Producer Spotlight: BandPlay, Charley Cooks Reach New Milestones Thanks to BigXthaPlug Track

Billboard’s Producer Spotlight series highlights an artist who is currently charting on one of Billboard’s producer rankings. Whether they are new to the industry, or have been churning out hit-after-hit, the intention is to showcase where they are here and now, and the music that’s having a chart impact.

BandPlay and Charley Cooks each have dozens of production credits to their names, but they reached new heights on Billboard’s latest charts (dated April 19, 2025), thanks to their work on BigXThaPlug’s “All the Way,” featuring Bailey Zimmerman.

The pair co-produced the song together, and are also listed as co-writers, alongside BigXThaPlug, Ben Johnson, KK Johnson and Jenna Johnson.

Released April 4 via Atlantic/UnitedMasters, the song debuts at No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart and No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 24.1 million streams, 30,000 in airplay audience and 8,000 sold in its first week of release, according to Luminate. It debuts as both the top-streaming and top-selling song of the week, starting atop the Streaming Songs and Digital Song Sales charts. The genre-blending hit earns BigXThaPlug and Zimmerman their first top 5s on the Hot 100, and first No. 1s on Hot Country Songs.

Thanks to their production work, BandPlay (real name: Krishon Gaines) debuts at No. 14 on the Hot 100 Producers chart, while Charley Cooks (real name: Charles Forsberg) opens at No. 21. While chart points for “All the Way” are split evenly between both producers, BandPlay has one additional production credit on the latest Hot 100, helping boost his ranking on the chart—BigXThaPlug’s “The Largest” (which BandPlay co-produced with Tony Coles) re-enters at No. 92.

Cooks and BandPlay also debut and tie at No. 7 on the Country Producers chart.

“All the Way” is a landmark moment for both producers, as the track becomes the highest-charting song in their careers.

Here’s a look at Charley Cooks’ production history on the Hot 100:

And here’s a look at BandPlay’s production history on the Hot 100:

Outside of the charts, Charley Cooks has produced songs for Nino Paid, Ravyn Lenae, Kevin Gates, Prof and more. BandPlay has also worked with 50 Cent, French Montana, and Upchurch, among others.

Billboard launched the Hot 100 Songwriters and Hot 100 Producers charts, as well as genre-specific rankings for country, rock & alternative, R&B/hip-hop, R&B, rap, Latin, Christian, gospel and dance/electronic, in June 2019, while alternative and hard rock joined in 2020, along with seasonal holiday rankings in 2022.

The charts are based on total points accrued by a songwriter and producer, respectively, for each attributed song that appears on the Billboard Hot 100. The genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding “Hot”-named genre charts. As with Billboard’s yearly recaps, multiple writers or producers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).

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