Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
B.O.A Mook is an artist, entrepreneur and visionary hailing from Memphis with much more than music to offer to the rap game. Whether it be his clothing line, his label or anything else, his motto remains the same: “Believe. Overcome. Achieve.” B.O.A is more than an abbreviation for him, it’s a community centric lifestyle that everyone who knows and respects him follows.
His newest single “It Is What It Is,” a melodic guitar laced rap track, chronicles the emotions he navigates as he goes through life meeting people who may not always have his best interest in mind. He wants people to feel motivated when they hear the song and know they can beat the odds just like he did.
His faith in God is what he credits for getting through these situations and life in general. In fact, God’s divine timing is what he credits for the birth of the song itself.
B.O.A Mook reached many people’s ears when he was featured on the song “CAN WE LIVE?” by NLE Choppa. Choppa flew him out to Los Angeles and Mook thought they were going to shoot a video but something completely different happened.
“I was out in Los Angeles for about three or four days. Choppa was shooting videos during the day and we were working on our song together in the studio at night. The producer Project X was there along with a few others and me and him formed a connection. He was recording other people and I wanted him to record me too. Things came up but finally on the last night I was there we were able to record and I did it in one take and he was very impressed by that. NLE Choppa explained to him that both of us came from a place where we truly had to make the most of our studio time and that a quick and efficient work ethic was something people like us naturally developed through the circumstances we were in.” he said.
B.O.A Mook’s new project titled Empath is slated to drop on November 12 and he says it will be his most personal project yet. Just like Mook wants to spread the B.O.A movement to everyone, he simultaneously understands the struggles and pains his community faces and wants to overcome. The project includes sentimentally uplifting tracks like “Looking at the World Different,” one of his favorites.
“This song is all about my life behind the scenes. I’m talking about how I’m trying to be a good example for my daughters, praying and raising them to be good young ladies.” he said.
Writing from such a personal place is not completely new territory for Mook but the track “Thank God” took him to a different level of vulnerability. His faith in God remains at the center of everything he does but he’s also aware of the decisions he’s made in life and had to reflect on them to write the song.
“I always pray before I make music but for this one I really wanted to make sure my mind was in the right place before I recorded the song. God knows us for who we are and sees all that we do. Despite what I may have done beforehand, I knew I wanted to center myself mentally and spiritually before recording this one because of how it was a song fully dedicated to Him.” he said.
Emotional resonance is a throughline through Mook’s lyricism and delivery but also his production. He tends to gravitate towards piano and guitar based production, whose melodic tones pair well with his melodic delivery and vulnerable songwriting. The sonic cohesion is all a part of his goal to bring raw and unfiltered soul to the rap game and give people a look at what he and the people from his environment have lived and continue to live through.
As aforementioned, B.O.A is not just an abbreviation for Mook but a lifestyle. Originally it only stood for “Best of All Time” but Mook has evolved past declaring this, it’s more of an internal belief. With it now also standing for “Believe. Overcome. Achieve.,” his message of encouraging others is at the forefront and it transcends all he does. Both the name of his label and clothing brand push the “B.O.A.” abbreviation and they both are centered around a mutual exchange of support and motivation.
Mook sees the label ownership as a mutual investment for himself and the artists he works with. He wants to start a legacy of generational wealth through it as well as his other business endeavors. Ensuring financial security for his three daughters is his motivating factor through it all but his pure love and dedication to them outweighs any financial amount he could accumulate.
“My number one fear is not having anything. And I also just don't want to focus on only one thing and let that stop me from doing other things. I’m going to continue doing music, building the podcast, acting and doing what I can to get my own equipment to do everything too. I don’t want my daughters to look at me and think I didn’t try. They’re my motivation.” he said.
Mook has plans to continue pursuing business ventures and use that money to fund his endeavors at the same time. He also plans to continue acting as he did in the Starz series BMF. Additionally, he has plans for visuals for the Empath album and plans for the top of 2026 too.
