Today we’d like to introduce you to Armaud Cooper.
Hi Armaud, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Charlotte but raised here in Atlanta. My mom actually used to work at the Subway next to the Fat Matt’s on Piedmont when she was pregnant with me. My mother, Aunt Cookie, and late Uncle Darron Ricks slept in the owner’s apartment on a mattress in the living room while they tried to get things together for my impending arrival and life in general.
I first became acquainted with hip-hop at about eight years old – my cousins from Charlotte came down with my aunt to live with my mother and younger sister in Lithonia. My mom and aunt would play Sign O The Times by Prince or Control by Janet in the front of the house on the record player – my cousins Vicci and Mario were in the back playing Slick Rick, Public Enemy, And Geto Boys.
This was the late eighties but my hip-hop music kick left when my cousins left for Charlotte in the early nineties. I too would be moving to Charlotte a couple of years after my cousins and Slick Rick had been replaced with 2Pac, Public Enemy with Wu-Tang, and Geto Boys with OutKast as far as the musical listening selections.
Around this time in my formative years, I fell in love with the culture and started to immerse myself in the music on all levels. I would go to small stores on Beatties Ford Rd. or local fashion stores up on The Plaza that would have mixtapes from all over but mostly New York. I had a good friend who lived across the street from my grandfather’s land in a neighborhood called Boulevard Homes. He knew my family was slightly country and we did not have cable so he used to write down the Top Ten on Rap City every Saturday for me and I would go back and try to see why the records would be ranked in the order they were. People in the neighborhood and on the west side of Charlotte started calling my cousin Mario M-Sixxx because he had this sexy six-series BMW people used to try to race and lose. He bought a beat machine from a pawn shop on Freedom Dr.
Me and the rest of the neighborhood started writing rhymes and freestyling to my cousin’s beats. I ended up going to college in Greensboro for a couple of years and a lot of tribe up there gave Sixxx love for his beats which was a major boost of confidence for me to write and record over his records.
After our grandfather passed, Mario came to Atlanta and we founded Battlefield Music Group. The first artist to record for Battlefield other than Sixxx and I was Holla. Holla was from Seattle and really talented but also friends with a guy named Mike D. We all used to work together. Holla recorded a song called “Back Up Off Me” and played and performed it at Mike D’s 21st birthday party where I met Mike for the first time officially.
Both Mike and I used to be recording artists but when our career aspirations began to wane I became a family man and a manager and Mike created According 2 Hip-Hop on Facebook. I went back to college in my early thirties at Kennesaw State University and reached out to Mike about doing some editorial and music reviews for the FaceBook audience that had grown to around 165,000 when I first started in 2016. Mike and I used to argue his topics on his personal page for sometimes days at a time, so we always had good chemistry.
When the pandemic struck, I was still writing for A2HH and my music review for Jay Electronica’s debut album was getting an above-average amount of online attention. Mike called me and asked me if I wanted to talk about my article live on air. We went live on Facebook and when I woke up the following morning, we had around five thousand views and A2HH Live was born. What started as a one-hour show on Facebook Live has grown into a show we host three days a week via YouTube that is available on all streaming platforms with 1.4 million followers and counting. We are blessed but we are just getting started in my estimation.
We just started our live in-studio show which comes on every Wednesday at. 5pm on YouTube and just finished our media kit which we have submitted to some potential sponsors. I also co-host a podcast with my lifelong friend Andrew Thomasson called MirrorMusic99 on YouTube. Andrew and I went to West Charlotte together and ran our school newspaper, “The Mirror” together. We graduated in 1999 hence the name of the show. Our goal is to bridge the gap musically to show that culturally these biases and bouts with instructional and systemic racism will cease. We take a song like Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones and juxtapose it to I Get Around by Pac.
I have used our platform to highlight Mental Health Awareness and the effects it has on our community on the macro and micro level Mike and I have partnered with the owner of the Metro Fun Center Complex and FDL Training compound at 1959 Metropolitan Ave. for a variety of events. They do a free training and fitness class every Wednesday at 7pm until for free every week. Mike and I hosted a mental health awareness show at the compound in conjunction with the Wednesday class.
The A2HH Block Party on Father’s Day Weekend was also held at the compound. We are blessed and fortunate to have partnered with all the wonderful folks at FDL and look forward to continuing to grow with them in business and the community.
I have also been on a personal mission to highlight the effects of FIers disease which is a silent killer that very few people are aware of. The Halo on my shirt is for a beautiful and bright young girl named Halo who is no longer here with us because of Fiers and the lack of awareness for the disease even permeated the hospital staff which ultimately led to her untimely and tragic passing. I have seen Halo’s mother’s tears and no parent should ever have to lay their child to rest – episodically when we can do things to raise money and awareness.
I am partnered with a couple of people who have already graced your pages. I own a small consultant business (Crafts By Cooper) and Sekoya Burke of High Spirits Bartending And Events Services and Brandon Jones owner of Opposite Gang and Children’s education advocate are some of my cohorts in life and business.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I do not believe there can be success without failure so to struggle is inherent if you have succeeded at anything. I am actually still struggling in my mind. I look at it like we have 1.4 followers not 1.4 million. That mentality keeps me focused and in understanding that I have no ceilings.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a writer at heart but the podcast has me transitioning to more of a media personality. I think what sets me apart is my perspective on topics and my unwavering nature. I hold steadfast in life and at professionally to my beliefs
What makes you happy?
I think watching the people around me win makes me happy. My brother owns a clothing line Black Dad Gang and he just had an issue where he called me and felt some business associates of his had ousted him but in reality, they were jealous of his vision. So watching my brother build his clothing empire from the ground up makes me happy; giving back to the community makes me happy. God is good every day there is something to be joyous for. Finding it is the struggle we as men and women have.
Pricing:
- Weekly Ad Package – $250
- Voice Ad Work – $50 per hour
- Event Host Package – $1500
- Sponsorship Brand Write-Up – $250
Contact Info:
- Website: According2HipHop.com
- Instagram: Coop_Is_Problematic
- Facebook: MirrorMusic
- Twitter: CoopProblematic
- Youtube: According2HipHop
Image Credits
Fashion done by Ricardo Pinkston For Black Dad Gang Photography: Scott Dennis
