Cookiee Kawaii

Cookiee Kawaii first drew attention beyond New Jersey through the jittering, mattress-squeaking club cut “Vibe,” which spread virally in 2019 before gaining still wider traction the following year among TikTok users. The vocalist moves freely across Jersey club, R&B, and rap without allegiance to any single style.

Born Vanice Palmer to house DJ parents, she grew up immersed in music and began releasing material in the early 2010s. Once she chose the stage name Cookiee Kawaii to reflect her affection for sweets and anime, she emerged from Irvington, New Jersey’s underground in 2019 when the single “Vibe” caught on. The track, whose complete title “Vibe (If I Back It Up)” was chosen to suit search and voice queries, surged with TikTok users early in 2020 and racked up millions of streams. At that point she already had other songs on the market, including the Club Soda, Vol. 1 EP that contained “Vibe, Pt. 2,” as well as the Satori EP, a mellow, R&B-oriented project recorded with jtbs. In 2020 she released “Vibe, Pt. 3,” the most spacious take on her signature recording.