Duki | |
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 Duki in 2019 | |
| Born | Mauro Ezequiel Lombardo[a] (1996-06-24)24 June 1996 (age 29) Almagro, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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| Years active | 2016–present |
| Works | Discography |
| Musical career | |
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Musical artist | |
| Website | duki |
Mauro Ezequiel Lombardo[a] (born 24 June 1996), known professionally asDuki,[2] is an Argentine rapper, singer and songwriter. He is the lead voice ofLatin trap in Argentina,[3][4] thanks to his multiple hits with his singles and his particular style of voice and staging.
Duki began to gain recognition for his appearances inrap battles, such as El Quinto Escalón, which was one of the most important inArgentina, created by rapper Ysy A, and where he obtained his first share of popularity when he won it in 2016. He could record his first single, "No Vendo Trap", to pursue a musical career thanks to his victory. He then released the singles "She Don't Give a Fo" and "Hello Cotto", which garnered him multiple views onYouTube and earned Lombardo a massive following in his home country. In 2018, he formed an importantmusical trio for the Argentine trap, named Modo Diablo, with artists YSY A and Neo Pistea. He then released his debut studio album,Súper Sangre Joven (2019), with the lead single "Goteo" being nominated forBest Rap/Hip Hop Song at the 21stLatin Grammy Awards. In 2020, he collaborated onBad Bunny's albumYHLQMDLG in the single "Hablamos Mañana", which was also nominated in the Latin Grammys forBest Urban Fusion/Performance. In 2021, Duki released his second album,Desde el Fin del Mundo, which reached number one in digital albums in Argentina.
Mauro Ezequiel Lombardo was born on 24 June 1996, inAlmagro, Buenos Aires.[5] Son of lawyer Sandra Viviana Quiroga and graphic designer Guillermo Luis Lombardo, he has two siblings, Nahuel, a sound engineer, and Candela.[6] Raised inLa Paternal, he had a solid musical influence thanks to his parents, who listened toArgentine rock,salsa,disco andLatin pop. His mother was a follower of artistAlejandro Sanz, and his father was a fan of bandsQueen andVirus. On the other side, his brother Nahuel was a fan ofCharly García andLuis Alberto Spinetta.[7] During his early teens, Lombardo started to gain interest inpunk rock, being a strong listener ofLinkin Park, andhip-hop, thanks toEminem and50 Cent, which lead him to eventually start watching rap battles, which had an important underground following in Argentina.[8]
Influenced by long-time Argentine rappers Kódigo and Tata, he started practicingfreestyle with his best friends, which allowed him to gain confidence to start participating in battle competitions.[9] Alongside this, he dropped high school due to his poor grades.[7]
Duki participated in his first rap battle in 2013, in which he became victorious. He described it years later as "catastrophic, it was raining, but we ended up winning".[10] During this time, he formed a rap crew called Atuanorinos Tripulación, and participated in a lot of famous underground rap competitions, such as Las Vegas Freestyle or Madero Free.[7]
Around 2015, he appeared for the first time in El Quinto Escalón, a competition celebrated in Parque Rivadavia, a very centric park in Buenos Aires. This allowed the competition to become recognized very quickly, with a lot of young rappers starting to rise to a massive following, such asPaulo Londra,Lit Killah, orTrueno. Duki became one of the most praised and recognized MC's due to hisflow and strong staging.[11] In 2016 he won it for the first time, beating rapper Nacho in the final.[12] The prize was a session in amusic studio to record asingle. Duki recorded his first single, "No Vendo Trap", in November 2016. The official video was uploaded onYouTube, gaining two million views in just two weeks. Due to the song's success, the sample producer, Pa$ha, decided to strike the video forcopyright, and the platform took the video down.[13] This did not stop Duki from recording more singles that led him to gain a massive fan base, mostly coming from his battle days.
