The ReggaeMania.com Top 10 Dancehall Songs of 2019

Congratulations to new Jamaican recording artist Koffee. Koffee AKA Mikayla Simpson, was born February 16th, 2000, so she’s still 19 at the time of this article’s January posting.
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The undisputed number one song for 2019 goes to ‘Toast‘, a 2018 Columbia Records debut single celebrating giving thanks for the blessings in life. Toast is about gratitude and upliftment, thanking God for life and what He has provided.  Why toast material things; it’s better for one to show gratitude and toast oneself and one’s own personal growth and achievements.
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‘We nuh rise and boast
Yeah we give thanks like we need it the most
We haffi give thanks like we really supposed to, be thankful!’
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A surprise chart topper throughout 2019, Toast, officially released in 2018 on Columbia Records, caught on like wildfire. Nobody would have predicted that a virtually unknown 19 year old female would be capable of releasing music that would take out entries by Dancehall’s most dominant artists the likes Vybz Kartel and Stylo G.
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But this was the case for Koffee, her Toast single, taken from her Rapture EP, shot up the charts with support by a modest music video currently sitting at an incredible 96+ million views on YouTube.

It’s been an amazing year for Koffee, who because of her youth and short time in the business, can still be described as one of reggae’s ‘diamonds in the rough’. She’s been publicized as being on former US President Barack Obama’s Spotify Playlist, she’s already performed on some of the biggest stage shows, tours and festivals in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Now, there are rumours that the NFL has confirmed Koffee performing at the Super Bowl 2020 weekend festivities, further evidence of Reggae music going global.
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Her debut #Rapture EP also received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, making Koffee only the fourth solo female artist and the youngest solo artist to be nominated (yes she won the Grammy – this article was written previous).
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‘Blessings all pon mi life and
Me thank God for di journey, di earnings a jus fi di plus (yeah)
Gratitude is a must, yeah
Me see blessings fall by mi right hand
Buss a toast fi di friends weh tek off heavy load’
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Says Kamal (Black Reaction):
‘I liked it from the first time I heard it. The song, her style, the beat, it’s all appealing because it’s so commercial. It’s not 100 percent Reggae but the tempo is similar to many of the timeless riddims that are built off the Punanney (riddim), good to dance to.’ 
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Kamal is quick to point out that although Koffee has a unique sound of her own, there’s another culture artist that she reminds him of;
‘She’s like a teenage Queen Ifrica, her flow, the way she talks, the patois, the rawness, the metaphors; she’s like a young Chronixx, righteous in her own ways, never done a slack song yet, not one!  Nobody has a badman version of ‘Toast’ anywhere in the world.’
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‘Cyaan’ bawl ina life man
Mi haffi thank God for di journey, di earnings a jus fi di plus (yeah)
Gratitude is a must (yeah)
Mi see blessings fall by mi right hand
Buss a toast fi di friends weh tek off heavy load’
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Koffee is unlikely to be a one-EP wonder, she is a focused artist with substance, very manageable, and on the verge of doing things no reggae artists have done before. As a motivated artist, she has be taking large strides, moving in leaps and bounds, taking full advantage of her new business as a successful, well loved and consistently conscious recording artist. Koffee’s management team, the same team that manages Chronixx, realizes they have a gem. Her mom signed her with strict conditions, and together with management, they call all the shots when it comes to Koffee’s career.
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This same management however, is being criticized for ‘removing’ Koffee from the general population of artists. At the last Reggae Sumfest, it was alleged that she was isolated in her own artist tent while awaiting showtime and nobody could get to her, not even legendary Cocoa Tea, who may have made a small scene after being denied access, even though he was the one that first bus her! Word on the street is that some of the friends Koffee used to hang with – also gone, she’s had to lose them too as part of the road to stardom.