In 2020, at age 22, Daenan Gyimah was the subject of a New York Times piece juxtaposing his status as a stud college athlete (Gyimah was an All-American volleyball player at UCLA with dreams of competing in the 2020 Olympics) with his aspirations of music stardom under the moniker Kofi. With the release of his 100 Dark Nights project, Gyimah’s dreams of becoming one of the next names to blow out of his native Toronto became that much more approachable than standing atop a podium while a medal is hoisted over his neck.
100 Dark Nights is four songs longer than the MC's Story of My Life EP, Kofi giving us a few more pieces of his puzzle. Across the project, Kofi speaks plainly about his journey, warning youngers that “these streets don't love you till you cold in a ditch” on “Keep It Real,” admitting to fans that “I ain't no thug, but I’m close to the shit” on the same song, and getting real with a lover on “Do You Dirty,” telling her, “I wish I never fell in love with you.” There’s a generous swath of his home city’s musical influences across 100 Dark Nights, Kofi dipping into Afrobeats for “Got You Already” and “Don’t Give Up on Me,” and also the kind of melancholy R&B made famous by fellow Torontonian PARTYNEXTDOOR on “Do You Dirty.” He can sing and MC—par for the course for a Toronto artist in this day and age—and his cleverness shows up in biographical bars like “Young n***a straight out of Canada, but if it’s smoke/Then we shooting, no hockey sticks” on “Space Cadet.”