Mauro Lombardo, Duki, as everyone in the world knows him – whether at last, in the during or at the beginning of it – is living the life of rockstar. He defines it that way and everyone feels that way. In the middle of the release of his album From the End of the World, Duko for the Ball and sits in Caja Negra, the filo.news interview cycle conducted by Julio Leiva.Since its breakthrough into music in 2016 and its subsequent development in 2017, Duki became the voice of his generation. And he knows: “That’s why the place I was given and the place I have and the respect and legitimacy that people gave me. I sing and try to seek empathy, sensitivity, with those people who listen to me, either by telling a love story, what things do me wrong, which ones do me good, and I think for that reason, and because I am one of the precursors of this new sound, I could be considered to be a voice of my generation.” But his role is nothing more than to entertain and, as a pioneer, to be the one who guides those who come after him: “As the pioneer I have a responsibility to be the one who opens the way. The trap was what lifted us up, it’s going to keep ringing and being what it is, but sometimes you have to evolve, grow, as a leader look for the way forward, what the next steps are. Give the tools that a lot of people gave me, people who really helped me.”
In addition to being the guide, Duki was one of the forerunners who managed to get Buenos Aires to be considered the capital of the trap. “It’s a factor that joins two things. We artists, who have a very strong union, which makes everything magnified, and begins to encompass a kind of atmosphere, which say ‘Fuaaa, what does the Argentine scene wave?’ We all have standing next to each other, all different, in ‘Tombing the club’ for example: we look like one of each country, of each origin, that mix that we Argentines have. The other side is the passion of the Argentine. The Argentine is very supporting the projects of people, artists, whether from here or outside. It’s a mix of audiences and artists,” he explains. For something as massive as the trap, its meaning and what it implies for its references may already be overlooked. Duki defines it this way: “For me, it is divided into branches. Born in the under-world, then what we grabbed was that feeling of hunger, coming out of the bottom, going against the system and choosing what you want to do. Musically I see it as a genre, achieved an aesthetic, achieved a rhythm. Today, for me, in Argentina it ceased to be what I used to be culturally, in the low world. I’m not there, that’s why I changed what I’m talking about: my family is jewel, I’m a gem. But we know what it’s like to be hungry, we know where we come from… is now in the process of evolving. My latest album has rock, electronics, everything.” On the other hand, a key component in Duki’s success is his family, although not always everything is joy, they are there to bench him either at work or personally.
Suddenly, in the morning I get up and I can’t believe it. What happened? What did we do? It’s nice to keep surprising me, it’s something I’m looking for.
Praise first to the mother: “I love her, that’s all. He comes from a very humble family and always tried to get us to look up. I never lacked anything, there were times when we were wrong, being three kids was fucked up, but he always worried because we realized that there were people having a worse time… As at 18, 19, I started making music, we had our discussions, I left home, we had a tense time.” Once we were having dinner and they jokingly said I was going to be the last one to leave home, because I hadn’t finished high school, nothing. My brother graduated from the National College; my sister never took a subject… they wet my ear. I got angry, I left, I didn’t come back. I went to the studio. It happened that after a while I decided to add my mom to my team and, even if we kill each other every day, I love her and I know she’s a person who’s never going to betray me and love evil for me.”
