If you have spent any time at all on Tik Tok in the past year, you have certainly encountered the song “Vibe” by Cookiee Kawaii. Since January 2020, “Vibe” has been remixed by Tyga and has appeared in more than 1.9 million TikToks with views in the tens of millions. The single has been streamed more than 100 million times while Cookiee Kawaii has built more than 1.1 million followers on TikTok and 175,000 on Instagram. Additionally, after being featured in publications such as Vogue and Rolling Stone, Cookiee Kawaii has left fans wanting more of her anime-loving, meme-posting, fun-loving personality.
The star encompasses a specific sound and focuses her efforts on advancing Jersey Club Music, which has only just recently made a name for itself. Cookie Kawaii and her supporters, also known as her Cookiee Monsters, embrace ideas of women empowerment within these fun dance tunes.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Cookiee Kawaii to discuss the hit song “Vibe,” how the pandemic has affected her creativity, and what is next for the Jersey Club Music star!
Girls Who Listen: Were you surprised that “Vibe” took off on Tik Tok the way that it did?
Cookie Kawaii: Yeah, absolutely. The song was released in 2019, and it’s not like I wrote the song expecting it was going to go viral, so I put it out and just moved on. I even dropped a whole project after that. So, I was completely surprised when I saw it go viral on Tik Tok. I instantly just hopped straight into the promotion and it was like: “Okay, this is happening, let me get on it now.”
I feel because it’s a Jersey Club record, that kind of genre of music is familiar when it comes down to viral challenges on social media. I feel like there’s always a club song going viral whether it’s on Dubsmash, Triller, or even Twitter; there’s always some type of video that goes viral every year and it usually has a club song in the back of it. But, I also think the lyrics also helped people get creative with the videos and stuff like that.
GWL: What are you currently up to? and do you feel like the pandemic has affected your creativity?
CK: I’m definitely working on a new project, my debut album. I just recently released a new mixtape-type of project, Club Soda, and that’s been doing fairly well!
I don’t feel like the pandemic has slowed down my creativity, I feel like I’ve still been able to create music and connect with my fans via social media. I feel like the only thing that it did kind of halt for me was performing and really getting out there and exposing my face to the public because even when my song first started going viral, I was at a point where things were about to take off for me. I just had performed and then I got booked to perform at South by Southwest in Texas, so things were in that takeoff point. COVID slowed down my opportunity to tour and be hands-on with connecting with people and performing my record.
I’ve been continuously writing and working throughout the pandemic; like working on my album or my song “Quarantine and Chill.” We were in lockdown when I wrote that song, so part of the pandemic definitely encouraged some creativity, as well.”
GWL: Is there a specific woman-in-music role model that helped influence your sound?
CK: Well, definitely both of my parents, they are DJs, so when it comes to music, my inspirations can go from them to Missy Elliott to even Lauryn Hill or Jill Scott with how I kind of approach my songwriting and my melodies. But if I had to pinpoint some inspirations when it comes down to my songs or my style, it would definitely be Missy Elliott. I mean, she’s the queen of dance music and that kind of crazy, kooky, out-of-the-box kind of sound. So, I feel like if there’s anybody that I’ve definitely watched growing up that played a big role in how I approach my music, it’s for sure Missy Elliott. Absolutely.
GWL: Is there a message that you want girls everywhere to hear when they listen to your music?
CK: Well, I feel like I put my whole self into my songs. When I connect with my fans online, I always tell them to just be unapologetically themselves. In my case, there are so many things that I’m into, whether it’s anime or games or even fashion, there are so many different sides of me. I feel like that variety shows in my music like sometimes I want to be sexy, sometimes I want to be quirky, sometimes I want to, I don’t know, just yell or just be really silly in a song. I feel like that’s my message: don’t put yourself in the so-called “cookie-cutter,” just do whatever it is that you feel makes you happy. I try to vocalize to my fans and my supporters to just be you.
No matter what that is, no matter how many different shades, no matter what you want to do. Just do you.
GWL: What is your ultimate music goal?
CK: Well for me, it’s really just about trying to expose the world to Jersey club music. It’s not like it’s a stamped genre, like your pop or your rock or anything like that, it’s this underground culture of music that’s almost 20 years old. So, for me, I’m just trying to expose it more to the public. If we could make it its own genre, that’d be great. But I know stuff like that takes years of work and people constantly pushing for that genre. But, it’s not something that I look at as being impossible, so that’s definitely the biggest goal for me is to pave the way for younger vocalists coming out of Jersey, or artists producers that love jersey club music, to pursue this sound.
You know, probably winning an award or some type of accolade for my music would definitely get people to pay attention to it more because, as I said, it’s really just recently started to take off. I mean, Ciara has samples on her song “Level Up,” Drake has had his Jersey club moments, so we’ve seen it here and there. It’s really about getting respect for the culture and having the world see that it’s a genre of music that can stand with your EDM or your techno or your dance music.
We thank Cookiee Kawaii for her time and we look forward to seeing her continue to pave the way for other women in the Jersey club music scene.
Keep an eye out for her new album, dropping in March, that be will sure to make you want to sing, dance, and back it up!
Featured Image Credit: Vogue Magazine
