Coi Leray is a 24 year old rapper & singer/songwriter from Hackensack, New Jersey who started making musical a decade back inspired by father Benzino. Even though I found her debut mixtape Everythingcoz along with her first 2 EPs EC2 & Now or Never to be mediocre, I was curious about her full-length debut over here given that I genuinely liked a couple of the singles she dropped within the last year.
“Hollywood Dreams” is a drumless yet euphoric opener talking about doing this music shit for her whereas “Blick Blick” comes through with a pop rap cut with God awful performances from Coi & Nicki Minaj stealing the show. I would much rather listen to that than “Aye Yai Yai” with Yung Bleuthough because it’s a cringey, buttery sex ballad. “Mountains” with Fivio Foreign & Young M.A.comes through with some triumphant lyricism over a somewhat psychedelic instrumental just before G Herbo tags along for the futuristic “Thief in the Night” to play Coi’s “sneaky link”.
Meanwhile on “Overthinking”, we have H.E.R. coming into the picture over an acoustic trap beat to help Coi talk about men not listening while “Clingy” almost has a West Coast groove to it with NAV awkwardly playing Coi’s counterpart much like “Thief in the Night”. That being said, “Heartbreak Kid” works in some fresh guitar riffs getting flirtatious & “TWINNEM” almost made my worst singles of 2021 list because it’s pretty much a ripoff of “Best Friend” by Saweetie & Doja Cat. “No More Parties” with Lil Durk on the other hand impressed me with it’s piano instrumental and the topic of going on to do better things.
After the “Be Me” interlude, “Lonely Fans” has a warm feeling with the production as Coi spits off the dome for a minute & a half while “Heart in a Coffin” is a dreary breakup anthem. “Paranoid” with Polo G finds the 2 delivering a twangy trap banger addressing themes of loyalty, mistrust & fame while “Box & Papers” aggressively talks about how “what’s forgiven is never forgotten”.
“Mission Impossible” with Lil Tecca sees the pair talking about their success with Chief Keefcooking up what’s easily the best beat on the album while the song “Too Far” is a touching dedication to her homie Atkins who’s locked up. The song “Mustard’s Interlude” with A Boogie wit da Hoodie has yet another acoustic trap flare to it with them trading the mic with one another very impressively while the penultimate track “Anxiety” is a rubbery display of how 2021 was for her. “BIG PURR (PRRDD)” with Pooh Shiesty ends the album with an ass kicking drill cut.
Yeah, it’s safe to say that Trendsetter is yet another run of the mill pop rap album with slightly more misses than hits. Coi is most certainly talented & most of the features came correct, but the album just feels all over the place as a whole & a lot of the production choices are very questionable in my opinion.
Score: 2/5
Legends Will Never Die 