Koffee Shares Why Runkus, Bakersteez Are Her Favorite New Jamaican Artists
Jamaican singer Koffee, recognized in her own right as one of the most forward-thinking new-age artists in Reggae music, has named her compatriots Runkus and Bakersteez as two of her favorite new artists from the island.
The Grammy award-winning singer, 21, appeared on BBC 1Xtra’s Influence With.. where she shared music from Runkus and Bakersteez, and explained not only how they influenced her career path but also why they’re worth a listen.
After playing Rain Start Fall, and Victim from Runkus, the Toast singer revealed they were the first two songs from the artist that she had ever listened to growing up. “I think I was about 14 years old, just in the 3rd form (9th grade) at Ardenne High School in Kingston, Jamaica. Just a humble kid, just a go a school and focus on mi school book and … I started to discover some very influential and inspirational Reggae music that I really tapped into,” Koffee said.
“I taught myself how to play Victim on the guitar with quite a few other songs and this kinda actually started my journey or it paved the way for me to enter the music industry or for me to explore my musical talent.”
“So big up Runkus everytime for that. One of the, I would say somebody who kinda fly the gate for me in a influential sense,” she added.
On Runkus’ single Garden Heathens, Koffee described the narrative as having ‘quite a unique message’, and implored the youths, especially those of a Christian background, to listen to the lyrics.
“This will mean something to you, you can ‘think’ about it. That’s is one of the things I love about Runkus, he doesn’t just only spit bars just fi rhymes or just fi sound cool, him actually make sense each and every time and is a good brain exercise, meanwhile is good vibes and good music,” she said.
She took listeners through some of Runkus’ other tracks including Foundation, which Koffee said (by then) would demonstrate to everyone that Runkus is just a “vibe,” and Wading Wading—a recent /quarantine release that she says reflects the resilience and strength of Jamaican people who despite the odds, namely the pandemic, continue to “push through tough times and still keep the fire blazing.”
Moving on to Jamaican rapper Bakersteez, who Koffee styled as a “Dancehall trapper”, she kicked it with his 2019 release Relay and then onto a more recent issue, Top G.
“Bakersteez is somebody who has meant a lot to me since high school similarly to Runkus,” Koffee said. “I think probably about a year of two years maximum after listening to Runkus for the first time, I got introduced to Bakersteez by some of my peers.”
“One of my favorite things about this young man is that he is actually paving somewhat of a new road for himself or new genre for himself based on his sound, the quality of his music and his style,” she continued.
Koffee went on to shed some light on Bakersteez’s upbringing. Though he was born in Jamaica, the rapper grew up in the US. According to Koffee, he came back to the island when he was about 23 years old and embarked on a career as a graphic designer, working with many artists in the music business creating cover art, flyers and so on.
She also mentioned that popular disc jockey/producer, Creep Chromatic, who is related to Bakesteez, helped the rising star to network with the likes of Popcaan, Stylo G, and Sizzla, which led to the productions of several of her favorite tracks that she listed on the BBC 1Xtra playlist.
Among these were Activate, a collaboration with Stylo G, and Blessing with Popcaan which were released on Bakersteez’s Active EP in summer 2021. Other selections were Bigger League featuring Projexx which dropped last April, Plastic Smile (2020) featuring Sizzla, and Imagine (2017) featuring Konshens.
The hitmaker Koffee, whose fan-favorite track West Indies has grossed more than 4 million streams since its release last month, said fans can look out for possible collaborations with her favorite new-gen acts Runkus and Bakerteez in the future.