Hip Hop Duke

I met Duke at a showcase in Gainesville way back in January, and it was always evident that the dude had witty bars on witty bars. For the first time in three years, the Duval county native has released a new project, The Bigger Picture, which features 14 song, two of them being the previously released “Specialty” and “Old School Pt. 2.”

I interviewed Duke on DJLX’s Bag of Tricks show on GrowRadio on Friday, so we’ll get a cut of that interview up on the site soon. We talked about the content on and inspiration behind The Bigger Picture, and where Duke wants to go from here. There’s a lot of uplifting music on The Bigger Picture, so if you need a pick-me-up or just want straight bars, download the project below, and make sure you give the new Mr. Orange and Blue at the University of Florida a couple spins. - Mad Pat, Everydejavu

Most of the time, when he picks up a microphone, Bunduki “Duke” Ramadan is psyching up thousands of screaming football fans at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium or performing his original songs at a show.

On Friday, for the first time, he went to Boulware Springs Charter School to rap with kids about being a good friend.

“I feel like a big deal right now,” Ramadan, 21, said after Boulware Springs teachers introduced him to the students, who oohed and ahhed and craned their necks to get a better view of a “celebrity.”

He’s hard to miss.

At 6 feet 7 inches tall, Ramadan was about twice as tall as the smallest students, who ranged in age from 5 to 10 and who all wanted a turn high-fiving him.

Ramadan and his friend and DJ, Bernie Gonzalez, visited the school for “Fun Friday,” an event Boulware Springs teachers put on each week for students who have made good choices and behaved well, co-founder Megan Lane said.

Lane said that in the two months the school has been open, it has had movies, musicians and guest speakers, and now a rapper.

“They were really into that,” she said of the students.

Ramadan is a senior at the University of Florida and the mic man for the spirit squads during football games, which means he leads chants and cheers and keeps the crowd pumped up.

Outside of that, the Egypt-born Jacksonville native said he has been rapping since he was a kid himself.

He’s been recording with Gonzalez and other friends for a number of years, and most recently opened over the summer for such well-known groups as the Ying Yang Twins and Nappy Roots.

Friday, he switched gears and talked to students about the importance of working hard in school and taking care of each other.

“How many of you want to make a difference for somebody?” he asked the children, seated on the floor in the school’s biggest room.

“If you want to make a difference in this world, you have to work hard every day.”

One of the ways you can do that is to be a good friend, Ramadan said, before performing a friendship rap over a song he wrote with a friend, called “I’m Your Friend.”

Another song he performed at Boulware Springs, “Biggest Fan,” is available on iTunes. Proceeds benefit Children’s Miracle Network and the Sankofa Children’s Home in Ghana.

Boulware Springs first-graders learned “I’m Your Friend” earlier in the week and sang along with Ramadan, jumping up for the chorus, “I’m your friend, you’re my friend, this friendship lasts forever.”

Ramadan asked for some volunteers, and a teacher brought up the eight “friends of the week,” who received certificates for being good students before the performance.

He asked each of them to pick a word or phrase related to friendship to use in a freestyle rap, which is all improvised.

“Kind,” “helpful,” “always there if you’re in trouble,” the students said.

“What’s up,” another student said, causing some others to laugh.

Ramadan rolled with it, and DJ Bernie kept looping the opening hook of the classic “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest.

“What’s up? It’s the ceiling. We’re rapping with friends and it’s so appealing,” he sang.

Adrianna Holmes, 9, said she loved the performance.

The fourth-grader loves helping people, she said, so it was nice to hear someone rap about it.

Plus, her friends helped Ramadan pick what to rap about.

“It was cool,” she said, “really cool.”

Gonzalez and Ramadan stuck around to give more high-fives and freestyle about other important concepts for fourth-graders, such as candy.

The UF students said they had fun at their first kid-centric event and hope it’s not the last time they do something like this.

“It was amazing to be able to see all the smiles on the kids’ faces,” Ramadan said, grinning from ear to ear himself. - Erin Jester, The Gainesville Sun

Bunduki Ramadan, also known as Hip Hop Duke, has stood out in the Gainesville hip-hop scene since opening up for the Ying Yang Twins in July 2014. You may now know Duke from his performances as Mr. Orange and Blue and the "Mic Man Hype Man." You may also know the 23-year-old UF economics senior as the guy who seems to know everyone on campus.

