Coi Leray Doesn't Feel Pressured to Go Viral

During a recent chat with Insider, the former PAPER cover star said she doesn't really feel pressured by her label to make every release a trending topic, seeing as how she's already "just naturally viral." Case and point? Her 10 million TikTok followers and the smash success of her song "TWINNEM," taken from her aptly titled album, Trendsetter.

"I feel like I always go viral," Leray told the publication. "It's very different."

However, it seems like the 25-year-old rapper has never been all that stressed about being a "trendsetter," which she previously told us comes from just "being yourself."

"You don’t really have to start the trend to set the trend," as she went on to explain. "There’s trends that people carry and do it 10 times better. It’s just all about giving you that motivation. Like, a trendsetter is someone that’s powerful, you want to be number one, you want to be on top, you want to outshine everyone, you want to be different, you want to continue to showcase what you’re capable of in your way and owning that."

In terms of her latest statement though, Leray appears to be referring to is the ongoing conversation surrounding records labels allegedly forcing their artists to create viral moments. The discourse was kicked off last month after Halsey accused their label of preventing the release of her new song "unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok."

"Everything is marketing," they said while also sharing a snippet of the track, which was playing in the background.

"And they are doing this to basically every artist these days," Halsey said. "I just wanna release music, man. And I deserve better tbh."

They added, "I'm tired."

Read our cover story with Leray here.

Photo by Charlotte Rutherford for PAPER