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‘Duck Dynasty’ star talks hit holiday album

He’s known to most as a duck commander, but it turns out Willie Robertson is also an original gangsta.

Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas

“I cut a rap song once,” he tells The Post. “It was a few years ago for my old show ‘Buck Commander,’ and it was a song called ‘You’re Short.’ It was about my camera guy. We shot the video in Las Vegas, ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ style!”

These days, Willie and his family — the stars of A&E’s hugely successful “Duck Dynasty” show — have scored a hit with “Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas,” which has been ruling the country album charts. There is no hillbilly hiphop to be heard here, though. The album is a mix of holiday traditionals and original songs written by the Robertsons (think: “Ragin’ Cajun Redneck Christmas”).

“I thought people would start buying it around December time, but it came out in October and went to No. 1 the first week,” says Willie. Here’s how he and his long-haired family cooked up their festive success.

The Inspiration

Christmas has always been a time for cheer in the Robertson house, even when there wasn’t much to cheer about.

“We didn’t have much when we were young. We were very poor, and there would only be a couple of presents laid out for us,” Willie recalls. “One year I got a Dallas Cowboys knit cap and a jersey. That was it. I wore those things out! I guess the best present we got was the year my wife Korie and I adopted our child, Will. That was in December 2001.”

The Writing

Willie got some help from his famous country music friends Luke Bryan and Dallas Davidson when putting the album together.

“Dallas has written tons of No. 1s, so he gave me some coaching,” Willie says. “Luke and I have been friends for about eight years now. We’ve hung out and been on many trips together. He was a great person to ask about studios and producers and things like that, but he was also great to talk to about singing with confidence. I leaned on him a lot, for sure.”

The Recording

While in the studio, it wasn’t always easy getting the family to sing from the same song sheet.

“My brothers gave me the job of lead singer, but I was worried about ending up as the laughingstock of America. The first track we did was ‘Duck the Halls,’ and we all had different parts. We all thought it sounded great, but then we listened back and it sounded horrible! Some people were singing lead vocals, some people were doing harmonies, we just weren’t on the same page,” Willie explains. “The microphone doesn’t lie. But we got better from there.”

The Follow-Up

After scoring such a mega hit, the Robertsons are already thinking about the next album.

“I’d like to try to do some more songwriting. Once I got started, I really got the feel for it,” says Willie. “But our TV demands are so high that there’s really no time. We had to record this album at 10 o’clock at night after a day of filming the show.”