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Later that year, she expanded her audience with the well-received track "Huddy" from her second effort, 2019's
EC2 (Republic Records). That album also featured a collaboration with
Trippie Redd ("Big Dawgs"); she returned the favor by appearing on his LP
! ("Everything BoZ").
Leray launched 2020 with a slew of singles, including "Better Days" with
Fetty Wap and "Lost in Time" with
Wifisfuneral. A third pairing, "Slide" with
Gunna, was included on her EP
Now or Never, which also featured
Kiana Lede and
Sevyn Streeter. She closed the year with the single "Merry Xmas." In 2021, she delivered the track "No More Parties," which went viral on TikTok and eventually reached number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. More tracks followed, including "Big Purr (Prrdd)" featuring
Pooh Shiesty and "Twinnem" featuring
DaBaby. She also paired with
Nicki Minaj for 2022's "Blick Blick." That trio of songs were later featured on her official studio debut,
Trendsetter. The trap-heavy album also included guests
Fivio Foreign,
Young M.A,
G Herbo,
H.E.R., and many more. ~ Neil Z. Yeung