One night at the beginning of last year, following a high-level security shift as an officer in the Marines, Darien Hinton went home and to work on a new song. He based it off an $80 YouTube instrumental he had “fallen in love with,” saying that, upon first hearing it, “all these melodies started coming to me.” That night, he finished what became “Track Star” in under three hours, and the next day he returned to his post with the Marines.
Raised in Opp, Alabama — a small southern city with a population of less than 7,000 — Hinton developed a passion for music early, inspired by artists like Soulja Boy, Trey Songz and Drake. “When I was about 13, I’d listen to music and [picture] myself performing in front of thousands of girls screaming my name,” he says.
By 22, after four years spent in the Marines, the rising artist who makes music as Mooski felt ready to pursue that passion full-time — and now his childhood dream is becoming a reality. In March, “Track Star” debuted at No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100, and by May it entered the chart’s top 40, peaking at No. 31. This month, the singer scored the top spot on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart; now 24, Mooski says of his success, “Where I come from, it’s unheard of.”
Describing himself as “a singer that sings at a rapper’s pace,” Mooski was confident that the vulnerability of the woozy hip-hop song would connect, calling it “melodic therapy.” He wrote it about the feeling of “loving somebody that runs away from their problems. You’re trying to be with them, but when things get hard, they take off. Eventually, you understand that you can’t be with them.”
Soon after the song’s release in February 2020, Mooski understood something else: he was on his way to securing a major label deal. He says he felt it coming once celebrities from the likes of La La Anthony and Halle Berry started playing “Track Star” on social media, which led to calls from nearly every major label by the end of last year. But a six-month-long courtship with Capitol Records helped make his decision an easy one.
“I’ve been counted out my whole life and I’ve always been successful because I work hard,” he says. “I didn’t need anybody in my corner — I wanted them in my corner.”
“It was a long pursuit that got incredibly competitive, but he got a phenomenal deal that reflected his talent and the quality of the song,” says Capitol Records CEO Jeff Vaughn, adding that the first time A&R manager Elizabeth Jones played “Track Star” for him, he knew the song would have a long lifespan.
After securing Mooski as the label’s latest signee this February, the team at Capitol — which includes Greg Marella, president of promotion and EVP of Capitol Music Group, and Bill Evans, EVP of Urban Promotion at Capitol Records — immediately got to work on keeping the song’s momentum going one year after its initial independent release. Dante Smith, senior director of digital marketing, headed the TikTok strategy, in which fans were encouraged to dance to the song’s chorus, which starts with the line “She’s a runner she’s a track star.” Capitol also heavily promoted Mooski in Atlanta during NBA All-Star weekend in March, with multiple performances in one day, and last month he opened the BET Awards pre-show with a performance of the breakthrough hit.
“Before I blew up, I knew I was going to,” says Mooski. “I understood the direction I was going.” He has a clear idea of his next 10 years, too: by 2031, Mooski hopes to have released “so many legendary albums” that he can “sit back and retire” from being an artist, but not from the industry.
“I don’t want to be the one making the music,” he says of his longer-term goals. “I want to be the one pushing the music being made.”
A version of this article will appear in the July 17, 2021 issue of Billboard.
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