2022 HipHopDX Rising StarCoi Leray’s stage presence has always been about high energy, but the Trendsetter rapper found herself having to show one particular fan she’s still going to assert her agency as a performer and not be disrespected.
Ahead of her upcoming Trendsetter tour, Leray brought a fan onstage to receive a mock lap dance. While the man sat and Leray twerked on him to the crowd’s delight, the man reached out and grabbed Leray’s butt, prompting her to immediately have the fan removed.
“Get this n-gga the fuck outta here!” she told the crowd before bringing another fan up on stage.
While Leray didn’t address the incident after it happened, she has been outspoken on numerous occasions about her body, whether fighting against body dysmorphia or trolls who say she’s too skinny. In a since-deleted Instagram post last December, Leray showed off her body in a bikini and called for body shaming to end going into the new year.
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“Don’t madder how natural she is, who her doctor is, if she has curves, cellulite, big small, round square, let’s just make it a priority to spread love and worry the fuck about yourself,” she wrote in the caption. “Yuh. 2022 I’m excited.”
Don’t expect Leray to have to consistently remove fans from stage during her Trendsetter tour dates. Although the album has picked up over 650 million streams combined over the five big streaming platforms of TIDAL, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, it didn’t come out of the gate setting the world on fire. In its first week, Trendsetter moved just over 9,000 total album-equivalent units, slightly below early projections.
Coi Leray Defends 'Trendsetter' First-Week Sales: 'Look At Your Favorite Artists' Debut Albums'
In April, Leray defended the sales of her debut during an interview with TMZ Hip Hop and owned up to the first-week sales but also tempered expectations as well.
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“I actually feel like — you know what’s so crazy?” she said. “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. But if you do your research and look at your favorite artist’s debut album sales — come on. You know what I’m saying? So it’s just it’s a stepping stone. It’s part of the process.”
