Koffee
Mikayla Simpson, who records as Koffee, grew up singing in her church choir in Spanish Town before teaching herself guitar as a teenager, channeling the reggae revival's conscious spirit into a bright, melodic voice of her own. Her 2019 breakout single "Toast" and the Rapture EP made her, at 19, the youngest artist and first woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album. She writes with a hopeful, community-minded lyricism that pairs dancehall's rhythmic bounce with roots reggae's spiritual undertow.
Protoje was Koffee's first and most direct musical model: she has said his song 'This Is Not a Marijuana Song' was the first thing she taught herself on guitar, and he later appeared in the video for her own breakthrough single.
listen forCue up Protoje's loping, half-sung 'This Is Not a Marijuana Song' and then Koffee's guitar-driven 'Raggamuffin' back to back — the same unhurried, conversational phrasing over a laid-back one-drop, just filtered through a teenager's voice.
Chronixx discovered Koffee's early music independently and became a vocal champion, inviting her onto a BBC 1Xtra broadcast from Tuff Gong Studios and later taking her on tour in the UK.
listen forChronixx's breakout 'Here Comes Trouble' and Koffee's 'Lockdown' both ride warm, live-feeling roots-revival instrumentation with an easy, singsong melodic pocket — the sound of the same Kingston studio scene passed from one generation to the next.
As reggae's most globally recognized ambassador, Marley set the template — acoustic-guitar-led songwriting married to spiritual and social conscience — that every Jamaican artist after him, Koffee included, works in reference to.
listen forMarley's stripped-down, guitar-and-voice 'Redemption Song' and Koffee's own acoustic-leaning 'West Indies' both trade dancehall's bounce for a quieter, folk-adjacent intimacy built for a single guitar.