Rolling out recently sat down with nine-time Grammy-nominated, multiplatinum producer and songwriter, Marcos Palacios, popularly known as “Kosine,” to talk about his long and varied journey in the music industry. He’s produced hits such as Big Sean’s “Dance (A$$),” Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake,” Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and a score of others.
How has your journey in the industry shaped who you are today?
It is the reason why my faith is unwavering. Because when I look back at my story in every pocket of life, God had me. God was setting me up for the next pocket. And the story is so wild that it could only be God. You know what I mean? [God] that put me in all these different situations so that I can know how it really is … I just wanted to be in the room with these legends so bad, but God was like, “No, coach, you gotta make up your own formula. You gotta get your hits out the mud.”
What did it feel like to be on top one moment, then to see it all disappear?
Man, it was really catastrophic. I moved back to Chicago and went into a nice little depression after we didn’t win the Grammy in 2015. It was time to do a Hollywood detox. I had changed, I wasn’t myself no more. [Hollywood] had gotten in my bloodstream. So I had to come home to Chicago, just do a detox, and really turn back into Marcos.
With this new perspective, what do you think your purpose is?
Now it’s legacy music, right? I have four kids. My oldest is 12, and I feel like there’s gonna have to be an accountability moment now where it’s like, “Alright, dad, I’m 12, you’ve been away, you work so much, for what?” So on “Truth Serum” (Kosine’s 2021 solo EP) the first song “Kings,” is dedicated to my sons and my late father who passed away. It features Idris Elba.
Especially thinking about my journey with my mom, I lost her at 20, and here I am at 40, still flourishing off of her teachings. I’m thinking of my sons, if anything ever happened to me, God forbid. I want them to be able to pull up the music, because that’s what I’m gonna leave them.
What’s next for you?
What’s next is the next project. And we’re in it too. It’s called “It Takes a Year to Get to Know Me.”
It’s the first time we’ve done an NFT based project. We’re dropping a song a month, and dropping an NFT with it. So you can go get it literally right now. I’ve got some people on my team that are just way smarter than me. I’ve noticed, especially as black men, we’re good at being talented, but we’re not always good at team building. So that’s been a huge focus for me. And by building that team, and having somebody who can educate me in another space, the way that I can educate them in producing and songwriting – that’s huge.
