How hip-hop music deepens 'Duke & Roya' off Broadway

The new romantic drama by Charles Randolph-Wright isn't a musical, but five original songs are incorporated into the love story of a rapper and an interpreter.

Can an American rap sensation find happiness with an Afghan interpreter he meets while performing for U.S. troops in Kabul? That question beats at the heart of Duke & Roya, Charles Randolph-Wright’s stirring play about love, survival, and cultural divides.

Duke’s career naturally ensures that music is key to the story. Traditional Afghan music is woven into scene transitions to enrich the setting and emphasize the characters’ cross-cultural hurdles, but the role of music in Duke & Roya goes beyond incidental scoring.

“I get five chances to go on stage with five completely different songs,” said Jay Ellis, who persuasively plays the rapper following his screen performances in Insecure and Top Gun: Maverick.

Authenticity in Duke’s music — its sound, message, and presentation — was a top priority for both Randolph-Wright and director Warren Adams.

“One of the things Charles and I talked about was that we didn’t want it to seem like a theatre actor portraying hip-hop in a theatrical way,” said Adams. “We wanted him to have a real hip-hop sound.”

When Ellis performs, the director added, “what you'll hear is a sound created by [composer] Ronvé O’Daniel, which feels authentically hip-hop and not like we’re trying to squeeze it into a play.”

O’Daniel’s music and lyrics serve a greater purpose than providing rousing interludes to the action. They drive the narrative, underscore key themes, and reflect Duke’s evolution from 2017, when the events of the play begin, to 2025.

Noma Dumezweni and Dariush Kashani, who play Duke’s mother and Roya’s father, expressed admiration for the music (“I’m in awe,” said Dumezweni) and how effectively it’s woven into the show’s two acts.

“It’s not 'here’s a song, here’s a song, here’s a song, here’s a song,'” said Kashani. “[Each one] is connected to the story.”

Before Duke meets Roya (Lioness and 1883's Stephanie Nur), his music reflects his flashy bravado. “Ya boy’s on fire, fly in my attire,” he raps to the audience at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, imagined as troops. “You see me roll up to the party in my new Ferrari.”

As the years pass, the brash party jams shift toward introspection and emotional depth, even in Duke’s freestyles. He begins to reference the poet Rumi, allude to Roya, and eventually rap with vulnerability (“Inside my heart there’s a vacancy”) and raw self-awareness (“I am Duke, but admittedly, I’ve been lacking in nobility”). His performances turn confessional as Roya becomes his muse — even as life threatens to pull them apart.

In a way, the songs function like numbers in a musical, conveying unspoken feelings and inner truths words alone can’t express.

“Duke is an artist, so music is his life. Music guides everything,” said Wright.

For Duke, music is also a disguise. He’s built a career as a street kid, but he’s the privileged son of two powerful attorneys. His reckoning with the truth plays out in the score. And Duke’s growing honesty — about who he is and who he wants to be — is quietly, powerfully expressed in a simple act: saying his real name. For him and Roya, the words are music to their ears.

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Gillian Russo contributed reporting to this story.

Photo credit: Duke & Roya off Broadway. (Photos by Jeremy Daniel)