Grammy award-winning singer Mikayla Simpson, popularly known as Jamaica’s ‘Koffee’, has Gifted fans with the release of her long-awaited debut album.

The 10-track album, which features previously released singles Shine, Pull Up, West Indies, and Lockdown, became available to fans as of 12 am local time this morning (March 25).

Prior to the album’s release, Koffee gave an insider view of her inspiration for the album in a February 2022 Billboard interview, in which she explained: “There’s a lot of violence happening in my country and countries close by.”

And while the Toast hitmaker felt shielded from what surrounded her, the looming threats to her community inspired her approach to music.

Shedding further light on what individuals can expect from the album and what she hopes it will achieve, the 22-year-old, in a subsequent interview, told Apple Music: “I know one song won’t change everything, but all I have is my voice. So, that’s what I’ll use to speak out.”

She added: “I might not be affected by certain injustices directly, but living in a place like Jamaica, you can’t avoid the truth of it. There’s youths here that have grown up with violence right on their doorstep, and I’m not just representing myself now—I also must speak out for them.” 

Since bursting into the spotlight with her Grammy-winning EP Rapture in 2019, Koffee has continued to fly the Jamaican flag high as she produces a mixture of socially conscious, uplifting, and positivity-themed musical works.

While Gifted has Koffee providing fresh sounds to the reggae scene, she doesn’t forget her roots and blends new with old, paying homage to traditional reggae sounds in X10 and Lonely, which are nods to Bob Marley and lover’s rock, respectively.

Despite being officially released only a few hours ago, the album has already begun to gain momentum as fans share their views of her “Grammy worthy” project.

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