Claudia Stoops, Head of Local Talent
Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Duckwrth has been reimagining the world of alternative R&B and hip-hop since 2015 with his projects Nowhere (2015), I’M UUGLY (2016), an XTRA UUGLY Mixtape (2017), THE FALLING MAN (2019), and finally, his most recent album, SuperGood (2020). His progressive sound, highlighted on this latest album, incorporates a strong 70s influence with elements of funk, R&B, hip-hop, and even gospel.
On September 21, 2020, I attended a Zoom press conference hosted by the internal creative agency at Universal Music Group, called 1824. We had the opportunity to talk with Duckwrth and discuss his vision for SuperGood, his artistic methods, and how his musical journey has brought him to this point.
SuperGood was released on August 21, 2020, and Duckwrth described dropping the album as a weight off his shoulders.
D: “For an album called SuperGood, it’s already its own affirmation. Like when you press play, it’s supposed to make you feel super good, and I feel like it came right on time.”
Given that he had finished writing the album in January, he said he was in a very different headspace about 2020 by the time the album was dropping. He further described the tone of the album saying,
D: “A lot of it has to do with me taking this girl out on a date…it’s more of a story as if you were watching a Netflix show or something like that. It’s like you may not be living in that story but it’s a story to take you away from your current situation. But further than that, it’s more so the tone and some of the messages of the album is to, once again, make you feel good. It’s like audio medicine pretty much.”
Supergood is a 16-track journey and heavily influenced by the sounds of the 70s. And like many of the notable songs of the 70s, it’s meant to make people stand up and move.
D: “It’s a rhythm project, so I want people to dance, to groove, to bop, to move. It’s very much an album that you play when you’re in the car, or an album that you play when you’re taking a shower, an album that you play when you’re making love. I want it to be very much a lifestyle project.”
Another aspect of Duckwrth’s life that played a large role in forming his music taste was growing up in South Central Los Angeles. This city shaped him both as a person and as an artist. He explained,
D: “Growing up in LA, especially in the 90s and 2000s, it was beautiful. It was always sunny. The beaches are always cracking. You know what I'm saying like that. Poolside is a common thing out here. It’s kind of like its own little weird utopia but in the same flipside. It's a lot of trauma. There was a lot of gang activity that was happening in the 90s, so a lot of my youth was learning how to survive…I would say that rose grew from the concrete. The diamonds come from the roughest type of situations. I think by being raised specifically in South Central LA, it gave me a backbone…”
A central characteristic of Duckwrth’s creative endeavors have been striking cover art. He explains that his albums should feel almost fantastical, and SuperGood is no exception.
D: “I feel like my covers have always been a bit of fantasy in certain ways. From an XTRA UUGLY Mixtape to THE FALLING MAN where I was playing the character of this king who falls to demise because he doesn’t know love. So the cover is a little bit darker. For this one, it’s mainly about love; what happens when the character does fall in love. It’s like the yin and the yang to THE FALLING MAN, and I feel like they all reflect each other. Really it’s just showing the growth in the artist. For this one, I just wanted to explore. I really feel like the 70s, especially for black people, was a time of celebration. Like we just came out of civil rights and black people were starting to gain certain freedoms and, you know, it was a celebration. And within that, when black people start going back into who they are, into their original essence, a bit of magic happens. Say it straightforward, a bit of magic happens. So I think the 70s, that’s why you see such eclectic styles and their sound. The music was so colorful, and the album covers were so beautiful. So I kinda wanted to tap into that because I feel like we are coming into that same energy in the 2000s, 2010-2020, you know. I really wanted to tap into that magic if you will.”
When talking about his creative process on the album, he admitted that out of the whole album, the song that was most difficult to finalize was “New Love Song,” a song which pays homage to the gospel music of his childhood.
D: “In the sample, the song is The Clark Sisters’ ‘Jesus Is A Love Song.’ I remember one time I was on IG Live and it was in the background and I was just freestyling to it and I was like ‘Damn, I should turn that into a song!’ And I wanted to kind of give a nod to gospel music because that is some of the earlier music that I remember from my childhood…I didn’t know how to finish it. I wanted to do ‘Jesus Is A Love Song’ but I didn’t want to say ‘Jesus’ because I didn’t want to be particular to religion, but I wanted to still do the whole love song so I needed to find a group of girls who can give respect to The Clark Sisters, but then find different phrasing. And so the theme of the album is this relationship I have with this girl and how I want to ask her on this first date so, you know how in the movie when its foreshadow of what’s to come at the end, I wanted ‘New Love Song’ to be the foreshadow that these characters are gonna fall in love by the end of the album.”
SuperGood seamlessly melds several different genres and influences. He says that because he listens to so much music, he is able to act as a “segway” for all those different genres. He proclaims, “I feel like I’m a smoothie in the best sense.” Additionally, he gains creativity in creating music and performing music from two different spaces.
D: “The music that inspires me the most is two sides. The music that inspires me most in the studio is soul, jazz, gospel. Certain chord progressions really resonate in my soul and you can find them in jazz and soul and gospel. And then the genre that inspires me when I perform is strictly punk. Thrasher. Hardcore. That’s my shit. That’s the shit that I wanna tap into you know. They just perform with such conviction and it riles people up. It gets the fire started. One of my favorite bands is Bad Brains, and the lead singer, his name is HR…the way he performs, he’s a beast. He channels into straight fire and savagery and that’s the place I choose to be at when I perform.”
When asked about the artists which have shaped him, he considers Outkast to be the musical group which has influenced him the most.
D: “My biggest influence musically would be Outkast, at least on the hip-hop side just because as a young person that was in South Central, they showed me that there’s a different type of being a black creator. They made it so that I could be comfortable in my skin because I was different growing up. There was a space held for different black kids. So for me, they’ve always inspired me not just musically but as a person who’s different, I would say. I wanna do that for this generation as much as I possibly can.”
SuperGood features stunning collaborations with Jean Deaux, KIAN, Julia Romana, G.L.A.M., EARTHGANG, Kyle Dion, Alex Mali, Radio Ahlee, and BAYLI. When discussing this with Duckwrth, it’s clear that he felt both lucky and excited to be working with these talented artists. Aside from these features, Duckwrth discussed some of his dream collaborations.
D: “Dream collaboration would be The Neptunes or Rosalía or Stevie Wonder. There’s a bunch of different people. But those people stick out to me. Definitely The Neptunes just because they’re the GOATS, they’re the full on GOATS, and I've always wanted to be in The Neptunes when I was younger. It’s more so the childhood. The inner Duckwrth in me would be so stoked to have a song with Neptunes and even see them do their recent song with SZA. They’re not dated…”
He also said that if he could sample any song from the 70s, it would be Minnie Riperton’s “Les Fleur.”
While examining what he’s learned throughout the creation of the album, he said that the main thing he learned is that “I am only as strong as the people around me. This album was very much a village, it was a collective creation.” After learning so much about Duckwrth, I have overwhelming confidence that Duckwrth will continue to blow everyone away with his unique sound and overwhelming optimism.
Lastly, we talked about his plans for the future.
D: “It’s really just expanding SuperGood because the intention of the album is the positive affirmation of feeling super good. So how do you take that outside an album? How do you make that tangible in the physical world? How do I make people feel super good in the real world? So we are looking into expanding it within community efforts. More visuals, definitely way more music videos, takeaways for people to take with them. I think I’m most excited about the community effort we’re gonna be doing, especially starting off with South Central. They can feel super good. Then, from there, using that model for like all of America, and then shit, maybe the world.”