by: jesse zapatero

Duckwrth has this magnetic energy that can instantly light up any room. I remember catching a glimpse of him for the first time back in 2019 at the Austin City Limits music festival, anD his stage presence was insane. Jared Lee, aka Duckwrth, was just bursting with charisma and radiance that day. 

FAST FORWARD TO 2024, THE WHOLE CREW ANTICIPATING HIS ARRIVAL. THEN HE FINALLY stepS in WITH that infectious smileAND CHARISMA.

HE isn't just your typical rapper or R&B artist. He's way more than that. He's a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to music, effortlessly blending genres and styles.

This year, he's ready to shake things up even more by diving into alternative rock. He's moving away from the surface level stuff and getting real, stripping it down to share a side of himself that the world hasn't seen before. As he prepares to release his upcoming album, Duckwrth shares insights into his creative process, the personal journey behind his music, and the profound honesty driving his latest project. Get ready to uncover the raw authenticity of Duckwrth as he sheds layers to reveal the man behind the artist. And knowing Duckwrth, it's bound to be something truly special.

Hi Duckwrth, how are you?

I'm good, just preparing for this new album that's about to drop. You know all the creativity that goes into that.

You know, we're four months into 2024 I feel like it's really been passing by, how has this year been treating you so far?

Um, it is passing by kind of quickly, quicker than I want it to, because this is like, my dragon year, so I'm trying to be on my most dragonest as possible, but if this year goes by any quicker, I’m going to be angry. But it's been cool though. Like I said, just kind of focusing on this new project that I'm super excited for that's been keeping me motivated honestly.

What's been the most exciting part about working on this album?

Character development. This is like, I'm kind of going into my, more like, alternative rock area of things which is like, naturally who I am. But I felt like I kept that part a little bit on a tuck because I just didn't feel like people would have an ear for it or want to hear it or understand it and everything. But I was just like, fuck it. Let's go lean in and it's been really fun being able to wear my actual skin.

That really sounds lit. Has your approach to songwriting changed at all...?

I think before I kind of spoke on more surface-level type of subject matters. And this one is more so taking accountability for past issues I've had with commitment and infidelity and all the other shit that I'm not too proud of, so I had to kind of put it into the record and be honest, like brutally honest but it's made the writing process so easy, honestly, because it just all like flowing out of me at once.
 

Would you say this is probably your most personal project to date? 

Yes, definitely. 

I don't know if I got to tell you this on set. But I'm a big fan. I've been a fan for a couple of years now. Witnessing your evolution throughout the years has been really dope. What's your secret to staying creatively inspired and consistent?

Always stand on the hunt for something new. There's always like, I mean, humans have been around for 1000s of years so there's always like, undiscovered untapped or at least for me, I haven't discovered it. A layer of life and style and culture, I mean, discovering those just exhilarates me honestly. I'm very curious about just different forms of life. So in this case, of this year, researching specific sub-genres of the late 70s in the UK and just going into like those deep rabbit holes pretty much.

I feel like a lot of people would say you're a rapper right but I feel like you're way beyond that. Calling you a rapper would be putting you in a box. But the other day I saw you on live and you were really spitting though. That was lit. 

Yes!!!.... Hahaha

You were telling me you're jumping into alternative music, you're not just a rapper, you do alternative music. You do R&B, there's all these things that you do that's so lit and it sounds so refreshing - it doesn't sound like you're trying to tap in it, it just sounds like you're really out here doing it. How would you describe the music that you typically create knowing that you can tap into all these genres in and out?

It's hard to put it in a genre I will say. If there's like a feeling I would say that it's fluid, it's very fluid music, you know, it kind of just genre-bending, as they will say. Just music honestly, I got to think I've been such a fan of music from all sides of the board for so long, that it kind of just comes out of me. It's hard for me to stay in one as much as I would like to, like as the homies are successful for staying in one genre, it's hard for me to do that. But um, yes, I guess, if there was like, the closest umbrella I would say is alternative Hip Hop I suppose. That's where you all could put me in and expand outside of that, you know, but at least in that area. It's just like, alright, I will always come back to some type or form of rapping, you know?Calling myself a rapper doesn't do me justice because I don't really compete. I feel like rap is a very competitive sport...

