BIOGRAPHY: Still in progress 2005-2007 updates needed
According to the dictionary, cognition is the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment or that which comes to be known, as through perception, reasoning, or intuition; knowledge. It took me a long time to settle on a name that best represents me, flows well off the tongue and looks good to the inquiring mind. The word cognition fits like a glove around my musical identity as a whole and the persona you hear on tracks because having grown up in the suburbs of New Jersey I had to study hip-hop and be perceptive to begin my own process of learning how to partake in making the music myself. I’m not one of these elitist musician types who takes all the credit for his own music. I have not gotten to this point simply by my own creativity and brainpower. Many, many things have inspired me and helped me along the super highway that is creating music.
Sitting down to write about yourself, the progression of your music and your own creative process is more difficult than one would think. I began by trying to define what my music conveys to the listener and two words came to mind; emotion and conviction. My music often leaves me naked to the elements of the world and some may even say I get too personal in my songs. To that statement I confidently rebuttal: "What other way should your music be?" I like to wear my heart on my sleeve, openly show my emotions to the world, hold steady to my convictions and the issues pertinent to my life and the lives of those around me. Fear, obsession, addiction, accomplishment, politics, epiphanies, philosophy, abstraction, dreams, rants, nightmares, and nonsense all intertwined over many different types of hip-hop production. My roots are firmly planted within hip-hop, and although I do rap over beats, my music is my music. I do not try to fit myself into the framework of what a rapper should be. I like to consider myself a writer and a thinker more than a rapper. I simply write from the heart and hope that others will feel it and will be able to relate to it. It just so happens that the medium I choose is music, and the music I choose is hip-hop influenced. I suppose I just don’t like the assumptions and stereotypes that come along with the tag "hip-hop" or "rap" especially to people who don’t dabble much in the underground scenes of the art form (artists such as Atmosphere, Anticon, Aesop Rock, and Glue). These types of people tend to think hip-hop has to sound like Eminem, Jay-Z or Wu-Tang…ladies and gentlemen that is not the case here at all.
Before the days of Cognition my latest nom de plume, I was simply William Barker an embittered fan of hip-hop music leftover from the less populated hip-hop scenes of the early nineties. If you think back to what you were listening to at this time, perhaps Metallica or Bel Biv Devoe may come to mind I have no idea. I do know that in my little town there was three kids (that I knew of) who listened to hip-hop alongside of me and I hung out with all three of them. Artists such as Main Source, Eric B. & Rakim, Ultra magnetic Mc’s, Black Sheep, EPMD, Redman, Del the Funky Homosapien, Gang Starr, Zhigge, Pharcyde, Cypress Hill, De La Soul, and Organized Konfusion are what was being blasted in my headphones.
I began writing "raps" in 1996 during high school classes and lunch. I would scribble lines in notebooks emulating the music I listened to at the time. While working part time (nightshift) at a gas station I would play east coast hip-hop tapes and write very poor rhymes to pass the time. One night my friend Vince (Saga) was hanging out with me at work when I asked him his opinion on some things I had written and he started giving me some good suggestions on how to fix what I had. Before I knew it he was writing his own rhymes on some scrap sheets of paper right their in the Gulf Station office and it had all begun. A few days later we purchased some antiquated music software and a $7.00 Radio Shack microphone and for a year we free-styled over 12” instrumental tracks and wrote during any segment of free time we could muster. I began to teach myself how to make beats using this primitive software. The year 1997 saw our first recording sessions in my room as well as some of our first demo’s which were all basically just untitled compilations of anything we had recorded that wasn’t god awful (or so we thought back then). 1999 marked the release of “The Arcane Manuscripts” and in 2000 “Weathertop” and “Cavedrawing” were completed all of which were solo efforts of mine that saw very limited release. In May of 1999 at a 7L & Esoteric, Jedi Mind Tricks, and Atoms Family show I was introduced to an emcee named Sage Francis of the group Non-Prophets (he was hosting the show that night). In between sets he free-styled, and performed some of his own songs ("Bounce", "Drop Bass") and I was impressed with his combination of clever punch-lines (I say punch lines but really his were different from a lot of battle rappers) and some more clever personal parts in his songs. I quickly placed an online order at Sandbox and picked up the only available non-prophets 12" "Drop Bass" along with some other items such as Sole's "Bottle of Humans" 12", Deep Puddle Dynamics, and a few other pieces from the Anticon collective. This forever changed my writing style, delivery & and musical tastes and it hasn't stopped growing & expanding since. Their music taught me that I was a writer and poet, not just a rapper. They taught me that I should treat each individual track like a canvas and make albums that are truly pieces of art not just another spoke in the wheel so to speak. Now I make music from the heart following in the footsteps of the many talented individuals who have influenced me over the years. Huge influences on my musical style are numerous but some of the main ones I cite as making a huge impact on me are: Wu-Tang Clan, Anticon (especially Sole and Dose One), Sixtoo, Buck65, Adeem, Aesop Rock and Sage Francis.
Late 2000 Saga and I officially formed The Oracles (later changed to ‘Off the Stage’ which is now defunct as well) and began work on our first (and only) effort as a group. Within six months “Not Your Ordinary Minds” was complete and released to the public in very limited numbers. We were definitely on the right path as far as sound was concerned however a problem with this release was the quality. Some fans of the album state that the quality is what defines the album and gives it that personal feel that they love. 2001 also marked the release of what is in my opinion my true debut solo effort entitled “Shattered: Picking up the Pieces”. Parts of this album were constructed during the time I was working on “Not Your Ordinary Minds” and the rest were written while I was away on vacation in Wildwood, NJ during the summer. When I sat down to compose this bio I actually put Shattered back into my stereo for the first time in years and I can honestly say I’m still feeling it despite its age…pretty surprising actually.
2002’s “Theothersideofmyself” EP was the first time I produced tracks on my own album. I consider this 9 track EP to be the catalyst for my beat making. It is something I have grown to love but still don’t dedicate enough time too. 2004 saw the release of “Golem” (the bootleg), “Bottomless Vault Volume One” and the “Nameless” Split single with Evil Eye Scream which are my only three projects still in print.
I’m greatly looking forward to 2007 because so many wonderfully talented people have come into my life over the past few years. I can’t wait to continue making music it is the one thing that keeps me sane in this stressful world!
"Shattered: Picking Up the Pieces" CD (2001)
"Not Your Ordinary Minds" CD (2001)
"Theothersideofmyself" EP (2002)
"Bottomless Vault: Volume I" (2004)
"Golem" (the bootleg) (2004)
"Nameless" CD-Single (2004)
"Golem" (the flesh) (2005)
"Shipwrecked" (2006)
"Chimera" (2006)
"Rooster Cogburn EP" (2007)
Instruments For Interpretation "From the Depths of this Maze" (2007)
"Frozen Shade" EP (2007, Limited Edition)
"Frozen Sunlight" EP (2007, Limited Edition)
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