I sat down with Duke at the Institute of Black Culture on Monday, and the rapper talked growing up, music influences and community involvement.

J: So how did you become the mic man for the cheerleading squad and Mr. Orange and Blue?

D: So what happened was, one of my best friends since freshman year joined the cheerleading squad his senior year and that same year, they opened up tryouts for students to be the cheerleading squad mic man. So he told me about the tryouts and he thought I would be perfect for it. So I went and checked it out and I was like, "Oh snap, I am perfect for this!" So I went out and auditioned for it and I showed up in this gator onesie, bro! So I went in there with this Gator onesie and decked out in Gator gear and told them I was a rapper and that I could freestyle. So I dropped an Orange and Blue freestyle and had them throw out random words to me to use in my rap and I blew them away with that. So I got the mic man position and Mr. Orange and Blue was retiring around the same time, and he decided to pass the tradition on to me, so I really became two positions in one: the Mic Man Hype Man and Mr. Orange and Blue.

J: When did you start rapping?

D: I started writing poetry in elementary school and just from listening to a bunch of hip-hop I was like, "You know what? I could do this too," so I started downloading instrumentals to rap along to.

J: What rappers or other people have influenced you and/or your style?

D: Actually, the first rapper I was listening to heavy was Ludacris. The cool thing about Luda is that he was a hood rapper but he had class and that fun vibe. He would rap about whatever and would use his vocabulary. That’s why I like T.I. as well, because of his vocabulary. I always listened to a lot of Jay Z, 2Pac, Nas and Lupe Fiasco. I can’t forget my boy Terry Bennett, who I worked with as a Preview staffer. He was like a catalyst for me because he had been in the music business for a minute and had been working with well-known artists and producers down south in Miami and he came here to further his education so he’s got a strong musical background and degrees in both marketing and business. He kind of opened up my eyes to the music industry and the business side of it all. He showed me how to market myself and he continues to teach me a lot. He’s a person that helped me understand that it’s not just a dream, like, it’s a goal and I can make this happen.

J: If you could work with any established producers right now, who would they be?

D: Oh wow, let’s see... Swizz Beatz. I like Jahlil Beats as well, and Metro Boomin is dope, too. Pharrell, I’d love to work with him. Kanye, too, and even J. Cole. And Just Blaze!

J: What about some rappers? If you could jump on their song or vice versa, who would you choose?

D: Definitely Lupe, Cole, Kendrick or Jay Z. Even some of the guys that are breaking through now like Joey Bada$$.

J: What about your performances? I know you do a lot of shows and opening acts, so what are some places you perform at?

D: I perform at the High Dive or The Jam usually. A few other local spots like the 8-bit Bar and Market Street that’s downtown. And of course on campus, too, like the Reitz Union. I did the "Welcome To The Swamp" week when they had GatorNights. It gets super lit; it’s a lot of fun.

J: So who are some artists you’ve opened up for? I saw that you opened up for Hopsin recently.

D: Yeah I opened up for Hopsin, Ying Yang Twins, Nappy Roots a couple times and Afroman.

J: I want to talk more about your actual music. What’s the message you try to get across to your listeners?

D: As an artist, I have my own personal, overall theme and what I want to do. I’m definitely out there to motivate others, you know what I’m saying? I got people I grew up with, people that feel like they have nothing going for them. It doesn’t matter. Anyone can grind and push themselves to that next level. I come from Jacksonville around some rough areas and the people I grew up around were selling dope and gang banging because that’s what they do; that’s all they know. I can’t be mad at somebody for doing something though, you know what I’m saying? I just want to tell people that there’s better out there; we can get this money out here, man! You can live well out here and take care of the family and everything.

J: How involved are you in the Gainesville community? How do you give back?

D: I have a friend who’s actually studying to become a teacher and his sister works at Boulware Springs Charter School here in Gainesville and I rapped for her one time and she asked if I could come rap to her students and I said, "Of course!" It’s a school for low-income students so these kids come up and they don’t know what they can achieve and I can definitely relate to them, coming from a low-income family myself. So I went out there and did a whole set and then gave a motivational speech and there ended up being a writer from the Gainesville Sun out there and that’s how the story kind of blew up.

