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Artist Repertoire of Diplomat Records has stepped up his game and is ready to promote his musical knowledge and skills. The Situation takes a step into the world of Duke Da God.
George
Moore aka Duke
Da God, was born and raised in Harlem, New York. This
28-year-old musical genius started his musical venture with rap group,
Children Of The Corn, whose
members included Cam’ron,
Mase, Big
L, Mason Betha,
Bloodshed and Damon
Dash. “My position at the time was to road manage
all the shows,” remembers Duke. “I was just hanging with the
crew. It taught me a lot. I watched Dame; Dame was the manager. I made
sure he got the money for the shows.”
When the group split, Damon went to set up Roc-A-Fella Records and wanted to take Duke with him. “Dame offered me a good job and all that, it was at the beginning of Roc-A-Fella, like the early stage when the label was just getting started,” he explains. Duke kindly declined the job offer as he was working closely with Cam’ron at the time, and felt that joining the label at such early stages wouldn’t be a wise move. “I look at it as Dame is my man, Cam is too. I hang out with Cam, Cam’s family so I just stayed with Cam for the simple fact that it was a loyal thing to do,” says Duke. “You know, I didn’t just jump off the ship and go with Dame, even though we all knew each other. You know, me and Cam went through a lot together.”
Fortunately, in 1997 Cam’ron had signed his company, Diplomat Records to Roc-A-Fella and took Duke under his wing, signing him as his A&R. “It just so happened that throughout Roc-A-Fella’s success, I didn’t miss the boat. You know my boat was right here, it never left the dock and now I’m on a yacht.” Now, Duke looks after all of Cam’s artists, he participated in all four of Cam’s albums, as well as Juelz Santana’s ‘From Me To You’ LP, Jim Jones’ ‘On The Way To Church’, Dipset’s ‘Immunity’ albums part one and two, and all of Dipset’s mixtapes. He also looks after the website and pushes promotion: “I see myself as a coach, like a championship team. A team of potentials, I see my self as a leader and an artist pursuer.”
After continuous contribution to the label and dealing with all the promotion on his own, KOCH Records picked up on his musical aspirations and wanted to work with him. Duke has now stepped out from behind the scenes and has fully produced his own mixtape. From choosing producers, artists and arranging music, ‘More Than Music Vol. 1’ has hit the streets. The 19 track mix features all the Diplomat artists, such as Juelz Santana, Hell Rell, Freeky Zeeky, 40 Cals, JR Writer, new female emcee, Jha Jha, and the father of the Dip family, Cam’ron.
‘More Than Music’ includes some heavy reality hitting tracks, such as 40 Cal’s ‘Open Your Eyes’ and ‘What Kind Of Life Is This’ by Juelz and Razah. Duke produced ‘No Days Off’ featuring Juelz, and Fabolous makes the only guest appearance on ‘So What’s It Gonna Be’. “I liked the song; I didn’t wanna use anyone else,” he tells. “We have so much talent in our crew, I decided to keep everything Dipset. I liked what that record was about.” Whilst Duke largely remains behind the scenes, he appears on the interludes, such as ‘Sucker For Love Radio’, where he plays a DJ advising a caller on pleasuring himself! Jha Jha, Diplomats’ first female MC, represents her skills on ‘50 Gangsta’. She also has a song on Jim Jones’ latest album. “It’s gonna be a crazy big record, you’ll definitely being hearing more from her,” he says of the Dipset femcee. “This is gonna be her red carpet.”
Duke is 100% loyal to the game and his fellow partners. Although he’s out there promoting his own talent right now, he’s always showing his admiration for other artists and producers, proving that his A&R position with the label shines through him like a star. When members of Children Of The Corn found their career path before he found his, he showed nothing but support. “It was like a dream come true. I knew Cam would definitely have potential, besides Dame Dash, he had star potential,” says Duke, admirably.
