Marcos Palacios
TEDxColumbiaCollegeChicago
Marcos "Kosine" Palacios is a true product of his environment, born and raised on the Westside of Chicago, he has captured the passion of the city and translated it through his musical talent. Having a strong foundation of music training and education led by the support of his mother, Marcos began playing the piano at age six, then later adding the saxophone, and the drums to his portfolio of instruments. This musical platform would set the stage for a career only made for the movies. His collegiate career began as a music major at Florida A&M where he played in the Jazz Band, Symphonic Band and the World Renowned Marching 100, later graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a 4.0 GPA. He immediately transitioned from student to “Professor Kosine” and taught hip hop production classes for a few years at Columbia College. His career skyrocketed as a co-founder of the superstar music production duo Da Internz, a business plan he created while a student at Columbia. Through Da Internz, Marcos was able to help develop and influence a distinct sound which has impacted multiple genres of music including hip-hop, pop and neo soul, leading to 8 GRAMMY nominations, multiple industry awards, and a discography boasting over 30+ MILLION in record sales.
In 2015 Marcos Palacios stepped beyond the studio and expanded his career by establishing the Palacios Foundation, a not-for-profit organization focusing on athletics and entertainment education. The Palacios Foundation held its first major event in July of 2015 partnering with St. Joseph High School and the Chicago Bears. The event serviced 300+ student athletes from the Chicagoland area and raised money to provide scholarships to help students in need attend St. Josephs. Marcos has become an entertainment influencer, blazing a path to create a long lasting career and giving his gifts back to the world that in turn continue to influence him. He is in a unique position to share his personal experience of evolving as an artist and business entrepreneur all the while manifesting his dreams.
Marcos Palacios Taught Me to Refocus on Writing My Life and My Why
What’s your why? That’s a brilliant question that I’d never thought of, until now, of course. As I’m writing this, my brain is frantically searching for an answer to that question. This same question, that baffles me, is the driving force for Marcos Palacios’ Da Internz (he and his partner Ernest “Tuo” Clark). successful musical endeavors. So far, this driving force has proven to be successful, as they’ve received ASCAP awards for producing hits such as “Birthday Cake” by Rihanna and “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj.
To be honest with you, this is the post that’s taken me the longest to write. That’s because I’ve spent a lot of time “researching” their hits on YouTube and most likely, when I’m done, I’m going to go back to “researching” their hits. I just want to take this moment to thank Columbia College Chicago (and our TEDx team) for, not only providing me with an opportunity to write about the producers whose sounds are more addictive than my “Starbucks Grande Iced Coffee, cream, no sugar” obsession, but also, just providing these producers with the encounter that they needed to start their duo and follow their dreams of musical production. By using what they’ve learned during their time at Columbia College Chicago to pursue their careers, they’ve provided myself as well as others, with the opportunities needed to procrastinate on our work. Speaking of work, you’ll never know the original sentence written in this very spot, all you’ll know is this sentence, because the other one was deleted.
On the topic of deletion, I’ll say that for something to be deleted, they have to be written first. Palacios, who used to be a teacher for two years at Columbia College, is big on writing. The phrase, “write ya life” is on his Facebook account, and I can finally relate to his success. I’m into music, but I’ll always be the listener. What I do know how to do, somewhat decently, is write and write about what I know…or don’t know.
As a person who would always read and write as a child as a means for entertainment, who has developed into a young adult blogger, I love relating writing to my life. That means I love seeing life as something that can be written, some ugly parts deleted or improved, and each page takes you further into the journey. It also means, I think I know where life is going, but I won’t know for sure until the very last page of the book that is my life. There’s already been enough left, rights, and going back to then move forward, as you frequently do when reading a part in a book that doesn’t make sense at first. There’s definitely that sense of anticipation that people get when they’re reading a good book or trying to figure out the ending of a movie with a really well-written plot.
Right now, there’s mostly this sense of inspiration and excitement within me for my future, that has been fueled from researching a duo whose beginnings were slightly similar to my own beginnings. I’m going to go ahead and humbly assume that I have a lot of time left in life before I have to figure out where I’ll end up, but I am nearing the end of this essay. I’m still unsure of my why, though. Hopefully, I’ll get to find out soon, because knowing it will help me inform my future decisions. In the meantime, I’m one of the many Columbia students that are anticipating the re-arrival of one of our own, Marcos Palacios.
- Camila Isopo Novi