Now you're saying that you're going a little deeper with this album that you're working on, how do you express different facets of yourself through the music that you're about to put out?

How do I describe different facets of myself….

Your different experiences that you've been going through? How would you describe that in your music?

My upcoming music is... That's a great question actually, different facets of myself.... I will say, my manager always likes to say you're a good guy that makes bad decisions. Just like oh, yes, I can see that. You know, because I feel in my heart I'm actually like, I have good intentions and stuff but I just make stupid choices, you know, and it's like, so does everybody right now, especially in the modern society with social media and stuff. And everything being in our fingertips like, lust and addiction it's so easily, what's the word, obtainable. So, I don't know, I feel like the facet of me at this moment is just very transparent, I suppose and very uncomfortably visible. And very much like, I wouldn't even say like broken, just more so kind of like, the breaking already happened and I'm just taking the shattered pieces and showing people what the shattered pieces look like, while at the same time trying to put them back together.

You're known as Duckwrth, right but on set the people that already knew, they called you, Jared… I honestly didn't know that was your first name. Can you share with me a pivotal moment or experience that helped shape your dual identity as an artist, a moment where you're like, I don't want to go as Jared, I want to be called Duckwrth.

It kind of happened in college, honestly, Duckwrth was my mom's maiden name. And I don't know how I just started talking about it to my friends, they just thought Duckwrth was like a peculiar name and they thought I was peculiar. So they were just like, you know what? Your Duckwrth, we're going to call you Duckwrth and they just kept calling me that and it kind of stuck, it just worked for me. So then when I started rapping, it was just like, aha, yes, Duckwrth, it makes sense. Just yes, just weirdly happened that way.

Did you ever encounter any challenges or obstacles while establishing yourself as Duckwrth?

I think the biggest thing is always just getting played on, at that time it was like blogs. So it was like trying to get on the big blogs. I would say it definitely has been a struggle but it was more of a financial struggle. I think because I was such a peculiar type of artists when I was younger. I just stuck out. So people, they just were curious and wanted to know what I was about and try to work for me.

In what ways does being the artist called Duckwrth allow you to express yourself differently than being just Jared?

Because Duckwrth is just a very peculiar name and I'm peculiar so I feel like Jared is like... I had two routes, I went to college for graphic design. So, if I was a graphic designer, I'll probably just be Jared Lee, you know. In college was when I started rapping. So then when it is split, I was like well, I guess I need to be more of this person. And this identity, and this person who's a little bit more like, public facing and not so private. Because if I was a graphic designer, it might have actually not mattered, you know. It's about my work, it's about my designs and stuff, but rap is so much about optics, and it's so much about who is rapping or who is making the music rather.

These past four years have been quite unusual with the pandemic and various catastrophic events, being confined to our homes, and during the lockdown gave us a lot of time to reflect. Given that some time has passed, and we're all outside now. Did this period impact your creativity and personal life if at all?

For good, and for bad, yes. For good, I've been recording at the crib for a long time. So I can kind of have a better setup, because of COVID. And now, we do so many meetings, we used to do it in the office and  now we just do over zoom. So yes, and that part, a lot of stuff I do creatively I do it from the crib. But another part of it, I just realized the other day was like when I spend too much time in the house. There's this unknown trauma, slight trauma that I have, and a lot of humans have from being in lockdown. So it's like when I spend too much time inside, those feelings that I had during lockdown, they start to bubble up. And I feel like the walls are we closing in, and I feel anxious as fuck and like I've just spent way too much time inside, you know. So it's like I have to do things just, even just walk around the block and stuff for a little bit. But I know if I spent the whole day working... I didn't have this feeling before. I could probably spend all day in the crib before but now when it happens, and I'm in the crib for a whole day, I feel crazy anxious.

