COI LERAY STAYS "AT THE TOP" DESPITE PERFORMANCE BACKLASH

Coi Leray first made her appearance on the music scene in 2018. Her single “Huddy” put her on the radar of her music fans everywhere and it was evident that she had something special. Despite her previous relationship with rapper Trippe Red, Coi was out to build her own career . She reached major success with her hit single “No More Parties (Better Days)”. But with that success came major criticism about everything from Coi’s voice to her body. Here’s a brief timeline of the Coi Leray hate train.

Coi Leray’s first glimpse of major success came with her single “Slide” featuring YSL superstar Gunna. The song was released in 2020 & is considered Coi’s first mainstream collab, racking up 17m views on YouTube.

From there, it was up! In 2021, the New Jersey artist began tapping in with Tik Tok to promote new music through viral dance challenges. Coi Leray posted her “No More Parties (Better Days)” challenge everyday on social media and eventually fans began to fall in love with the record and followed suite. The single "No More Parties" gave Leray her first Billboard Hot 100 entry after peaking in the top 40 and rap stars like Lil Yatchy and Polo G even began releasing their own versions of the single. To add to its success, Lil Durk was featured on the remix, turning it into a platinum song!

Coi used similar promotional tactics for her following hit, “Big Purr” featuring 1017 superstar Pooh Shiesty. The 28-second snippet was posted on Tik Tok and only featured Coi performing the hook in the studio but fans went crazy. A new Tik Tok viral challenge was born as supporters anticipated the full release of the song. Despite critics comparing her to Playboy Carti due to her high pitch sound, the record did well, racking up over 5 million views on Youtube. At this time, it seemed that Coi was two for two with hits and on the fast track to being one of the biggest artists in the game.

But things took a different turn when her father, ex co-owner of The Source magazine and reality tv star, Benzino took to the internet to criticize Coi’s lyrics in “No More Parties (Better Days)” :

“My daddy let me down but I promise you I won't let up

I wanna say fuck that man

But this shit won't make me better”

Benzino went on a rant via social media, calling out Coi Leray for the lyrics and his role in her life. The two had a heated exchanged on the internet before Coi apologized for stepping out of character, tweeting: “Forgive me for stepping out of character. I thought I prepared myself for this moment but I’m still not ready. I’m still angry. Don’t hold grudges. Let miserable people be miserable and just love from a distance.”

Simultaneously, body shamers began criticizing Coi Leray’s slender physique. The superstar took to Twitter to address haters tweeting, “Get used to my body because I'm never changing anything on it.” Coi has been able to rise above the negative criticism and continue putting out new music including “Bout Me”, a record addressing her haters. Her song “At the Top” produced by DJ Mustard featuring Kodak Black is also another message to critics who have anything negative to say about Leray:

But her most recent hiccup occurred during this year’s 2021 XXL Freshman freestyle. Coi Leray making the iconic list was an awesome achievement and seemed pretty accurate given the year she’s had. But once it came time for her to recite her freestyle during the Freshman Cypher, fans were disappointed with her performance. Viewers flooded social media with commentary about how bad the freestyle was. Coi responded saying “How the hell you gon tell me how to rap? Ain’t no f**king rule book n***a I do and say wtf I want you either like it or not b**ch I’m here,” she wrote. She also said she believed her XXL Freshman Freestyle was the best in her class (via Instagram story). She then released another freestyle on her own platform to prove naysayers wrong but even that got backlash with fans saying “how is it a freestyle if you wrote it”.

During her 2021 Rolling Loud Miami set, Coi Leray put on an awesome show, performing all her hit records. At the end of her performance, Coi jokingly says that she’ll spit a freestyle right now but didn’t. In her most recent interview with Speedy Norman, Coi comments on the XXL backlash: "If you put me in the booth with anybody on that XXL roll-up, I guarantee ain't nobody seeing me in the f**king studio."

Coi Leray revealed that she’s working on an album, coming out in September featuring A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, H.E.R, Nav, and more.