Photograph by Shawn Handy
Ducko McFli is proof that if you’re willing to take a chance, you can forge a totally new career path. After nearly two decades in the music industry as a rapper, DJ, and producer, McFli opened The Tuftest Class in Town two years ago in Poncey-Highland, where he leads workshops on rug making.
“I had no idea that I would be the ‘rug guy,’ but I am so thankful,” McFli says.
McFli’s “I can try it” philosophy dates back to his early years in Nashville, when he began making beats for songs with his friends. They started competing in beat battles, and Rapper Boi-1da eventually picked up McFli and his friend Syk Sense to help them as a producer. In 2013, McFli moved to Atlanta to produce and was soon working with some of the buzziest names in hip-hop, including Drake, Lil Yachty, and 2 Chainz. By 2018, he’d been signed as a solo producer with Same Plate Entertainment, a joint venture with Sony Music.
But then things unraveled. In 2020, he had to scrap an album he was producing after the artist realized he was signed elsewhere. He was spending less of his time mentoring up-and-coming artists and more time sitting in Zoom meetings.
Homebound during the pandemic, McFli began exploring other creative outlets. He taught himself stop-motion animation with action figures and tinkered with drawing on his iPad. He tattooed a willing friend and, for a moment, thought he was a prodigy. “I called my tattoo homies and was like, I need an apprenticeship,” McFli laughs.
Tufting, using a tufting gun to make custom-designed yarn rugs, was the culmination of his odyssey. “It was essentially tattooing on cloth without physical risks,” McFli says. He shared his new creations on Instagram—a chocolate-milk container endowed with breasts, a trippy Marge Simpson—to the delight of his followers. But things really took off in November 2020, when he posted a rug inspired by the cover art for Freddie Gibbs’s 2019 album Bandana. “Gibbs posted it and told people to hit me up to buy it,” McFli says. Orders and commissions poured in.
By early 2021, McFli was able to pivot to making rugs full-time. “I asked Sony to drop me,” he explains. “After focusing on music since age 16, it was the first time I felt I had an opportunity to segue out.”
Meanwhile, tufting was becoming a popular hobby: McFli noticed novices sharing their failed attempts online and had an idea to start a class. His friend Sarah Oak Kim, who owns Our Bar ATL on Edgewood Avenue, offered him space. Soon, McFli’s Wednesday-through-Sunday class was booked out for months.
Kim saw that McFli was ready for something larger. “I told him, ‘You gotta get a bigger place. You’re limiting yourself and you’re still busy,’” she says. With Kim’s support to help cover start-up costs, McFli opened his Poncey-Highland studio in February 2024. He now offers classes for adults and kids ages 7 to 11, as well as open studio time and private events.
During the three-hour workshop ($85 for the class and supplies), McFli gives students a quick tutorial before they head to their workstations, each outfitted with a tufting gun, colored yarns, and their chosen design, which he has sketched on fabric stretched on a wooden frame. McFli teaches most of the classes, circulating as a troubleshooter and serving as the house DJ.
Down the road, McFli hopes to open satellite locations in Atlanta and beyond. This may not be the path he envisioned in his early days of making beats, but his philosophy has prevailed. “If you’re not satisfied with your life,” he says, “you can try something different.”
This article appears in our April 2026 issue.
