“Being raised in South Central Los Angeles gave me a backbone. When I deal with corporate America, I don’t take bullshit. I learned how to survive.”
VALLEY got to sit in an exclusive zoom press conference with 32-year-old upcoming creative, Duckwrth and ask him a few questions about his inspirations and experiences in the musical world.
Duckwrth tells the audience a story with his newest album, SuperGood. He has collaborated with other artists like EARTHGANG, Rico Nasty, and Channel Tres, also landing a track on the latest Spider-Man movie soundtrack. Throughout time, he has also opened for big names such as Billie Eilish and Anderson .Paak. Although he is quickly rising in popularity, Duckwrth emphasizes staying genuine and writing music that is true to himself, because that will last instead of attempting to be trendy.
When asked about genres that inspire his music and writing, he pulls from many different inspirations. “I see myself as more of a creative rather than just a musician,” he explains. Specific genres that influence his work are soul, jazz, gospel, and punk. OutKast stands out specifically as a major inspiration. “OutKast showed me, as a young person growing up, that there was a different side to being a black creator. They taught me to be comfortable in my skin because I was different. I wanna do that for this generation as much as I possibly can.”
Continuing about being a black creator, he discusses the controversy relating to the Grammy’s and how other rap artist, Tyler, the Creator, slammed the “urban” category of the Grammy Awards and spoke about how putting genre-bending music by black artists into only rap categories is wrong.
“Urban is another way of saying the N-word. It’s a way of saying, you make a certain type of music but your skin shade is darker so you’re automatically in hip-hop or R&B. So yeah, it is a problem,” he shares. “I hate a lot of things about the music industry.”
Although there are many issues within entertainment currently, Duckwrth continues to explain his process for visuals and sound. SuperGood is meant to tell a story about him and his new relationship, following the steps through his day. Sometimes, he has a visual and specific feeling/idea in mind when he creates a song.
Duckwrth still has much more to come, as he plans on starting to give back to his community of South Central L.A. and help those who were just like him. Then, he wants to help fix America, and then maybe the world.
For anyone looking for new music, VALLEY recommends Duckwrth’s song Super Bounce.
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