B.O.A Mook is a multifaceted artist with God at the center of his life and his motto of “Believe. Overcome. Achieve.” at the front of his mind.
“It Is What It Is” is available on streaming services now and Empath drops on November 12,2025.
You can tap in with B.O.A Mook’s Believe Overcome Achieve lifestyle by keeping up with him on these platforms.
Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube
Instagram
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Matt Berry hardly needs an introduction. He’s been a familiar face on British television since the early 2000s, captivating audiences with his bold personality and deep, commanding voice in cult comedies like Toast of London, What We Do In The Shadows and The IT Crowd. What many might not realize, though, is that Berry has also released ten studio albums throughout his career.
Music has been a constant in his life, and his upcoming album Heard Noises, out on 24 January 2025, is another milestone in his journey as a multi-talented artist. His work in music has brought some unexpected achievements, including contributing guitar and vocals to the Strictly Come Dancing theme song. Yet his path to becoming a musician was almost cut short before it truly began.
Berry’s passion for music started when he was young, but things took a turn at school. His teachers refused to let him study music as a GCSE subject because he couldn’t read sheet music. Instead of letting that stop him, he decided to prove them wrong and eventually succeeded. Looking back, he considers that rejection to have been a hidden gift, sparing him from turning something he loved into a chore.
Berry at the Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny premiere in London, 2023. Image: Fred Duval/Shutterstock
“I wasn’t even given the chance to spend any time at school doing music, even though it was obvious to all these teachers that it was the only thing that I was interested in and yet it was the only thing they wouldn’t allow me to do,” he recalls.
“I think it’s very different now. You can spend time at school doing music and not have to learn theory, which is fantastic and how it should have always been. If you’re a teacher that’s worth anything, and you spot that a kid is interested in one thing, then that’s what you should allow them to do while they’re under your care.”
Over the years, Berry has explored a wide mix of genres, from folk to Northern soul to psychedelic rock. One of his most playful projects was his 2020 release Television Themes, a collection of his takes on iconic tracks such as the Doctor Who and Rainbow theme songs.
With Heard Noises, Berry is taking a different approach. In the past, he followed a specific vision for each album, creating strict creative boundaries. He compared it to an artist limiting themselves to just four colors on a canvas. This time, though, he’s letting himself use the entire spectrum. “That kind of discipline pushes you to do things that you wouldn’t have done before. That can be interesting if you give yourself restrictions,” he says. “But with Heard Noises, I didn’t do that. I did whatever I wanted regardless of style or genre.”
The result is his most personal work yet. The album cover itself reflects his life, showing a table set with meaningful objects, each one representing a different part of his story. Among those items are Lazlo Cravensworth’s teeth from What We Do In The Shadows — the hit comedy series based on Taika Waititi’s vampire film, which wrapped after six successful seasons.
Berry usually keeps his acting and music careers separate, but this show was such a big part of his life that it inevitably bled into everything else. “It needs to be noted, not in loads of detail but that was that, here’s the evidence and let’s get on to the next thing,” he says. “I’m not a nostalgic man. I don’t ever look back at old stuff, once I’ve done something I tend to lose interest and can only think about the next thing.”
That “next thing” has included lending his voice to the acclaimed animated film The Wild Robot, alongside Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Bill Nighy. The film tells the story of Roz, a robot who finds herself stranded on a deserted island and learns to adapt to its rugged environment, eventually becoming the adoptive parent of a gosling. Berry was drawn to the story as soon as he read the script, but it was when director Chris Sanders showed him a ten-minute preview that he knew it was something extraordinary.
“[Chris] turned all the lights off and we played it in the recording studio and, honestly, [I realised] that this is what I need to be doing. This is something that I need to now fully concentrate on because I knew it was going to be exceptional.” On the day this interview was published, The Wild Robot received an Oscar nomination — a well-earned recognition.
Heard Noises will be released on 24 January through Acid Jazz.
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