Check out Hip Hop Duke’s album "The Bigger Picture" with links to download on his website: HipHopDuke.com. - Jack DaSilva, The Independent Florida Alligator

Rapper Duke spits a freestyle using words yelled out by the audience at Mellow Soul Tuesdays in Gainesville, FL. Mr. Orange and Blue carries a solid flow as audience members challenge him with the most unusual words to rhyme with such as “melodica” and “plantains.”
The “Whippin” rapper is well received and recognized as one of the most promising artists out of the city. The 22-year-old artist currently attends the University of Florida where he frequently collaborates with other local acts and performs at the biggest venues including Gator Football games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tWjiVMNqHQ - Norman Brian Galang, Mind Equals Blown

One student is still keeping the student section hyped even when the Gator football team can’t.

Meet Duke the mic man: hip-hop artist, optimist, brave leader of the student section.

Bunduki Ramadan, who goes by Duke, is UF’s first official mic man. He shared the responsibility of energizing the crowd this football season with Mr. Orange and Blue.

At the beginning of November, Richard Johnston Jr., who has been Mr. Orange and Blue for 31 seasons, announced his retirement.

He’s officially passing the mic to Ramadan.

Ramadan, a 22-year-old UF economics senior with a minor in Arabic studies, helped honor Johnston during the first quarter of Florida’s game against South Carolina last Saturday. Johnston was honored for his service to The Gator Nation and presented with a trophy – one orange shoe and one blue one enclosed in a glass case.

"Most people don’t know who I am unless I’m wearing my one orange one blue shoe," Johnston said. "They see the feet, they look at my face, they say, ‘Oh, you’re that guy.’"

The 57-year-old brokerage lawyer in Fort Myers drove four hours both ways to every home game. Johnston started at UF in the Fall of 1975. He walked on the swim team and then switched to cheerleading in 1978. In 1984 he got a call from the UF Athletic Association asking if he would come back and lead the pre-game pump-up cheers. He’s been there ever since, working as the liaison between the band, cheerleaders and crowd.

"It’s a rush that I can’t explain," Johnston said.

Johnston was just another face on the Spirit Squad until he was highlighted in a video played at Gator Growl a few years ago. Mr. Orange and Blue was born.

His wife, Tracie Carlson, attended Florida State University and is supportive of her husband as Mr. Orange and Blue.

"He’s little-kid happy," Carlson said. "He’s crazy silly about it."

Johnston said he saw Ramadan connect with the student section at the Eastern Michigan game just like he used to and decided it was time to give his job back to a student.

"I went over, and I listened to him, and I was like ‘Wow, he gets it,’" Johnston said. "He just knows how to communicate with the crowd."

Ramadan became the mic man after an audition at the beginning of the semester. He practices a few times a week with the cheer squad and doesn’t get paid for the position. UF cheer coach Cortnee Alexander said the program added the job of mic man to connect students with the band and cheerleaders.

"Within the first ten minutes of sitting down with Duke I knew right off the bat he was the one," Alexander said.

Patrick Glynn, a 20-year-old public relations senior, met Duke at one of his hip-hop performances last spring. Glynn said Ramadan’s talent with freestyle rapping and entertaining make him a natural on the mic.

"Everyone’s kind of happy when they’re listening to him," Glynn said.

He also said the crowd at the game Saturday loved how Ramadan freestyle-rapped a witty line about the South Carolina Gamecocks’ team mascot.

"He even had the other team laughing," he said.

Ted Fitzgeorge, 57-year-old Gator fan and friend of Johnston, said Johnston had an enviable amount of passion as Mr. Orange and Blue.

"He’s got some big orange and blue Crocs to fill," Fitzgeorge said of Ramadan.

Ramadan sports his own signature style with an orange-and-blue-striped bow tie, white button-down shirt and blue pants with Gator emblems.

But will Ramadan stay on the mic for 31 years?

"We’ll see," he said with a laugh. - Chloe Stradinger, The Independent Florida Alligator

A local legend to the Gainesville community, Bunduki Ramadan should be a common name to students.

