Today we’d like to introduce you to Cojo.
Cojo, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
First and foremost, I’m a proud Haitian. I started to know that I was meant for something more back when I was a child. When I was born the doctors told my mom I wasn’t going to make it. Thankfully, my mom wasn’t having it and told them to do something. Six weeks of ICU and 4 surgeries later, I was called the miracle baby for making it past the procedures and my mom was able to take me home. Knowing that, taught me my worth and what I mean to this world. I started dabbling with rapping and making music when I was 10 or 11, and 2 to three years later, I began learning how to play the piano. I started speaking to crowds when I was 15 in church and that sparked a fire in me to want to be an influential and motivational voice in the world. A couple of years later, I was able to attain a life coach and I went through a couple of classes of professional speaking training. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to speak in many places including international spaces. I started to realize that music and speaking were both of my strong passions so I wanted to find a way to merge them together. July 17th of 2017, I hosted my first open mic in Lawrenceville, GA where I had live musicians and I plugged little segments to where I dropped a couple of motivational nuggets. It was a place where I can mix my love and speaking together in the same place all while inspiring and watching others showcase their dreams on stage. Today, I am currently a co-host on a radio show called the Fresh Leftovers, I’m working on releasing my first album with my girlfriend at the end of the year, I’m a keyboardist in a couple of bands with some artists that have projects releasing soon, I’m a producer and intern at 2 studios, And I’m currently planning the next open mic show.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many challenges along the way, and I want to say the biggest one was believing in myself. There’s a quote I hold close to my heart that says you can be successful if everyone believes in you, but you’ll never be successful if you don’t believe in yourself. Last year in 2018; I teamed up with a group of people to help run the open mic. They were a great help up until it came down to the money, unfortunately. There was a big disagreement about how the money was going to be spent, and at the end of the event, they ended up stealing all the equipment and money that the business acquired. It left me furious and discouraged because I wasn’t expecting it to happen; especially after working with them officially for the six months before the incident. This taught me that people will be people regardless and I can’t let that be a reason I stop moving forward. Going through that hardship made me think that I wasn’t good enough and that mindset slowly started to affect my habits until I was eventually distancing myself from people and opportunities, and ultimately stopping any further open mic events. I also dropped out of 3 colleges and dealt with a lot of shady people getting piano gigs around Atlanta and some places in Florida.
Cojo – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My business is really myself because I have to wear different hats. My purpose is to inspire and motivate this generation to get to a higher state of consciousness. I believe we were created from purpose and not for purpose. I want people to relentlessly chase after their dreams, I’m promoting self-love and a real connection with God in my music and in my speaking. Most people know me for my music. I don’t necessarily have my own music out right now as Cojo but I’m on a couple of peoples projects on streaming platforms. I’m most proud of who I am as a person; I feel like I was created this way on purpose. I love to make genuine connections with people and I learn a lot from them. The connections turn into opportunities that fall in my lap just because I really cared about the relationships I built. I think what sets me apart from other people is that my mind is hardwired to success and success not being monetary gain but success in my mind and my way of living. I’m changing the way I see life, the way I eat, the way I talk and many other things to model true love towards myself and others. Ever since I have been doing that, I have been improving in all aspects. I believe the continuous effort in that will reflect on the outside of me and in turn inspire and motivate others to do the same.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I have had many proud moments over the years. But the most proud moment I have is when I did a Christmas open mic special to where I had the most people show up to the event. It was about 50-60 people and there was barely any room inside the shop people to sit. That month and the months leading to that month’s event were heavily stressful because of personal issues which made the event even harder to plan. I didn’t expect the turn out to be so well but it taught me that the show must go on; and it very well did and ended being one of the best shows with the talent we had in the building, and the biggest show I ever have thrown on my own.
Pricing:
- my Beats are $25 to lease for a year and $100 to own all rights
- tickets to the open mic show are $5
- I charge $100 hr and 2 hr min. for live music during an event (weddings, funerals, fundraisers, etc)
Contact Info:
- Phone: 4046297795
- Email: Joshuacovil95@gmail.com
- Instagram: Im_thathaitiann
Image Credit:
@Nollej_, @taylorChaffin, @ajsessions_, @sagevickersdrums, @benmarkfraser, @legacytheprince
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