neues Billy Cook Interview:
Songwriter, vocalist, and producer was born in the small town of Atlanta, TX and raised in the big city on Houston’s Southside. Billy began his entrance into the music industry at the tender age of 17 and has been featured on several underground projects and collaborated with a variety of Houston artists. He has appeared on tours with a wide range of artists from coast to coast; The Isley Brothers, Juvenile, Destiny’s Child, Carl Thomas, Ashanti and many more. Billy recently headlined a tour in Japan and is scheduled to return very soon for other concerts. In September 2006, Billy released his third solo album entitled “The Truth” and “Peace on Earth” (The Christmas Project). Billy Cook takes time to discuss his new album, what it is like to come up in Houston, perform overseas, and so much more.
WordofSouth: You are well known for doing a lot of guest appearances with Texas artists. How did you get your big break down there?
Billy Cook: It started with the first song that I did with Fat Pat, “Superstar” from the “Ghetto Dreams” album. The song was buzzing for a good two years before I even knew the song was out because I was working construction. I was perusing music, but then again I wasn’t perusing it like I could have. Then after that it went to the song (“On Da 1”) with Big Mike from the Geto Boys because he did a solo album. Then on it were Juvenile, then 8Ball & MJG, and then all of the local artists started and was like I gotta get Cook on a hook.
WordofSouth.com: A lot of people have stories about Fat Pat, what’s a story that you have?
Billy Cook: Fat Pat loved music, he loved singing, he was a rapper and loved to freestyle, but he loved R&B. I think that’s how me and him were drawn together. He was one of the realest most down to earth people that I ever had contact with in the music industry and that’s when I first got into music. Being around him just shed a little light on the rap side in the music business.
WordofSouth.com: When did you begin to take music on a more serious tip?
Billy Cook: I guess after the song with Fat Pat years after they dropped the album. I was like, I can’t really keep doing this construction, and I gotta get off into some music. My manager at the time was telling me out of sight out of mind, you gotta be in the circle and in the loops or out of the circle and out of the loop. He was telling me that I had to be around everybody else, if you want to be a celebrity you gotta hang around other celebrities. If you want to be a singer you gotta hang around other singers and start hanging around the studio, so that’s what I started doing. I started getting postcards and letting people know who I was and what I do and started to put it out there that I was working on an album.
WordofSouth.com: You have a big following overseas. How did you manage to spread your music worldwide being independent?
Billy Cook: Houston was getting a buzz when no one was into us on the underground scene or wasn’t getting radio play. Only thing that we had in the streets to listen to was our music. Houston music always had a buzz, but it was just those who got out with it and when they did get out with it they shed a little more light on the Texas market. People overseas were buying a lot of the music from Texas. You had Bun B, Screwed Up Click, Lil Keke, everybody was selling over 60,000 units and it was becoming a thing where they didn’t care about the radio. South Park Mexican, DJ Screw, Fat Pat, HAWK, 3-2, Big Moe, and when these artists started breaking out and Swisha House came with it too. Then everybody started collaborating together and they started recognizing overseas that I was on the majority of those records. I wasn’t saying my name on the songs and I was a voice without a name for all those years. Now people are used to the sound, they know it’s me and people when they see me perform know it’s me, so the Japan market really love the way I sound on the records.
WordofSouth.com: How is it to perform overseas?
Billy Cook: It’s beautiful, it’s like when people go to one of their favorite artist concerts and the crowd is going crazy. When people overseas recognized and saw me like that I think when I came back the buzz over there started something different over here and began opening people’s eyes. When the people over there treated me like I was a real somebody I think the people over here started realizing the same thing. I was like is it going to take me going over the waters overseas for people over here to really see what I am doing. I’m not a very vocal, arrogant, and conceited person, so I don’t really put myself out there like I should, like a lot of people do because R&B is more of a sensitive part of it in the music industry. I’m not a gangsta type person. Only with my lyrics I might be, but as a person I’m not a gangsta type person, but I can be if they push them buttons as it shows in my music. The Japanese embraced me so much and gave me a shot. They put me in the spotlight, it makes me feel good. I thought that anyone that would hear it from Texas would get the same limelight or the same shot over there, but they weren’t. They (Japanese) were buying a lot of records because I was on it. A lot of people thought that because they were selling 100,000 records here thought that they could be doing it there, but they not.
