EL DUQUE

As the realm of hip hop culture continues to evolve, we have encountered on an era in which reinvention is vital to the progression of the global hip hop movement.Born on June 13th, 1979 in the Queens borough of New York City, JOEL GUSTAVO (EL DUQUE) DUQUE, son of a Colombian jazz musician and a Dominican artist, was always around music and was raised in his early childhood by musicians and music aficionados. At a very tender age of only five years old, living in the Santiago province of the Dominican Republic, he discovered hip hop music via Run DMC and quickly grew an inseparable bond and love to the young growing culture. In the late eighty’s, he and his family moved to Miami Florida where he started doing graffiti and fell into the street life. It was in the tough Miami streets during the early ninety’s where he was molded by his environment during his teenage years into a life of crime and substance abuse. Even though he has always had a deep love and appreciation for all genres of music, and has influences ranging from merengue and salsa to classic rock, his deepest love has always been to rap music. Street ciphers and lyrical battles as well as open mic freestyle competitions were routinely a hobbyist fix to quench his desire to his growing addiction to the music, even though it was never more than a past time and not really viewed as a career opportunity. “I was always on that grind as a teen”, says El Duque, “and rhyming was something we used to do as a hobby when we got high and bug out”. That soon changed. During the turn of the millennium, he suffered a nearly fatal and tragic brain aneurism caused by extensive drug and alcohol abuse that almost short ended El Duque‘s life. Always considered by his peers an extraordinary lyricist and entertainer, he realized he hadn’t any solid material to show for it but memories imprinted into his many acquaintances minds encountered along the way. The untimely aneurism served as a wake up call for El Duque to straighten out his life and pursue a professional approach to his music. He began by searching for further inspiration in his original influences; the pioneers of hip hop who made the strongest impressions on him. KRS ONE, Rakim & Kool G Rap were amongst the many that played a major role on how El Duque approached his lyrical delivery, alongside Juan Luis Guerra, Hector Lavoe & James Brown to name a few, who taught him to incorporate that melodic swagger he is most known for today. With his never heard of style of complex lyrical rhymes, catchy hooks, and that unmistakable “lazy flow”, “slow swagger” and unpredictable “pauses”, El Duque has proved that hip hop is constantly evolving and that inspiration is always around the corner for those who are in the never ending search. “He has such a contagious flow, it just gets your head bopping without even noticing” says label mate SceneriO. Now El Duque is working with a strong team of colleagues consisting of rappers, singers, producers and industry professionals and has an independent record contract with Get N’ Money Entertainment and RDR Management. El Duque is currently in the works to release his debut solo project in 2007 titled “WHAT THEY DO?” under the new label. With such a solid background in the hip hop community, and over 10 years experience in songwriting, El Duque is constantly approaching ways to establish a solid foundation in the business aspect of the industry and on becoming a force to be reckoned with within hip hop. With his profound determination and persistence, his career and future in the industry is very promising and with no immediate end in sight, he is foretold to be one of the greats in the game in due time.
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