“I told my friends when I was leaving Jacksonville that I was going to take over the University of Florida,” said Bunduki Ramadan, a senior studying economics. “Once I convinced myself of that, I knew I had to make it happen.”

Four years later, Bunduki Ramadan, better known as Duke, has done just that. Duke, for those who don’t know, has a hand in just about everything campus has to offer. He was a former Retreat director for Savant Leadership Honorary, he was an RA (resident assistant) for one of the campus dorms, and a Preview Staffer in 2013. Currently, he is a Student Assistant at the Dean’s office, the Webmaster for the African Student Union, a University Ambassador for GRAMMY U, a Sales Associate at Finish Line, the Lead Marketing and Sales Manager for his company Hip Hop Duke (he is an aspiring music mogul) and he is the Mic Man Hype Man/Mr. Orange & Blue for the UF Football team.

WOW, that was a mouthful of Duke’s involvement. However, before all of Duke’s successes, there were some harder times. Duke was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to the United States when he was 2 years old. His parents were from Sudan, but had him in Egypt because of a war in Sudan. Coming to America with parents that spoke minimal English, Duke was influenced by two entirely different cultures and said it was a “conflict of interest.” On one side, he was young enough to start picking up the American culture but on the other hand, his parents and older siblings were not quite used to the American ways.

Duke’s parents pushed him to be the best he could be and make the most of his opportunities presented. He always knew, both himself and by his parents, that he had to go to college. So, he worked hard and fell in love with the University of Florida. That said though, Duke is not afraid to mess up.

“I mess up a lot,” Duke said. “But every time I mess up I do that same thing better 1000%.”

This means of self-improvement is one of the reasons Duke is where he is today. When the opportunities to improve himself arose, Duke never looked these opportunities down. Starting as a student assistant, Duke heard about being an RA and decided to become one. From being an RA and working in the Dean’s office, he realized how fitting it could be for him to be a Preview Staffer and just like that, he was a Preview Staffer in 2013.

Rapping came to Duke at a young age. What began as poetry suddenly became hip-hop when one day, Duke decided, “I can do this,” and started recording cassettes on his dad’s cassette player. Now a senior at UF, Duke hopes to fuse his major (economics) with his passion for music to bring his own label to fruition and by doing so, give back to South Sudan when he will be able to.

Through rapping, Duke found himself. He can speak his mind, speak his problems and connect with just about anyone. That, that is how he became the UF hype man.

“My boy from freshman year summer B, four years later joins the spirit squad and they opened up the mic man to students,” Duke said. “Seeing me rap and watching me at shows, he told me to read his last tweet about a mic man position.”

Right after reading that tweet, Duke knew his time had come. He came to his mic man audition in a Gator onesie, knowing it would make him stand out. Pairing that with orange and blue socks, shoes, a hat and shades, he took the judges by surprise. Duke nailed the interview portion and that’s when they asked him to give a freestyle about the Gators and football. He simulated hyping up the crowd and the position was his. Two years later, Duke is not only the mic man hype man, but he just recently became Mr. Orange and Blue, as well, when he was handed the reigns by Richard Johnston Junior. Every game, he gets to be on the field and make people feel the way he used to feel, and still does feel, when watching the Gators play.

“Going from being a fan to being on the field, just having fun, is an amazing feeling to be in front of the entire Gator nation,” said Duke. “Being two positions in one is incredible to think about given where I came from to where I am now.”

Duke continues to chase his passions on a daily basis and will never let anyone take him down. After being bullied growing up for an array of things, it has only made Duke tougher as a person and more confident in himself. He’s had a target on his back for so long, due to his cultural background, his birth deformity, his height and more, but knows “you have to go hard no matter what.” Moving forward from the mic man hype man, Duke hopes to move to Atlanta to pursue his hip-hop dreams in the hip-hop hub of the United States.

“If people aren’t pushing you down; if people aren’t hating on you; if people aren’t trying to hold you back, then you aren’t doing something right,” Duke said. “If you’re on the path to success, people will always do that and you just have to learn how to beat it and use that as the fuel to your fire.” - Trevor Youshak, The Odyssey Online