Duke Deuce is already one of the hottest names in rap and it's all due to hard work and passion. The 27-year-old Memphis, Tenn. rapper was literally born into hip-hop, as his father is Duke Nitty, a local rapper/producer who enjoyed success in the area.

As a child, Duke shared a room with his father, which doubled as a studio for Big Duke. Countless nights in Duke Deuce's childhood featured him both waking up and falling asleep to music. Duke was allowed to play with a beat pad when he was 5 years old, and was even showing signs of competence back then. Those early days set the foundation for the southern rapper to become yet another up-and-coming rhymer under the storied Quality Control Music imprint.

Fast forward through years of local releases and enter 2017, when Duke Deuce's song "Whole Lotta" first blows up in Memphis, then lands on the radar of well-known Atlanta dancer SheLovesMeechie. Meechie made a video to the song and it was only up from there for Deuce. Offset caught wind of the song because of the dancer's work. An Instagram DM later (that Duke immediately thought was from a fake account), and QC had yet another talent signed in 2017.

His 2018 tape, Memphis Massacre, followed, along with two of his contributions to QC's Control The Streets Volume 2 compilation—"Yeh" and "Grab A..." Now, his name is getting known on a bigger stage as a result of 2019's fun and boisterous track "Crunk Ain't Dead," for which the video is racking up over 11 million YouTube streams and counting. His newest project, Memphis Massacre 2, which features the "Crunk Ain't Dead (Remix)" with Lil Jon, Juicy J and Project Pat, is out now.

Catch up on Duke Deuce's journey while it's still early in this week's The Break.

Age: 27

Hometown: Memphis, Tenn.

I grew up listening to: "My pops [Duke Nitty],Three 6 Mafia, Playa Fly, Skinny Pimp, Pretty Tony, pretty much all the legendary artists from Memphis."

My style’s been compared to: "They compare me a lot to Three 6 Mafia, they compare me a lot to Project Pat, they compare me a lot to Memphis. They compare me to Lil Jon because I'm crunk, thats Memphis, the original. They compare me to Peewee Longway because of the triplet flow. That comes from Memphis too, that comes from Lord Infamous. No disrespect to my boys [Migos], they bought it back in they own way though. Give them niggas they props. But that original flow came from my city. But, I probably wouldn't be rappin' in the triplet flow if it wasn't for Migos."

I’m going to blow up because: "My shit is authentic, my shit is original. I got everything you want—versatility, I got the singing the melody shit, I got the crunk shit, I got the smooth shit, I got the pimpin' shit, I got every fuckin' music genre you can ever think of. Plus I know how to muthafuckin' move and I'm fat. I'm smooth than a muthafucka, You can't miss it, you can't look past me, its over wit'. Stop playin'. And I know how to rap my ass off. And I look like a baby."

What’s your most slept-on song, and why? "'Drippin' in my opinion. 'Drippin' hard as fuck. But it did not get no attention that it shoulda got. 'Chosen,' 'No Smoke.' I was already giving y'all crunk before y'all even said it. Didn't nobody pay attention though. It's plenty shit on Memphis Massacre 1. It was crunk. Ain't nobody pay attention 'til I said the word 'crunk.' That's when muthafuckas said, 'OK, he bringin' crunk back.'"

My standout records to date have been: "'Crunk Ain't Dead.' Because I say crunk, because I jooked in the video and I put a lot of thought into this video."

My standout moments to date have been: "When I got exposed to the actual industry, to being in L.A. and sitting with the big fish, that's been around. They took me to Rolling Loud [Miami], that's when I met P. Diddy. I ain't never seen half of this shit in my life before. That's why I'm motivated."

Most people don’t know: "I got melody, I can actually hit some notes. Another thing is I'm actually a fuckin' genius. And a prophet. I said all this shit was coming before it actually happened, no cap."

I’m going to be the next: "Biggest artist from Memphis, Tenn. That means bigger than everybody else that done came out my city since Three 6 Mafia. I'ma be the biggest to come out the South."

Follow Duke Deuce on Instagram and SoundCloud.

Standouts:

"Grab A..." Featuring Tay Keith

"Yeh"

"Crunk Ain't Dead"

Memphis Massacre 2

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