Diego Flores, Grade 11
UWC Mostar
Mauro Ezequiel Lombardo -popularly known as Duki- was born in Almagro, Argentina, on June 24th, 1996. Since he was 7 years old, he has been totally in love with American music and the popular music of his country, like tango, cumbia, and salsa. These two influences-that show such a big contrast within his musical interests- resulted in him getting different inspirations to create a mix of styles for his own music. This gave him a very new and “fresh” sound, but -more importantly- he managed to revolutionize the music industry and create his own: Argentinian Trap Industry.
But first, let’s clarify: Who Is Duki? Duki is one of the most popular artists in Argentina, currently having even more streams than other Argentina legends such as Soda Stereo and Carlos Gardel. His first interactions with music took place in 2013 when he and a group of friends started rapping in the streets, but it wasn’t until two years later that he started to rise in the music world thanks to the viralization of the “Quinto Escalon”, a rap competition that took place in the Rivadaria park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was the turning point in his career, where most people started to know who Duki was, including me, and he took advantage of this by realizing his first single “No Vendo Trap”.
“No Vendo Trap” brought a brand new style of music, which was characterized by Duki’s use of metrics and melodies. The “freshness” of the song made the single a hit, managing to get 1 “palo” (1 million) of streams in the span of a week, which made him the first hip-hop Argentinian artist to reach that number in just 7 days. This was his first step into his music career, a very successful one, but it was also Argentina’s introduction into the international trap industry, that consequently ended in:
Despite the great musical impact he had, his economic and social stability was a problem, mainly caused by his desire to stay away from record labels --stemmed from a bad experience with Mueva Records- and to introduce a new way of making music independently.
Mueva Records was created after Duki’s single big success. They wanted Duki, and with the help of a very “tricky” contract, they made it happen. The record was keeping most of the profits made by his music, restraining his artistic freedom, asking him for a specific kind of sound, involving him in concerts without his consent amongst other clauses and specifications in his contract... But this experience also gave him the knowledge to analyze his contract and make them so that it would benefit him in the future as well as the opportunity to create a more professional production, gain knowledge of how to produce by himself, and release a song featuring one of the most successful artists at the moment: Bad Bunny (a dream for all Urban artists).
After this awful experience, he decided that now he would create his own path, based on the values of Hip Hop: Respect, self-management, hard work, and personal superation. His conviction to his ideals was so strong that he refused a millionaire contract from Universal, a contract that would have been the solution to all of his economic problems. According to an interview with Radio Rock, he went to a meeting with them and heard all of their terms and projections, but afterward, he just stood up and said: “I have more hunger for changing the game than all the people in this building”.
As this article may have already shown, Duki doesn’t care about money nor fame; for him, the most valuable things in music are: creating something different, his friends, keeping it real, promoting young talent, and helping people, that is why all of his merchandise’s money goes to NGOs. Making his own path into the music industry -without selling himself nor his message to any record label and without giving up his ideals despite his fame- has created a new way of doing trap and music in general, inspiring not just other artists, but also, young people to follow their dreams being loyal to their values, and fighting for what they want, using their difficulties as motivation for improvement and not as a limitation for success.
But first, let’s clarify: Who Is Duki? Duki is one of the most popular artists in Argentina, currently having even more streams than other Argentina legends such as Soda Stereo and Carlos Gardel. His first interactions with music took place in 2013 when he and a group of friends started rapping in the streets, but it wasn’t until two years later that he started to rise in the music world thanks to the viralization of the “Quinto Escalon”, a rap competition that took place in the Rivadaria park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was the turning point in his career, where most people started to know who Duki was, including me, and he took advantage of this by realizing his first single “No Vendo Trap”.
“No Vendo Trap” brought a brand new style of music, which was characterized by Duki’s use of metrics and melodies. The “freshness” of the song made the single a hit, managing to get 1 “palo” (1 million) of streams in the span of a week, which made him the first hip-hop Argentinian artist to reach that number in just 7 days. This was his first step into his music career, a very successful one, but it was also Argentina’s introduction into the international trap industry, that consequently ended in:
- The inspiration and motivation of young talents into music, such as Ecko, Paulo Londra, Wos, Dillom, Trueno, and Seven Kayne.
- Giving more exposition to the Argentinian and Latin American trap industry that was monopolized -for a very long time- by the Caribbean Industry.
- Important record labels (Sonic Music, Universal Music Group [UMG]) searching and giving contracts to various Argentinian artists.
- The creation of important Argentinian record labels like Panter Music and Mueva Records, the biggest record label in Argentina.
- Viralizing the rap battles phenomena even more.
Despite the great musical impact he had, his economic and social stability was a problem, mainly caused by his desire to stay away from record labels --stemmed from a bad experience with Mueva Records- and to introduce a new way of making music independently.
Mueva Records was created after Duki’s single big success. They wanted Duki, and with the help of a very “tricky” contract, they made it happen. The record was keeping most of the profits made by his music, restraining his artistic freedom, asking him for a specific kind of sound, involving him in concerts without his consent amongst other clauses and specifications in his contract... But this experience also gave him the knowledge to analyze his contract and make them so that it would benefit him in the future as well as the opportunity to create a more professional production, gain knowledge of how to produce by himself, and release a song featuring one of the most successful artists at the moment: Bad Bunny (a dream for all Urban artists).
After this awful experience, he decided that now he would create his own path, based on the values of Hip Hop: Respect, self-management, hard work, and personal superation. His conviction to his ideals was so strong that he refused a millionaire contract from Universal, a contract that would have been the solution to all of his economic problems. According to an interview with Radio Rock, he went to a meeting with them and heard all of their terms and projections, but afterward, he just stood up and said: “I have more hunger for changing the game than all the people in this building”.
As this article may have already shown, Duki doesn’t care about money nor fame; for him, the most valuable things in music are: creating something different, his friends, keeping it real, promoting young talent, and helping people, that is why all of his merchandise’s money goes to NGOs. Making his own path into the music industry -without selling himself nor his message to any record label and without giving up his ideals despite his fame- has created a new way of doing trap and music in general, inspiring not just other artists, but also, young people to follow their dreams being loyal to their values, and fighting for what they want, using their difficulties as motivation for improvement and not as a limitation for success.
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