In late 2016 and early 2017, Duki continued to appear in El Quinto Escalón, now one of the most important competitions in Argentina and South America. Several of Duki's battles, along with his partner MKS, gained many views on YouTube, some becoming the most viewed battles in Spanish history.[11] Thanks to his increasing fame, Duki was signed to Mueva Records and released the singles "She Don't Give a Fo" and "Hello Cotto" with producer Omar Varela to launch his music career. The first one was certified gold by Spain'sPROMUSICAE, and both singles surpassed a 100 million views on YouTube, establishing Duki as one of the most promising trap artists in Argentina.[14] Two weeks later, he participated inKhea's single "Loca", with rappersCazzu andBad Bunny, which ranked 45 in theHot Latin Songs chart and went gold by theRIAA.[15][16]
In 2018, Duki formed a trap trio with YSY A, the host of El Quinto Escalón, and Neo Pistea, another promising trap artist in Argentina. The trio published the singles "Quavo" and "Trap N' Export", gaining a lot of views on YouTube.[17] In March they performed in theTeatro Gran Rex, which was sold out. During May, Duki performed his single "Rockstar" with a live orchestra at thePremios Gardel, a performance that received a harsh critical reception, with artist Charly Garcia saying during his acceptance speech that "autotune should be banned".[18] However, Duki didn't mind Garcia's criticism, stating that "he could say I'm a scumbag and I'd be happy anyway. I love him, I went to one of his concerts when I was younger. I respect him so much that I didn't even respond to him."[19]
During this year, Duki continued to release singles to reach further popularity. His singles "Si Te Sentís Sola" and "Hijo de la Noche" reached the top-10 of the Argentine rankings.[20] However, during this time, Duki began to haveanxiety attacks, and started adrug dependency, while living in residence called La Mansión with the other members of Modo Diablo.[7] Duki decided to leave the house, and was helped by his family to recover. At the end of the year, Lombardo refused to sign withSony andUniversal, and was part of the jury of the Red Bull Batalla de Gallos contest, held in Argentina and won by fellow rapper Wos.[21] He was also the cover ofRolling Stone Argentina.[22] In December 2018 he released the single "Sin Culpa" with singer DrefQuila, that peaked at the sixth position of theBillboard Argentina Hot 100, the highest position reached so far by Lombardo.[23]
During the summer of 2019, Modo Diablo split due to the artists wanting to launch solo careers. In February, Duki participated in the first Argentine trap festival, Buenos Aires Trap, which featured appearances by Bad Bunny, Cazzu, and Khea.[24] In March, Duki was part of the mega-collaboration in the Neo Pistea's remix single "Tumbando el Club", which peaked at number 3 inArgentina Hot 100.[17] In June, he made the official soundtrack of the third season of seriesEl marginal, with artistVicentico.[25]
On 6 August, Duki released the single "Goteo", which reached the 10th position in the Argentine Hot 100, remaining for three months in the chart.[26] It also reached the top-10 in Spain, with Duki touring there and selling out every show. The tour video was later part of the official video for "Goteo". This song would end up being part of Duki's debut studio album,Súper Sangre Joven, with other tracks such as "Hitboy" (with Khea), "Te Traje Flores" and "A Punta de Espada" reaching into the Argentina Hot 100 chart. The album featured guest appearances fromKhea,C. Tangana,Alemán, YSY A, Marcianos Crew, Eladio Carrión andSfera Ebbasta, and received mixed reviews from critics, some praising Duki's versatility (the album featured various genres such astango,Latin R&B andLatin rock) but others criticizing the album's forced composition.[27][28]
In September, Duki toured theUnited States, with two shows inWisconsin andNew York, which had a "poor performance", said by Duki. He stated, "I performed poorly, no one knew me and I felt depressed. I insulted my crew on stage".[29] It was at this point that Duki realized he needed to professionalize his career, so he hired family members to form a team. He also created his record label, SSJ Records. At the end of 2019, Duki was part of three of Argentina's ten most listened songs byBillboard 2019.[30] In November he returned to Buenos Aires Trap, and insinuated at retiring from music on hisTwitter account, criticizing the music industry.[31]
In 2020, Duki announced that he would focus on releasing more produced songs and fewer singles. At the beginning of the year he participated in theBad Bunny albumYHLQMDLG in the track "Hablamos Mañana", that earned a nomination forBest Urban Fusion/Performance in the21st Latin Grammys.[32] On 24 June, he released an EP named24 to celebrate his birthday, which contained eight songs, and featured the stellar participation of U.S. rapperJuicy J.[33] During October, he released a series of interviews in YouTube calledFideos con Duko, in which Duki interviewed several artists from Argentina, and his mother as a special forMother's Day in Argentina.[34] During late 2020 Duki announced that he would travel to United States to start recording his next album, set to be released in April 2021.