I feel like the pandemic really, really changed things up. Like we got so confined just being inside for like a month at a time that it was just weird as hell. Personally, I had no creativity flowing. I didn't want to write, I don't know if you feel the same way. During that time, did you write it all?

I actually had a writer's block but luckily, I finished my whole album in January 2020. I like a whole lockout and I did 98% of my album, maybe 97%. I did that in an album lockout, and then when February 2020 hit, that's when the world shut down. So then like, I just got my album in but I think because also it's the thing that happens with me, I don't know if it happens to other artists but when I have those lockouts, I open myself up and you know what I'm saying, all the words and the emotions and energy, and everything else just flow out of me. Whatever is responsible for bringing that in, it needs rest, it totally needs rest. So usually after the album cycle, I have writer's block. But it scared me that first time because I had writer's block from February till November. That's the longest time I've ever had writer's block, where I couldn't write anything. I never had before and so I was like, yo, this is crazy. And I thought I lost it, I thought it was gone. I remember how scared I was during COVID but I just think my brain and my soul, whatever, just needed arrest. So yes when that happens now then I just like kick it you know.

 When did you start working on this new album that's coming out?

I started working on that last year. Maybe... The first song and idea came out I think in the summer, oh no that late summer. And then the idea for the album name, I had it in 2022, ending the tour. I was like, that'd be a really interesting name for an album. And yes, but then this year, I had like four different lockouts to work on the album. Three to four different lockouts to work on the album and stuff. So this year was more like really digging into it but it started summer of last year.

What would you say was a valuable lesson that you learned when you started working on this album that you think is universally relevant?

People relate to honesty, much more than anything else. I think this album will hit people in such a different way. Because it's like, once again, brutally honest, but so many people probably can relate, so many people have gone through it. You know, I have a song I wrote on there called permanent vacation, where it's talking about my father and comparing the shit that he did, cheating on my mom, leaving my mom going to another woman and doing the same thing over and over again. "Oh shit, this cat has injured his leg." I'm sorry. Yes, so, pretty much like the whole infidelity of my dad had with my mom, and like making a comparison to what I do, you know? And saying that damn, like, there's no difference between the two but also just kind of, yes, just showing that those early models of commitment, or the lack thereof, affected me in my adulthood and just the anguish and the pain that comes from, when your father's just like, oh, I'm going to come pick you up, and then you'd sit there and you wait and all your friends is like, running around on Fourth of July, and everything and you're just like, no, is my dad going to come and he never comes. You know? It feels like a permanent vacation. Yes, I feel like a lot of people will relate to something like that and just a lot of the subject matters. But yes, I think honesty, like, if I want success for myself, or the next level that I see for myself, I definitely feel like I have to be way more open than I have been before.

Are you excited for people to hear this new music? I know you're going to share a lot on this project. It sounds really personal and, as a fan, I'm really excited to hear it. But how do you feel putting this out into the world knowing that you're really shedding your layers here?

So excited, and nervous. I've had to talk about it every single time. I've had to relive it every single time. So that's not going to be cute. But I think it gives me a purpose. I think I hit a point in my life last year where I didn't feel like I had a purpose anymore. And I didn't want to do music anymore. Like any other artists, they'd be like, Ah, I want to quit, you know.. Particularly because I just felt like I was just going to hit my ceiling I hadn't even talked about anymore. So I'm excited to connect with people. I'm excited for the conversation to be had between men and men, honestly. A lot of the times like women try to teach men and men are like brick wall, but I feel when the homie talks to you, he'd be like, bro, you're fucking up, dawg. You'd be like, damn, yes, you're right. Sadly enough. I don't know why it's like that but I know, playing this album to other producers. We don't even get to the session until like an hour late because after I play the music, we spend the whole hour and they spend a whole hour confessing, you know, saying the shit that they've done. And like, you know, really interesting shit but I'm excited for those conversations to be had and see what happens from there and maybe some healing that happens from there who knows but conversations.