WordofSouth.com: For someone who has yet to hear your music, how would you describe your music to them?
Billy Cook: My music is a collage of different styles of music that I have been listening to for years. I’m gifted, not talented where I need to work on something real hard and eventually a person sees it. I was gifted out the gate, was born knowing how to sing. I could never have to work hard on it. I could wake up out of my sleep and start blowing. I think I’m ahead of my time as far as the sound and I think back in the day that people couldn’t relate because I was singing a lot of Jazz, Gospel, and doing Hip-Hop. My style is like some people out there like Dave Hollister and Tank, but a collage of everything from old school, but I think that’s what gives me my own originality. Just like Hip-Hop has a sound, R&B has a sound, and I have my own unique sound. That’s what makes me different because my sound is something out of this world.
WordofSouth.com: How do you compose a song?
Billy Cook: Like the majority of the rappers do, freestyle off the top of their head till they feel it. I come up with a lot of stuff off how I feel and experience has always been the best teacher, so a lot of things I write and how I feel in songs is real soulful. I’m out of church, so I feel music and really feel it.
WordofSouth.com: Now when you say freestyle, how would you do that as a singer?
Billy Cook: It’s like I put words together in my head just like a lot of the rappers do and before I spit it I’m thinking about it before I even say it. I know it’s kind of different with R&B singers because a lot of them don’t do it and it’s really unheard of, but I’ve been around so many rappers as well as singers, so that’s why I am on both sides of the spectrum, and that’s why they say Billy Cook is like the best of both worlds on both sides.
WordofSouth.com: You might be the first singer that I have seen to have your music Screwed & Chopped, so is that genre of music something that you are into?
Billy Cook: I aint gonna lie to you, if you coming out the south, you gotta have your music Screwed & Chopped, I don’t care if you rap or if you country. We do Screwed & Chopped down here, slowed & chopped, slowed & throwed or however you want to put it. The reason we don’t say Screwed & Chopped a lot anymore because of DJ Screw. The name Screw, he was screwin’ & choppin’ and everyone else was slowin’ & choppin’. It’s not the same, so I just had to keep that thing into perspective.
WordofSouth.com: Let’s talk about your new album, “The Truth.”
Billy Cook: Yeah let’s talk about that…what you wanna know?
WordofSouth.com: How was this album put together?
Billy Cook: This album was strategically put together, it’s like playing football and basketball you got to put the plays together. I think that’s how this album was setup. It took a second to do it, but I hurried up and took my time. The album consists of artists like Bun B, Chamillionaire, Trae, HAWK, Fat Pat; I got C-Note on the album, Archie Lee, Shawn Harris from BET Comic View, Meechie, Yung Chill, 3-2, BT & Congo. I got quite a few features on the album and they are some real nice collaboration’s on there. Towards the end of the album I did the majority of ‘em just me because I want people to know that I can sing.
WordofSouth.com: How do you promote your music as an independent R&B artist?
Billy Cook: I kind of gear towards all the markets because me I do R&B, Jazz, and I am able to market and promote in different areas that most areas that rappers cannot promote in. I can also promote in the rap areas because there are people that know me for that. I capitalize on all markets and promote to everybody. I can go sit on a corner or go to a mall and sing Christmas carols or sing any song from my solo album and relate to the old or relate to the young. That’s how my name, my voice, and my cd’s are getting out there more now. I am able to cross promote and everything and not have a problem with it. Most rappers can go to an old woman or old man and say “hey check my album out I sing” they are gonna say they rap and most people are intimidated. I am an approachable person and people can approach me, so that makes it a little bit easier. I’ve been doing it for years and that’s how I have been able to survive and that’s how I’ve been able to cross promote.
