Koffee pays homage to mother on ‘Gifted’
Published:Monday | March 7, 2022 | 12:07 AMSade Gardner/Staff Reporter
It’s a misty Saturday evening in Irish Town, St Andrew, where Grammy Award-winning phenom Koffee is performing x10, the opening track for her debut album, Gifted. She’s singing about remaining grounded despite having more money in her pocket, and acknowledges God for keeping and blessing her. When she gets to a lyric about her mother saying she’d be proud no matter what she did, Koffee gets teary-eyed and stops singing.
It’s a moment not only caught by the audience, but her mother, Jo-Anne Williams, whose eyes make four with her daughter as they share an emotional moment. Koffee takes the tune from the top, and later does an encore, to the delight of those at the private album listening party at Craighton Estate, powered by Amazon Music.
“I raised her in the church, I still am in the church,” Williams told The Gleaner. “As much as persons would see her out there, she’s a God-fearing girl, and it means much to me when I see and hear things like this. It reminds me of the scripture in Proverbs: ‘trai n up a child in the way they should go...’ I feel good that I did my part in raising her the way that I knew how, as best as I could. It made me feel really, really good to hear that. I know this; but to hear her saying it, it warms my heart.”
HER FAVOURITE
Koffee references her mother several times throughout the 10-track album, and while Williams said she loves all the songs, x10 is currently her favourite.
“I’m just really, really blessed to be the mother of this young lady. And when I see her humility, it just reminds me of the fact that she never forgets where she’s coming from,” she said. “I don’t think she’ll ever forget where we’re coming from. It’s been a journey.”
Speaking to The Gleaner, Koffee shared why it was important to pay homage to her mother on Gifted.
“My mom raised me as a single parent and I think everything that I know, I was taught by her,” she said. “All my qualities, the things that keep me grounded, [and the] things that give me strength, come from what I learnt from my mom, so I always find it necessary to just give her that highlight. I don’t know how many parents get the appreciation from their kids, but I just try to make her feel the impact of what she’s done for me.”
The 22-year-old is all grown up on Gifted. Compared to her first and last body of work, Rapture, which won the 2020 Grammy award for Best Reggae album, Gifted oozes a Koffee who has carved her own signature, genre-defying sonic, working with producers such as Dane Ray, Iotosh, Jae5 and Nathaneal ‘Nvtzz’ Brown’.
“One of my favourite things about Gifted is that it’s kinda just lined with songs that I really enjoy singing and performing,” she said. “I feel like, for me, that was really important, because I remember performing Rapture and being like, yo, some of dem songs yah kinda really hard fi sing over and then, in the end, there’s a message to it; but am I really feeling it and are the people really feeling it? So, mi kinda try fi bring it round more to what I was genuinely feeling in Gifted, and in a way that people can also relate to…”
The album also bears a side of Koffee who isn’t afraid of being vulnerable, evident on songs like Lonely, which explores the nuances of love and relationships. She was also intent on not curating a dense set, including songs which encourage youth to steer clear of criminal activity and actualise their full potential, despite the odds. This, she says, ties in with her purpose of being a voice for youth.
The set is rounded out with songs that serve as an ode to her journey, like the album title track and Where I’m From, and pre-releases Pull Up, West Indies and Lockdown.
Gifted is slated for release on March 25 by Sony Music UK and RCA Records. An accompanying tour will follow, beginning April in the United States.