Although there have been label changes, Diplomat Records is now signed to Asylum/Warner Music Group, and the show still goes on strong. “It never affected us because we were Dipset from the beginning, so it’s like the record label stuff is just extra. They can never infiltrate Dipset!”
This mature, level minded, down to earth and musically skilled man should be an inspiration to us all. His determination and hard working ways comes from his father. “He worked hard, and he worked crazy hours,” tells Duke. “I translate that into what I do; I mean he did something totally different but he still put a lot of work into it and it paid off.” Besides his father, Damon Dash is also an inspiration to him, as he explains: “He’s one of the richest dudes I know, and I know him personally so he’s definitely, definitely influential.”
With all the artists taking the solo route, it makes you wonder if there’s
ever any conspiracy between the acts. “It’s like a bunch of
planes on the runway and everyone wants to take off, and everyone can’t
be on the run way at the same time. You gotta be organised,” he
stresses. “Everyone’s pretty patient. It’s funny competition,
you know what I mean? It’s like the Knicks playing together at practise;
there’s gonna be competition. You know, you’re gonna have
players that wanna be better than other players. That’s what it’s
all about, but it’s all love.”
Future projects include pushing out new solo albums, and Duke is currently working on promoting artists JR Writer, Hell Rell and 40 Cal. “We definitely want to establish each individual artist, because each individual has fans.” So what about plans to hit the mainstream? “Yeah, sky’s the limit, you know what I mean? We tend to play on the independent labels because there’s a lot more money,” Duke says truthfully. “Everything that glitters ain’t gold, we learnt that earlier on. We’re not looking for glitter, we’re looking for gold.” The Diplomats have also set up their own radio show that is hosted by the man himself, Da God. The station can be tuned into on their website http://www.dipsetmixtapes.com. With Damon Dash now in charge of the Damon Dash Music Group, Duke expresses his own interests in working with the label head once again. “He’s a marketing genius, his expertise and knowledge of what’s going on right now. We could definitely be doing something real big together.”
Like many, Duke feels that hip hop nowadays has changed, with too many artists going down the commercial route, instead of doing what they want to do. “A lot of people don’t understand hip hop, not even paying attention to the history of hip hop,” he says. “Going back to the real rappers, people wanted to be like Run DMC and Big Daddy Kane. They need to bring back those characters.” With that said, you can be sure that the Diplomats will always keep it Dipset no matter what direction or approach they take into aiming higher. “There are a lot of restrictions, MTV won’t play this, and radio won’t play that. So people are just making what the radio wanna hear instead of making stuff with your heart,” tells a somewhat disappointed Duke. “It’s about making that record that when people get up in the morning and they listen to it, it gets them through their day, you know what I’m saying? People who create music like that tend to be around forever.” Originality and creativity are just two of the qualities Duke looks for in an artist: “I wanna know a little bit of history about you; I’m gonna look out for the kind of dudes you roll with. So it’s like a lot of things, it’s more than music. It’s more than just rhymes.”
With all the constant work and future projects, it makes you wonder how he fits his friends, family and George Moore time into his schedule. “My family pretty much understand the level we at. I tend to look at it like the MBA, you’re expected to do a lot of stuff, so you know if I’m not around with my family I try to spread that to them. I just wanna capture all the glory and then get back to the family after that,” says the Dipset A&R. “At weekends I tend to just chill out, play video games, I take my brother to the park, parties, you know what I mean? You know, it’s New York City lifestyle; I pretty much do what I’ve always been doing.”
Before hitting the music scene, Duke used to work on construction, and if it wasn’t for music he wouldn’t care what he was doing as long as he can gain opportunities and it brings in the dollar bills! As long as he can look after himself and his family, he’s content. But this man is far from getting back to your average day job. “I see myself owning a couple of businesses, maybe a record company as a consultant or something,” he ponders. “I definitely see myself with a lot of businesses going on.” Move over P. Diddy, Duke Da God is ready to take over!
‘More Than Music Vol. 1’ is in stores now. For more information, visit http://www.dipsetmixtapes.com.