Duki is famous and his figure is unwavering. Everyone knows him and no one lets him overlook it, whether it’s in his video clips on YouTube or when he walks down the street. Without a doubt, that impacts his life.” Strange to surprise, strange to be the stranger who was in the corner and I came and exploded the world. I have quite a few insecurities, I don’t like to be looked at. It used to be me against the world, I went for a walk alone and I was a ghost,” he says. He goes on: “When I went to Spain, maybe a car was passing by listening to me, not knowing that I was there. It happened to me in Miami too, I couldn’t believe it, and that’s crazy.” Now, the milestones are coming. One by one. The Fifth Step, the photos and its end”I had empI set out to go to battles when I was sophomore and my best friend told me I had to rap. Then, with my friends we started improvising and I rhymed several times and I said ‘What’s up?’ That’s how I started the search. One day I went to Madero Free, a competition, and I didn’t have a partner. I joined a guy named Salva, he was terrible, and we won. It was 2014.” About the two key moments: “One, when I won, that I won the recording and the other, a 2vs2 that we competed with the YSY. We lost but I enjoyed it. I always remember because it was the first time we were seen together.” The fat man looked at me one day and said, ‘It was already the Fifth. Let’s make some music.’ In fact, the person who pushed me into the studio and recorded was the YSY. I stopped competing in early 2017 because he was rotten and he was going on tour with KMD. I remember them going on tour and I was like, ‘What do I do that I’m not there?!’ I locked myself in and I was recording every day until the fat guy came back and he saw me being in him and there we started putting the Devil Mode together, we did our first tours, he put them together,” he adds. Diablo mode, way of life and the things that lived”First weekend of the tour, we go to La Rioja. The road was flooded and we had to grab it the other way, we were on a dirt road, goats were passing by. We thought we were lost. Suddenly we got to Cordoba and they put a fine of 8 lucas because we didn’t have the belt. We start 8 lucas down. When we arrived, the kids hadn’t warned anyone about the event, the cap fell and we had to pay the cap. We came back from that weekend stressed, and in debt. Then the second tour we had to go to Chaco, and we left with nothing. Only with the ID. We got on the mike and left. We were hopeless and we did well, that’s where we went back. We finished the tour in Tucumán and it was piola!” he recalls. Gardel Awards: Charly García vs. autotune”I am a fan of Charly, I am a person who understands music. I suddenly sometimes grab the self-force and make notes that don’t exist. I understand, it’s another line of sound. Until you get used to it, don’t digest it, it’s normal that it affects you. I was very happy because I felt it had appeared on his radar. Knowing that he knew I existed, that’s it, ” he confesses, what would you ask Charly?” I would ask him what his method of composition is like, artistic method of creating.”
Every devil has his hell”I had several parates, in several moments. One was when the mansion ended, that we separated in Diablo Mode. The second was when I left my second apartment, I was looking for my house. It came bad emotionally for the girl I was with, I didn’t have a home because I was in a apartment I didn’t like… and the last time was now for quarantine and I said stop it, but that’s enough.” Maturity”I know I’m more professional, more responsible. I think the most important thing about man is to evolve, create, improve. Suddenly it happened to me that I woke up one day and said, ‘I’m involutioning and it’s not going that way.’ And the change began. I decided to release a well-armed album, with a whole marketing treatment, from the press, putting together the concept of the album, committing myself. I’m a very sensitive person. Today I get up and feel good, with myself, I see the people around me happy.”
I wasn’t on the verge of hitting her ugly, but it could have happened quietly to me.
Mainstream”At first, when it happened, I couldn’t feel it right, you do start to feel a demand, but you don’t make it, because you’re in the whole storm. I stopped at the Colonial and said, ‘Well, this isn’t going to go bowling that they’re all regedes, these are people who sit and watch everything you do, buy a ticket for you to entertain them for the duration of the show, you have to learn how to handle yourself with the audience, know how to wear it.’ It’s different in a theater. The one I prepared the most was Luna Park, it had a pressure… I felt I had to show something for us: These kids are musicians, but they know how to play. I was suddenly standing alone. I had to be a frontman, I had to sing and it came from 0 to 100. I’m very self-criticizing and I have that problem. It happens to me that I don’t know… I went to Mexico and nailed them all. Here in Argentina, there was a problem and I disconnected. It’s a lot of pressure, it’s weird, you never know when you’re going to be nervous, you’re always going to enjoy it.”
Ending with milestones, Duki ventures and talks about the genre’s currents: “We’re booming. Only now is the New Testament about to begin. Jesus hasn’t shown up yet.” But when does he become Duki? “The day I stopped at the house of the kids, MKS and Wolf, who was the organizer of Las Vegas, and I sing ‘No Vendo Trap’, a cappella and rap them there in the face. That was the first moment I went a step like Duki.” about of the two other leaders of his fields, Coscu and Bizarrap, he mentions: “I feel that, in some respect, we are leaders in different cores. We are just three people who have a sensitivity and cute codes, who were instilled by our parents and I value that very much. What I like about the two of them is that they generate a lot of empathy with their audience, at no point do they feel above them. This flash normalizes them, make themselves look less than they are so that they understand that they are just as important as everyone else. With Coscu I have a stronger and bigger relationship than with Biza… Coscu is like an older brother, he always looked after me.” I like life to surprise me, if it doesn’t go away with grace. Project in the future, but I don’t kill myself trying to guess the future. Now I know this record is going to come out, I’m going to face a different, musically, more commercial side, and what’s going to come is that Duko just arrived. I just put my feet on the ground, so anything can happen,” Duki ends.Towards the end of the interview the box opens. An unexpected challenge begins. Week by week a figure will submit to the living room for dialogue and reflection. And you, are you encouraged to remember what moment clicked on your life?
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