Duckwrth: South Central artist brings funk to hip-hop

From his distinctive style to his creative vision, South Central native creative, rapper and songwriter Duckwrth discussed his latest 16-track album “Super Good” released via Republic Records Aug. 21 and how his past has both influenced and informed his creativity. 

Since the 2015 release of his debut album “Nowhere,” Duckwrth has been influencing the alternative R&B and hip-hop sound everywhere. Rising in popularity, Duckwrth has toured with artists such as Billie Eilish and Anderson .Paak. 

Tuning in with his screen name set as “VOLDEMORT,” Duckwrth joined in for a virtual press conference with the Universal Music Group °1824 team. 

Duckwrth, now 32 years old, knew from a young age that he was destined to pursue an artistic field. He mentioned how one day, when he was little and attending church, a woman came up to him and put her hand on his shoulder to tell him that there was a calling on his life. 

Duckwrth explains how what she said always stuck with him, and through the making of “Super Good,” he learned that he was only as strong as the people around him. 

“This album was very much a village,” Duckwrth said. “It was a collective creation.”

Taking inspiration from the chord progressions in the music of soul, jazz and gospel, Duckwrth always seems to blend multiple genres from funk to hip-hop to R&B seamlessly. 

“It’s never that I’m trying to blend them,” Duckwrth said. “I think if I had a superpower, it would be to take what’s happening in the outside world and be able to take it in and regurgitate it out, you know, so it’s never like I intentionally want to mix this punk track with like this gospel track, [it just happens].”

As far as performance goes, the rapper strictly takes inspiration from punk and thrasher because, as he explains, it helps get the fire started and creates a hardcore angle to his performance.  

Even with a strong artistic vision, Duckwrth recognizes that dropping a project during the pandemic can be both frightening and exciting. The rapper feels “surprisingly relieved” that it’s finally out in the world. 

“When you press play, it’s supposed to make you feel super good,” Duckwrth said. “I feel like it came right on time where people need to feel the best that they can at this moment, so I feel relieved.”

Finishing all the songs on “Super Good” in January before the pandemic hit the United States with full force and quarantine orders were put in place, Duckwrth felt, more than ever, excited and motivated for the new decade.

“My thoughts and ideas of it was so much more different from the 2020 that we know now,” Duckwrth said. 

When asked about how his creative process has changed during the pandemic, Duckwrth said he’s having “a crazy amount” of writer’s block at the moment. 

“I think mainly because it’s been a really crazy year so I don’t think my artistry needed as much love as my human did, like this year became a year of survival,” Duckwrth said. 

About the intent and vision for “Super Good,” Duckwrth said a lot of it was meant to tell a story and take you out of your current situation. But the overarching theme of the album is to make listeners feel good. 

“It’s like audio medicine pretty much,” Duckwrth said. 

Taking on jazz and soul influences from the ’70s, Duckwrth wants people to dance, groove, bop and move to “Super Good.” He wants the album to be a lifestyle project — one people will listen to in the car or while taking a shower. 

“It’s really up to the listeners,” Duckwrth said. … “All I can do is just, you know, create it.” 

The songwriter mentioned that the most challenging song to write in the album was “New Love Song,” which samples a song called “Jesus Is A Love Song” by the Clark Sisters, a gospel vocal group of five sisters.

After recording the rap part of “New Love Song” and the bridge, Duckwrth sat on it for three weeks, figuring out how to finish it. He found a girl group to sing in it and give respect to the Clark Sisters. 

“I wanted to kind of give a nod to gospel music because that’s some of the early music that I remember from my childhood,” Duckwrth said.

Growing up in L.A. in the ’90s and early 2000s was beautiful and always sunny, Duckwrth said. Yet despite the city feeling like a utopia, there was a lot of trauma that came with it, which heavily influenced his artistry and business mindsets. 

“It’s a lot of gang activity that’s happened in the ’90s,” Duckwrth said. “So a lot of my youth was learning how to survive, whether that be, you know, by ducking bullets [or] like drive-bys.” 

Duckwrth recalls the trauma he experienced and how it shaped him.

“Diamonds come from, you know, the roughest type of situation so I think by being raised specifically in South Central Los Angeles, it gave me a backbone,” Duckwrth said. “So like when I deal with corporate America, I don’t take no bullshit, you know, because like I learned how to survive.”

Duckwrth noted that his biggest musical influence is OutKast, an American hip-hop duo from the South that formed in 1992. 

“As a young person that was in South Central, they showed me that there’s a different type of being a Black creative,” Duckwrth said. “They’ve always just inspired me, not just musically but just as a person who is different, I would say. I want to do that for this generation.”

As a creative, Duckwrth draws inspiration from the ’70s, which he describes as being colorful and beautiful, inspiring his vision for the cover art for “Super Good.” 

“I really like the ’70s,” Duckwrth said. “Especially for Black people [it] was a time of celebration. We just came out of civil rights, and Black people [were] starting to gain certain freedoms and, you know, it was [a] celebration. So within that, when Black people start going back into who they are in their original like essence, a bit of magic happens.”

Duckwrth wants to tap into that magic as he believes we’re coming into that same energy in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020. 

Regarding his perspective on racism and politics in 2020, Duckwrth stated that everything happens for a reason. 

“I’m hoping that things work out better, but I’m also preparing for when things get worse,” Duckwrth said. “But every storm is temporary and we will eventually get through it and we’ll get to a better place.”

One of the most important things for Duckwrth as an artist is maintaining authenticity. From his music to his appearance, he feels that artistic creativity is embedded in his DNA. 

“There’s a way to portray a healthy artist,” Duckwrth said, “That’s through just being true to yourself and I think that’s how you make the best music.”