Tell us who you are and what you do...

My name is DuqueNuquem, or Christian Duquette. I am hip hop producer out of Victoria, BC, Canada. I've just started making beats over the 6 months or so.

How did you come up with your name?
I wish I had a better story for my name. I chose it originally as a gamer name and have used it ever since. It's a more or less Duke Nukem the video game character, combined with my last name.
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Tell us about your studio space/setup

My setup and studio is very minimal at the moment (to say the least) haha. I make all my beats on FL studio 8 with my mouse and keyboard. I'm hoping to get myself an MPD 32 in the near future, and possibly a proper keyboard to jam with. If I ever start selling my beats, the first thing I will do the profits is invest in equiptment. I know alot of people have hate for FL studio but it really does everything I need it to and I still feel like i've barely scraped the surface of it.

How did you become a music producer?

I became a "producer" mostly because of my love for hip hop and partly because of bordom. I remember my buddy rhythum was pushing me to start making beats a year ago because that's when he started, but it wasn't until probably 6 months ago that I actually opened fl Studio for the first time. I'm not sure what initially motivated me to try to make my first "beat" but after listening to J dilla's "Donuts" the whole way through for the first time, i definitely had a different perception on the production side of hip hop.


Who are your biggest influences?

My biggest influences HAS to start with J dilla, I'm also a huge fan of producers like al'tarba, damu the fudgemunk, RJD2, nujabes, madlib, pete rock, afta-1. Besides that I've found some insanely talented soundcloud producers over the last few months, there's too many names to mention though. Anyone who's taking music in a new direction influences me.

What encourages you to carry on with music?

Other peoples music. Whenever I hear something dope it inspires me to start choppin up samples or making drums. Whether I make something I feel is good, or not, it's always gonna be other peoples music that inspires me to keep going.
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What do you think about the music industry and independent hip hop at the moment? Where do you think things are going in the next few years?

In terms of hip hop, the music industry is pretty bad in my opinion. Hip hop seems to be the only genre where the most talented artists get the least shine. I know a lot of people who really hate on mainstream hip hop and are very opinionated when it comes to this topic, and i used to be the same way haha, but now I honestly just listen to what I want and don't bother with the other stuff. "If I don't like it, I don't like it, that don't mean that I'm hating" - Common. With that being said though, I still think that hip hop is going in amazing directions and there's tons new independent artists that suprise me with talent and anyone who's out there complaining about hip hop being dead is honestly just looking in the wrong places. Regardless of the industry, I think there will always be dope hip hop out there.

What have you been listening to recently?

Recently I've been listening to the Jaylib album "Champion sound", Clear soul Forces, al'tarba, Häzel and knxwledge. J dilla is one of the artists I've been consistently listening to over the past year or so. That shit never get's dull for me. I'm also always listening to soundcloud users music. To name a few, I'd have to say that CloudofSounds, Ta-ku, ChromadaData, RepeatPattern, Kofee, Adjaman, prime.cut and MANY more. All the stuff I find on the daily through soundcloudis unreal. It's 100% inspiration.

Biggest personal music achievement?

I haven't been doing this long enough to achieve anything I feel really substantial. The feedback and views i've gotten recently is a huge achievment. I really appreciate all of it. Other than that, I feel like I've achieved something each time I finish a beat. Although I'm really only doing this for me, it's
a hobby, so It's more of a feeling of gratification.

What is your next big project, any big plans coming up?

I've a few projects in the works right now. They're all going pretty slow though at the moment because of work . I'm making an EP solely out nintendo music. I love 8 bit music so I had to do this one. All my samples will be from Nes, snes and n64 games. Another, smaller, project I have in the works is a 5 track EP usuing movie soundtracks as samples. Besides that I'm working on collaborations with plenty of soundcloud artists.

Any last words?

Thank you for the interivew!