Coi Leray (real name Coi Leray Collins; born on May 11, 1997) is a rapper and singer from the U.S.A. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Hackensack, New Jersey. She dropped out of high school at age 16 to pursue music and briefly worked as a sales rep. The New Jersey native has had her fair share of love and hate in the game, but she’s definitely one of the hottest female artists right now. She’s well known for her sharp flow, slick delivery, and catchy hooks.
9 Things You Need To Know About Coi Leray
1. Leray is of Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean Ethnicity
2. She has lots of inspiring tattoos on her body
Apart from creating music, Leray also likes to sculpt and beautify her body with tattoos.
She has a cross tattoo on her chest, a butterfly on her left arm and also one dedicated to Nicki Minaj. The tattoo is a silhouette of a pink Barbie doll head — a nod to Nicki Minaj’s Barbz fanbase — with the date “3.18.22” written above.
This clearly was a defining moment in her music career as the two collaborated on the hit song “Blick Blick!” and she felt it needed to be immortalized. Minaj gave her stamp of approval on the tatt on Instagram and revealed she also has Barbie-inspired ink. “It say BARBIE on my wrist tat,” the Queen spitter wrote. “It’s dope! Love that color pink. Almost time mama! let’s go!!! #BlickBlick.”
3. Her dad Benzino was a co-owner of The Source magazine
Coi Leray’s father happens to be hip hop veteran-turned-reality star Benzino (real name Raymond Leon Scott).
A short lived music career and co-owning The Source magazine made him worth a considerable amount of money. The Source was an iconic hip-hop cultural institution and the world’s longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter by David Mays in 1988. Most hip hop fans know Benzino for his beef with Eminem that involved the popular magazine.
Unfortunately, a decade of mismanagement and bad publicity led to Benzino’s and Mays ouster from the magazine, and the subsequent downfall of the magazine.
On March 29, 2014, Benzino was shot after attending his mother’s funeral in Duxbury, Massachusetts. He suffered non-life threatening injuries when the bullets hit his shoulder and back. Later on, it was found that his 36-year-old nephew Gai Scott was responsible for the shooting and arrested.
4. Leray’s family feud solely involved her father Benzino
“A man that don’t take care his family can’t be rich…Nobody wins when the family feuds” Jay-Z says on his song “Family Feud” which is part of his album 4:44.
These lyrics clearly highlighted the volatile father-daughter dynamic between Leray and her father which played out via vengeful social media posts. They opened up old wounds and created some new ones. “With my dad, by the time that I was like 9 and was understanding things, money wasn’t flowing like how it was,” she informed Vlad TV. “So, when I moved in with my mom, things were different. Food stamps, having to work at 16, find a job. Dropped out at 10th grade, really just figure life out… it humbled me.”
Things escalated when Coi dropped “No More Parties” in 2021 where she discussed some of her father’s failings in full view of the world saying, “I’m too busy getting this money counting cheddar/ My daddy let me down, but I promise you I won’t let up/ I wanna say f*ck that man, but that sh*t won’t make me better.”
Now it appears that while Benzino may have lost his temper upon hearing her bars, cooler heads have prevailed on both sides, deciding to let bygones be bygones. Leray also remains on good terms with her mother as well as her brothers, one of whom is fellow MC, Chavo, along with Taj Raymond and Kwame.
5. Leary made her debut with the singles “Bow Down” and “Rock Back”
Back when Coi was 14, it would be Benzino’s YouTube channel that provided her with the initial platform, where she and her little brother Taj released their debut track “Bow Down,” which Coi quickly followed up with a solo record and video on the same channel, “Rock Back.”
6. “No More Parties” made Coi Leray famous & was her first charting song on Billboard
“No More Parties” became a hit on its release in January 2021 after the rapper debuted a 20-second snipper of the song on TikTok. Leray released a remix of the track featuring Lil Durk in February.
