dj khALEd - Ozone Magazine

Kevin Cossom has appeared in
OZONE a handful of times, but
never as a Grammy-nominated
songwriter. KC is opening up 2010
with his first ever Grammy nod
for writing Keri Hilson’s “Knock
You Down,” and he’s also raising
attention with his own single
“Relax” ft. Snoop Dogg. A familiar
name behind the scenes of the
music industry, Kevin Cossom will
soon be a familiar face EVERY-
WHERE.
What have you been working on since your
last OZONE interview a few months ago
I just dropped a mixtape in November called
Hook Vs. Bridge. I’m promoting that heavy. I’m
working on an album and trying to finish that
up. We also got a song called “Relax” featuring
Snoop that we’re going hard with. It’s
supposed to be the first single off the album.
We’ll be shooting a video in the next month.
I’ve still been doing a lot of writing. I got
something out with Chris Brown called “What I
Do” featuring Plies. I wrote that with my homeboy
Pooh Bear. I got a song on Mary J Blige’s
album called “Tonight.” I got a few things on DJ
Khaled’s album. I’m getting prepared for the
Grammy Awards. A song I wrote for Keri Hilson
called “Knock You Down” is up for a Grammy
this year.
Being nominated for a Grammy must be one
of the highest points of your career so far.
Definitely. It’s different if I just wrote the
chorus or put in a few lines, but I pretty much
wrote the whole thing. I did the whole concept
and everything. For it to be nominated for a
Grammy is huge. You know, for it to be a #1
record was already crazy, but to be a Grammynominated
songwriter is big.
Tell us about your mixtape. Is it mostly original
production, or is it more like a mixtape
format
Most of it is original. “Headboard” featuring
Plies is a song I wrote the chorus to, but it’s
a Hurricane Chris and Mario record. I wrote
a verse to it so I wanted to do a remix for it.
The Drake record “I Get Paper” is a remix I did.
Other than that, everything else is pretty much
original. There’s a lot of good features – Rick
Ross, Joe Budden, Pusha from The Clipse, and
good production as well. It’s still a mixtape;
there’s 14 joints on there.
You’re signed to the producer Danja. What’s
the history behind your working relationship
with him
We met a few years ago, right around the time
I first got my publishing deal. A representative
from my publishing company, Sam Taylor,
sent me to work with Danja. At the time,
Danja had just come off of working on Justin
Timberlake’s Future Sex Love Sounds album. He
had just done “Promiscuous Girl.” He had been
doing a lot of big things. I was writing for a
girl group and he was producing for them.
We went in for a 3-day session and on the last
day he asked me if songwriting was the only
thing I wanted to do. I told him no, it was just
to pay the bills and I wanted to do the artist
thing as well. He talked to my manager, and
about a month later he did some records for
me. We got in the studio for like five days and
came up with four dope records. That’s how
we noticed there was a chemistry. A month
later we did the same thing and got some
more good records. We knew we needed to
be working together, so I signed to his label
N.A.R.S. Records. You know, he produced
“Knock You Down,” so this is our first Grammy
nomination together. It proves that we’re a
good combination.
The music industry is familiar with your
name and your work by now. Are people
starting to recognize your face yet
I think the more I get the mixtape out there,
the more people research me. I’ve been a few
places and people recognize me. When the
video comes out and I get face time on camera,
more people will recognize me. Besides
the face, people are recognizing the name
and that’s the most important.
You’re pretty much following the same path
as Ne-Yo or Keri Hilson, and there are predictions
of you being that next big R&B artist.
Are you prepared for that level of superstardom
It’s nothing you can really prepare for. You just
keep it in mind. You gotta realize you can’t
do certain things you used to do all the time,
or go some of the places you used to go. You
just have to be smarter with the things you
do. That’s the biggest thing. I want to be as
normal as possible, if that’s possible. But yeah,
it’s hard to prepare for that when all you have
is an idea of how it’s going to be. All I can do is
stay focused and prioritize.
Where can people get at you and hear some
of your music
Hit me up at KevinCossom.com or on Twitter:
@KevinCossom. //
K
C
24 // OZONE MAG