In January 2021, Duki released the first single from his upcoming album, titled "Muero de Fiesta este Finde", with Ca7riel.[35] On 15 February, Duki tweeted that the album would have 18 songs.[36] On 4 March, he participated in Rusherking and Tiago PZK's single "Además de Mí", which peaked at number one on Argentina Hot 100 chart.[37] In 16 March Duki released the second and lead single from his next album, titled "Chico Estrella", which reached number 31 on the Argentine Hot 100.[38] On 1 April, Duki was featured onKhea's single "Wacha", which reached number three on Argentina Hot 100, the third time the duo has entered the chart.[39] During this month, Duki starred in a series of collaborations with theNBA on YouTube.[40]
Desde el Fin del Mundo was released on 22 April, produced on his part by producers Asan and Yesan. The album featured a long guest list of South American artists, with Duki stating that the concept of the album was to showcase the quality of the artists from the region.[41] Along with trap, the album experiments with genres such aselectro dance,drill andpunk rock. It was better received than its predecessor, with reviews praising Duki's maturation and versatility,[42][43] but with others noting songs that felt a bit out of place.[44] The album entered Spotify's Global Album Debuts chart at number three.[45] The following week, Duki released on YouTube a concept album with visuals of the album's 18 songs, in which Duki is seen dancing and singing the album's songs in a room with all the collaborators.[46] The tracks "Malbec", "Cascada" and "Pintao" entered in the Argentina Hot 100 chart.[47]
In May, Duki performed a show inEl Calafate, with thePerito Moreno Glacier as a background.[48] The performance was recorded and released into alive album,Vivo Desde el Fin del Mundo, on 10 June.
After his albumDesde el Fin del Mundo, he announced that he would start singing reggaeton and announced the two-EP-projects seriesTemporada de Reggaetón.[49] The first installment was released on 25 November 2021 and got to the top 3 in the Top 10 Global Album Debuts of Spotify.[50] The Latin trap moment continued throughout the year of 2022. On 20 July, Duki released his long-awaited single "Givenchy".[51] The single served as one of the five lead singles from the second installment ofTemporada de Reggaetón, titledTemporada de Reggaetón 2.
Also in 2022, Duki paired up with fellow Argentine producer and frequent collaboratorBizarrap for thevolume 50 of Bzrp Music Session.
Between 2023 and 2024, Duki released two studio albums, namelyAntes de Ameri (2023) andAmeri (2024).
Duki embarked on two world tours to support the projects, the A.D.A Tour in 2024 and the Ameri World Tour in 2025. Both tours visited the US, Latin America, and Europe.[52]
During the Ameri World Tour, Duki released two singles. The first, "Golfista", premiered at his sold-out show at the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires on 29 May, where he also debuted the music video. The second single, "No Me Alcanza", was released on his birthday, 24 June. On social media, Duki teased that a mixtape titled5202 could drop at any moment, it was released on 7 July with Clúster and Zell as featured artists.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Latin America South Act | — | Nominated | [53] |
| Martín Fierro Awards | Best Musical Artist | — | Nominated | [54] | |
| 2019 | Premios Gardel | Best Urban/Trap Song or Album | "Si Te Sentís Sola" | Nominated | [55] |
| Best Urban/Trap Collaboration | "Sin Culpa" | Nominated | |||
| 2020 | Best Urban/Trap Song or Album | "Tumbando el Club" (remix) | Nominated | [56] | |
| Best Urban/Trap Collaboration | Nominated | ||||
| Latin Grammy Awards | Best Urban Fusion/Performance | "Hablamos Mañana" | Nominated | [57] | |
| Best Rap/Hip Hop Song | "Goteo" | Nominated | |||
| 2021 | Premios Gardel | Best Urban/Trap Collaboration | "Goteo" (remix) | Nominated | [58] |
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| National | |
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