In the wild visual, she hosts an Old School-style frat party of Animal House proportions. The clip focuses on the aftermath of this raucous and rowdy rager as she rocks for an audience of passed out and hungover students. Meanwhile, Durk pulls up in front of the frat house for his sizzling cameo as Coi dons a hazmat suit to properly clean up the aftermath. Once again, her presence immediately pops off the screen.
The song shot Leray to No. 2 on the Rolling Stone Breakthrough 25 Chart in March and landed on the RS 100. The Lil Durk-assisted remix boosted the song’s popularity, and gave Leray her first and highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 entry in the top-30. The single also received a Platinum Certification by the RIAA.
7. Her song “TWINNEM” was nominated for a TikTok Bop of the Year Award and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard
Loyalty is clearly an important value for Coi. Despite her fast rise in the music industry, she has indeed kept the same people around her and her song “TWINNNEM” really showed that. The song also became a success as Leray pushed the track to become a TikTok sensation. She posted numerous dances to her Instagram and previously teased the record on the TikTok prior to its release.
However, critics were also quick to mention that she’s only a TikTok artist. Leray pushed back against the notion on Twitter, but acknowledged that she does use the platform as a promotional tool.
“Call me a tik tok artist, but just so you know. When an artist drops music, it gets uploaded to TikTok as well,” Leray said. “Whether they chose to promote and have fun with the record, that’s on them… but I got a family to feed, ima get mines regardless.”
In the clip, Leray is enjoying some time at her mansion and a meal with close friends. Coi puts on a white tux and prepares for a lavish ballroom event with Pressa entering the fray and another friend whipping out the Holy Bible for some light reading before the night gets going. She then heads with the crew of besties to play some mini-golf and dance in rhythm to jolly organs providing the production courtesy of Bankroll Got It.
8. Her highly-anticipated debut album Trendsetter did only 11k in first-week sales
Leray provided an introductory effort on her debut album, Trendsetters. The album was stacked with industry favorites as features, including Minaj, Yung Bleu, Fivio Foreign, Young M.A, G Herbo, H.E.R., NAV, Lil Durk, Wallo267, Gillie, Polo G, Lil Tecca, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and Pooh Shiesty. She even included a few previously released tracks that helped her become a viral success.
However, the Trendsetter album, moved only 11k units in its first week. Coi also retweeted a note from Rap Alert, revealing that her LP had sold the aforementioned amount and, as a result, debuted at No. 89 on the Billboard 200.
Despite earning low first-week sales numbers for her debut album, Coi Leray is optimistic about her future as an artist. She made it clear in a two-minute-long video on TMZ by expressing her belief that since she’s being going viral, the expectations people had for her were somewhat disproportionate.
“I don’t think they’re asleep,” Coi Leray said in part. “I actually feel like — you know what’s so crazy? I have not got one bad remark on the music. Everybody’s saying the music’s so good it’s just I’m so viral that over time, you know, people I guess expected something more.”
9. She collaborated with rap superstar Nicki Minaj on the lead single “Blick Blick!”
Before “Blick Blick!” dropped, Leray and Minaj shared their stories behind the making of the song. Minaj confirmed that she had received Coi’s song among six different feature requests. The song stood out to her and she was excited to hop on it. However, the high-profile collaboration almost didn’t happen. Nicki Minaj revealed that she pulled her verse from the song after Coi Leray‘s father, Benzino, leaked the news of the song during a Clubhouse call.
However, a private conversation with Coi convinced her to reverse her decision and green-light the record. “I did pull [my verse],” Nicki wrote on Twitter. “But the label hit me going hard. But rlly I had a private convo w|coi & that’s what changed my mind. Not the label.”
She added, “I just felt bad that she was robbed of telling the world in her own way @ her own time. But that’s water under the bridge now. Good vibes all 2022.”
Conclusion
Beyond the music, Leray’s personality is one that draws fans in naturally. From funny videos posted on her Instagram page, to her cooking show on YouTube, to championing her body against Internet trolls, she knows this has always been who she is, unapologetically.
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