World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Koffee

Artist. Revival

Active
2017-present
Sunrise
February 16, 2000, Spanish Town, Jamaica
Also known as
Original Koffee

Koffee (born Mikayla Victoria Simpson) is a singer, deejay, and guitarist from Spanish Town who, at nineteen, became the youngest person and the first woman to win the Grammy for best reggae album. She has performed as Original Koffee since 2025.

She was raised by her mother, a Seventh-day Adventist who worked for the Ministry of Health, and began singing in her church choir. She taught herself guitar at twelve on a borrowed instrument, started writing at Ardenne High School, and won a school talent show in 2016 that turned out to have been an audition. The name came from a habit of ordering hot coffee on hot days.

Her first record was not a cover. "Legend," an acoustic tribute to Usain Bolt posted in 2017, reached Bolt himself, who shared it. "Burning," voiced over Upsetta's Ouji riddim, followed and topped American reggae charts. Cocoa Tea introduced her at Rebel Salute, and in 2018 she appeared with both Protoje and Chronixx, including a BBC broadcast from Tuff Gong. Chronixx and Protoje are the artists she names as the reason she turned to reggae in the first place, which places her at the end of the revival line rather than outside it.

"Toast," produced by Izy Beats and Walshy Fire of Major Lazer, carried her past the Jamaican audience in late 2018. It and "Raggamuffin" appeared on Rapture (March 2019), issued through Promised Land and Columbia, which won the reggae Grammy in January 2020. "W," with the American rapper Gunna, followed, and "Lockdown" (2020) and the "Pressure" remix with Buju Banton kept her in circulation through the pandemic. Her debut album, Gifted, appeared in March 2022.

Gardy Stein says she "moves with ease back and forth between words and notes." The Guardian hears her voice flip "from toasting to smooth singing" and finds her gentler and less overtly political than Protoje, and Slant praises her "breathless, rhythmically impeccable rapping."

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. DancehallMag reports that at the 62nd Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, the "19-yr-old" became "the youngest and the only woman" to win the category. Andre Cooper, "Koffee Wins 2020 Grammy for Best Reggae Album," DancehallMag, January 26, 2020, https://www.dancehallmag.com/2020/01/26/news/koffee-wins-2020-grammy-for-best-reggae-album.html.
  2. Pitchfork reported that "Koffee, who now goes by Original Koffee," returned with the single "Koffee" in April 2025. Jazz Monroe, "Original Koffee Returns with Video for New Song 'Koffee': Watch," Pitchfork, April 29, 2025, https://pitchfork.com/news/original-koffee-returns-with-video-for-new-song-koffee-watch/.
  3. Wikipedia, citing Hannah Giorgis in The Atlantic (2019). "Original Koffee," Wikipedia, accessed October 2, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Koffee.
  4. Wikipedia, citing TMRW Magazine. "Original Koffee." Koffee told Stein that a competition run by her Ardenne music teacher and choir director, Caniggia Palmer, who became her manager, "was really a door-opener," and that it ended in "a tie between myself and another guy who was a beatboxer." Gardy Stein, "Interview with Koffee in Kingston, Jamaica 2017," Reggaeville, November 17, 2017, https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/koffee/news/view/interview-with-koffee-in-kingston-jamaica/.
  5. Koffee: "When I was in grade 7, at lunch time, everybody was buying soda, water, juice ... cold stuff, and I just bought a hot cup of coffee," and a classmate who did not know her name started calling her Coffee. Stein, "Interview with Koffee."
  6. She called the Bolt song "my first official recording" and recalled "Usain Bolt reposting the video." Stein, "Interview with Koffee."
  7. Wikipedia, citing Kevin Jackson in the Jamaica Observer, says "Burning," on Upsetta's Ouji rhythm, spent three weeks at number one on the Foundation Radio Network's Top 30 Reggae Chart for New York and South Florida. "Original Koffee."
  8. Wikipedia, citing The Atlantic and Hot New Hip Hop. "Original Koffee."
  9. She told Stein that she listened every day to Protoje and Chronixx. Stein, "Interview with Koffee." Wikipedia, citing The Atlantic, says she began writing lyrics inspired by Protoje. "Original Koffee."
  10. Wikipedia, citing the BBC, credits the production to Izy Beats and Walshy Fire of Major Lazer. "Original Koffee."
  11. Wikipedia dates Rapture to March 14, 2019, and the Columbia signing to 2018. "Original Koffee." DancehallMag says the EP "debuted at number one on the Billboard Reggae albums chart and stayed there for 32 weeks." Cooper, "Koffee Wins 2020 Grammy."
  12. Wikipedia gives March 25, 2022, and notes a Grammy nomination for Gifted at the 2023 awards. "Original Koffee."
  13. Gardy Stein, review of Koffee, Rapture, Reggaeville, March 15, 2019, https://www.reggaeville.com/artist-details/koffee/releases/mode/review/release/koffee-rapture-ep.
  14. "Koffee: Gifted Review: Eclectic and Appealing Reggae by Jamaica's Next Big Star," Guardian, March 25, 2022, https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-guardian-usa/20220325/282029035729396. Review of Koffee, Gifted, Slant, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/koffee-gifted-album-review/.

World of Jamaican Music: the whole map