For sure I feel like that's really important right now because we don't get that a lot from artists. As men we get like this notion that we're the man in the house, we got to hold it in. We gotta keep pushing for the family. And so we don't see a lot of artists shed that and really, really push that conversation out there. So I'm really excited to hear about this project. I think it's going to be a moment for the people really, for you, as an artist, This is going to be real.

 I'm very excited.

Can we expect it this year?

I'll start rolling out some singles this year, but it doesn't drop till next year, early next year. 

You mentioned working with different producers and so what's the best advice another musician or producer ever gave you in the studio?

Stop writing, just go in the booth. It's just whatever comes out. Whatever you throw up, trust that. Trust the feeling. Coming from a place of where I was like, I came into music as a hip hop artist, you know, expanded into r&b and everything, but always my roots will always be like rap and hip hop. So I treated it like hip hop. I got it write. I got to write 16, I got to go crazy da-da-da-da and like I don't know, there's a certain distance between the vocals in a production when you're just in your own world but I think that there's a certain synergy connection that happens when you just listen to the beat and just the rhythms that flow from you. The cadences that flow from you, the melody, you know, sometimes even, there will be words that come but then I get and everyone has a process. Some people it does work nicely when they write ahead of time but I think that was the most influential thing for me in my process, where just going to booth, let it flow, come out of the booth, listen to it. Find the key central parts, find the melodies and cadences that you like, and then write to that.

Looking back at everything you've achieved as an artist, what advice would you give your younger self when you were just beginning to explore your identity as an artist?

Be patient but also be hungry. Don't get too comfortable. I think there's portions of my career where I just like, I'm here and I just chilled out. And, I mean, one of my biggest distractions was sexual addiction and stuff. So I would probably tell myself, bro chill out, focus on the art, focus on the music bro, you know, women will always be there but you won't get that time back. Time is relative, it just keeps going, so I spend more time working and less time chasing.

What else can we expect from you? And you just mentioned that you're putting out a couple of singles this year. What else can we expect from Duckwrth in 2024?

Man, so many good things. I have a jewelry collection that's dropping. Wait a second. So pretty much I developed this thing, I'm a bull, I'm a Taurus.

Same here, I’m May 18th

Come on, let's go, big taurus gang. A lot of my things have had horns on it. So I did this horn star design last year and started putting it on clothes. And then Vitaly hit me up -- Vitaly is a German brand. They said he wants to do a collaboration. I'm just like, wow, I wear blockchains literally every single day. Sounds like I want to make my own version of the blockchain with a horn star on it. Drew it out, sent it to them and they developed in everything, you probably saw them at the shoot.

Yes, you wore that on the shoot.

I wear it every single day. But yes, so this Jewelry collab comes out, I believe in July, which is exciting. It's my first jewelry collab, excited for that. Also, I'm going into cut and sew. So my first cut and sew pieces are going to be dropping, hopefully in June. If not, maybe around the same time as the jewelry collection. So, along with the music, I'm going to say four singles that come from the album, videos, visuals and everything, but like tangibles, you know. This is the graphic designer in me, let's just design it and then hold it, feel it you know, I'm so excited. But yes, more garment design for this year. 

Duck, If you were a book what book would you be and why?

I think I will be a Manga and I'll be Akira. I'll be the main character, Kaneda because first of all his garment selections, extraordinary. His monochromatic red pallet is wild, very short torso jackets and long legs with knee pads and shit and tall red boots is a vibe. But he built his motorcycle, a really crazy Cyberpunk motorcycle. And he's just a badass, honestly and that's why I feel like..., I have like a moped and I'll be feeling like Kaneda when I'm on my moped. But I love the story because it's like Neo-Tokyo when this crazy atomic bomb goes off and it's like the remains of Tokyo and there's these religious groups trying to take over and it's like a dystopia in a crazy way. So yes, Akira, definitely.