CoCo Jenkins is the definition of a mover and shaker. Just in the last year, the Las Vegas musician and creator of the carefully curated Instagram page There’s Nothing to Do in Las Vegas has released her own beat tape, CoCo’s Crispies, Vol. 1, supported homegrown rapper Dizzy Wright and The High Vibrations on tour, dropped an EP with her band Moon Ra and performed an after-hours DJ set in the basement of a strip club.
A jill of all trades by trade, Jenkins keeps the scene guessing with live sets where she builds her beats and songs in real time, flexing her versatile musicianship. She recently took an afternoon with the Weekly to discuss three essential albums that inspire.
TLC, Crazysexycool
“I remember my neighbor’s mom being like, ‘Isn't that a little too grown for you?’ But I loved it. That album taught me so much about music and relations in music. It’s not a hip-hop album, but there’s so much hip-hop on [it]. I’m a hip-hop head so I would rewind Left Eye’s verse over and over, trying to catch her flow. Then I really loved T-Boz, ‘cause I felt like the texture of her voice was low and that felt achievable.
There's A Tribe Called Quest on there. OutKast is on there. It's laced all up with Diddy, with his little ad libs and phone calls. So many dope rappers. I flipped that tape back and forth so many times in my little tape cassette at 6. When you're a kid, you don't really necessarily experience those things, but you can feel all of it through the music."
System of a Down, Toxicity
"That one came out when I was in sixth grade, and there was just so much good music everywhere. It was System [of a Down], it was Linkin Park, Eminem came out at that time. Alicia Keys came out at that time. It was the era of incredibly good music across genres. They played Toxicity on MTV a lot. None of my peers were really into it except for this one black skater boy named Reggie Lewis. He was the one that showed them to me.
Musically, they’re so melodic. They do stuff in different time signatures, and the music speaks for itself. That was my first heavy album. Any System of a Down concert, I’m there in the pit, singing all the songs.”
Mariah Carey, Butterfly
“I would cry myself to sleep every night listening to ‘Breakdown.’ I didn’t know that kind of love. She also had a Prince cover on that album, ‘The Beautiful Ones’ with Sisqó, that’s crazy. To me, Sisqó is one of the only people who matches her vocally. She’s still the greatest vocalist and one of the greatest writers.”
LISTEN NOW cocojenkins.bandcamp.com, instagram.com/cocojenkinsbeats
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
