Coi Leray – “What Happened to Forever?” review

Here we have the 6th EP from New Jersey rapper & singer Coi Leray. Growing up as the younger brother of Sosshouse Records signee Chavo & the daughter of Benzino, she began to carve a path of her own with her debut mixtape Everythingcoz along with her first 2 EPs Everythingcoz 2 & Now or Never even though they were mediocre to me personally. She then signed to Uptown Records after being relaunched by Republic Records & put out her major label debut Trendsetter not too long after which had a few of her strongest tracks yet, but the bad mostly outweighed the good & the same applied to Coi considering “Self Love” off the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack could be my favorite song of hers yet. Lemon Cars produced by Mike WiLL Made-It under Island Records was her most acclaimed body of work yet & his moving over to Epic Records wanting to know What Happened to Forever?.

“Keep It” was a decent pop rap intro airing out Trippie Redd for cheating on her not too long after her pregnancy with his child was announced whereas “Leave You Alone” tells Trippie not to lie to her because it cuts too deep. “I Hate Your Friends” is my favorite track here from the CashMoneyAP instrumental to the lyrics expressing the genuine hatred she holds against her baby daddy’s homies while “U Too” professes to being fucked up & “Lick Back” concludes the EP talking about getting into her bag again.

Lemon Cars made me more optimistic regarding Coi’s ability to craft a consistent body of work & for her Epic debut, she whips up a mediocre EP built around the sounds of both pop rap & alternative R&B channeling the frustrating betrayal that she felt after Trippie Redd was stupid enough to get her pregnant a little over a month prior. The concepts are there & so is the anger, my biggest issue is the production falling flat significantly harder than her last one did.

Score: 2.5/5

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Coi Leray – “Lemon Cars” review

New Jersey rapper & singer Coi Leray teaming with Mike WiLL Made-It for her 5th EP & Island Records debut. Growing up as the younger brother of Sosshouse Records signee Chavo & the daughter of Benzino, she began to carve a path of her own with her debut mixtape Everythingcoz along with her first 2 EPs Everythingcoz 2 & Now or Never even though they were mediocre to me personally. She then signed to Uptown Records last spring after being relaunched by Republic Records & put out her major label debut Trendsetter not too long after which had a few of her strongest tracks yet, but the bad mostly outweighed the good & the same applied to Coi considering “Self Love” off the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack could be my favorite song of hers yet. Lemon Cars on the other hand was destined to wipe both her LPs in terms of quality after announcing Mike WiLL’s heavy involvement.

The title track starts with a full fledged synthwave beat & Coi fucking around showing you what’s in store whereas “Can’t Come Back” is a futuristic pop rap jam talking about kicking her ex to the curb. “We Time” has an atmospheric trap flare to it expressing her need to spend more time with her new man while “Wanna Come Thru” goes into a bit of a psychedelic direction telling a guy who thinks he’s a psychic to put his pride to the side. “Coke Bottle Body” featuring Skilla Baby works in organs & hi-hats for a dedication to the slim baddies, but then “Poster Girl” kinda has this trippy rock edge to it talking about being the one her mans sees in his dreams

Coi most certainly has talent as proven by “Self Love” or her feature on Busta Rhymes’ latest album Blockbusta even though it was step down from E.L.E. 2 (Extinction Level Event 2): The Wrath of God, but she really took me by surprise here much like the new Sexyy Red tape In Sexyy We Trust did earlier on in the weekend. Mike WiLL Made-It’s production is exactly what she needed since the overabundance of samples on Coi or the tackiness of Trendsetter’s & her performances are notably better too.

Score: 4/5

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Coi Leray – “Coi” review

This is the sophomore full-length album from New Jersey rapper & singer Coi Leray. Growing up as the younger brother of Sosshouse Records signee Chavo & the daughter of Benzino, she began to carve a path of her own with her debut mixtape Everythingcoz along with her first 2 EPs Everythingcoz 2 & Now or Never even though they were mediocre to me personally. She then signed to Uptown Records last spring after being relaunched by Republic Records & put out her major label debut Trendsetter not too long after which had a few of her strongest tracks yet, but the bad mostly outweighed the good. But only a month after her brother dropped the final installment of the Chavo’s World trilogy, I went into Coi expecting a more personal effort obviously given the title & was hoping I’d like it more than the last album considering “Self Love” off the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack could be my favorite song of hers yet.

The opener “Bitch Girl” heavily samples “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oates so Coi can spit some average braggadocio on top of it whereas “Bops” has to easily by my favorite single that was released of the 5 that we got having more of a snap influence to it that I actually think is pretty interesting dedicating it to all her haters out there. David Guetta flipping “Pump Up the Jam” by Technotronic on “Make My Day” is kind of tacky even though I don’t mind the party-filled lyrics at all, but then “Players” is an ode to all the female hustlers sampling “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious 5 that I’m a little 50/50 towards honestly.

“My Body” was easily the worst possible choice for a single from the tedious sample of “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore to the half-baked songwriting & even the chorus having a cringey twist to the hook of “Pity Party” by Melanie Martinez, but then “Get Loud” co-produced by Tom Levesque of Vanguard Music Group reveals itself as a redundant successor to the Jennifer Lopez joint “Let’s Get Loud”. The quirky trap beat on “Phuck It” stands out to me although I can’t really say the same about the raunchy lyrics leading into “Spend It” featuring Saucy Santana giving off a dancier vibe talking about blowing money.

Meanwhile, “Don’t Chat Me Up” has the best feature on the album in the form of Giggs’ verse at the halfway point over a funky bass-line & hi-hats as he & Coi tell their lovers to give them exactly what they want & “On My Way” changes it up stylistically with a moody R&B ballad talking about pulling up on her mans. “Run It Up” gives off a more atmospheric approach calling herself an angel during the day & a demon at night while London on da Track cooks up the strongest instrumental of the bunch on “No Angels” featuring Lola Brooke catching licks.

“Man’s World” returns to the old school samples once again except this time “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by the late James Brown is being flipped calling out someone for breaking her heart while the song “Black Rose” goes full-blown rap rock talking about taking this shit back. The penultimate track “Radioactive” featuring Skillibeng has a more stripped back sound to it with both of them describe a passionately strong love until “Come & Go” spaciously asks to give her flowers while she’s still here to smell them all.

Beyond that, I went into Coi hoping that she would bring the same energy that she brought onto Metro Boomin’s soundtrack debut earlier this month & came away from it liking it even less than I did than the offering she gave us over a year ago. Now that doesn’t mean I’m discrediting her talent or saying she can’t be a captivating performer. She’s proven she can that in the past. It’s that my biggest issue with her music lies within the production department.

Score: 1.5/5

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Coi Leray – “Trendsetter” review

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 Bleu though 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 from BNYX of Working on Dying 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 Keef cooking 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