WordofSouth.com: Where can people find the album?
Billy Cook: Right now in all the stores or online at my website (
WWW.BILLYCOOKSUPERSTAR.COM), ITunes, and soon to be in Wal-Mart. They shouldn’t have any problems with getting my albums. We are getting ready to do a new release for 2007 and there is going to be a national push behind this album. We’ve been pushing it independent and I have a group of hard hitters behind me.
WordofSouth.com: Is signing to a major label a goal for you in the future?
Billy Cook: Actually when the time permits or allows itself, yes I am leaning towards it, but I feel so good about the independent thing where it’s like I rather work with people. There are some new things happening right now and soon to be everyone is going to know what’s going on with me, so we got some things in the works in the making.
WordofSouth.com: Tell me more about your label.
Billy Cook: Battiste Muzic Group, an independent label in Houston, TX which is fully staffed, we got my road manager, CEO, President, A&R, and graphic & video department. I have my own studio and do everything in house. We have an office manager, street team, consulting for independent labels, and artists that’s independent. We create our own destiny right now and write our own checks. To be independent on the R&B perspective side of it we are doing pretty good.
WordofSouth.com: You have done a lot of features as well as hooks, when it was time to promote your albums did you find it easier to do?
Billy Cook: I really did because I was always either second, third, or last as far as dealing with features on peoples albums. When you are featured on people’s albums, you run that risk of being left out and not being on them artist’s albums. You might even be left off the poster even if you are on the single as an R&B feature singing the hook. People always say “Cook you the hook king, you the R&B legend, you known for singing the hooks, you known for rippin’ up songs” and that’s how people refer to me when they see me. I don’t even want to be labeled as a hook king but I think it’s beautiful because I think it’s a plus on my end because I have to take everything and put it in perspective where I can elaborate more with the dealings of my career. It’s a plus being on other records and it’s good to be showcased on over 450 albums and have plaques from other albums. It’s beautiful when you can have your own plaque and push your own album. Those things that you have accomplished over the years are a positive thing for your whole career and movement. I’ve accomplished a lot and seen a whole lot.
WordofSouth.com: What is your opinion on today’s R&B?
Billy Cook: I think that the music is steady evolving so much that if people start researching and looking back that it’s not changing that it’s all evolving. We set the pace for anybody else because when we do a song its mostly done off an old school jam. There’s always an R&B element to it or a remake. Where we stand today I think that because the music industry is flooded with a lot of rap and a lot of them are recycling the same ideas and don’t have nothing new or nothing refreshing so it’s going to go back to where it started, the root of it all which is R&B and it’s coming back real soon. All the new cats and young cats are coming into hip-hop or pop and its going to take somebody somewhere else to do something so different to make a major drastic change in the industry. I think coming out of the southern region it’s going to start with me because even in Houston we don’t have it. We don’t have any solo R&B male artists coming out the south. We had Destiny’s Child and H-Town.
WordofSouth.com: Do you feel that R&B today focuses too much on getting that hip-hop feature to promote their music?
Billy Cook: Only to a certain degree. If you are independent and you don’t have the budget to push a certain album but you may have the budget to get a feature on your album or the single you can start off in certain areas to get your song hot to get known, but if have the budget you don’t need a feature if you are gifted enough to make it happen. You got to get out and work and some people are making it so easy for themselves to get a feature. The industry how its setup is politics. Most people say look if you got Bun B, Nelly Furtado, or Nelly on your album people are more eager to look at your project quicker because these artists are established. If they are dealing with you or associating with you people are willing to lend their ear to you quicker. It’s a plus if you can get ‘em, but if you can’t get ‘em then you rely on your gift and your talent to push it and it makes a harder struggle. It’s a shame that the game has worked its way to where people feel they got to have a feature, but sometimes it’s not even that sometimes you want to work with that artist or have that certain chemistry.
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