"Daveed Diggs is a incredible multi talented artist who always reps his hometown, Oakland California". -- Justin Walton
When people usually think about the Bay Area, the things that often come to mind are ¨the 3 time Champion Warriors, the Golden Gate Bridge, traffic, the exorbitant cost of living, and beautiful weather.¨However, When I think about the Bay Area, the first thing that comes to mind is how much talent has been birthed and discovered here. The Bay Area has been the home to many legendary musicians, activists, athletes, actors, and writers. Tupac Shakur, Huey P. Newton, Bill Russell, Angela Davis, Mac Dre, Danny Glover, and Greenday are all Bay Area natives. Recent talent from the Bay includes OSA’s own Kehlani and Zendaya, as well as Damian Lillard, Ryan Coogler, Rafael Casal, and E-40. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with another talented artist from the Bay, Daveed Diggs, an incredible multi talented artist who always reps his hometown, Oakland California.
Daveed Diggs is an actor, rapper, writer, and poet as well as the vocalist for the hip-hop group Clipping. He is one of the stars of the hit musical Hamilton, which earned him both a Grammy and Tony award. Diggs is also notably known for his roles in Blackish, Wonder, The Get Down, and his most recent film (which he created and starred in himself) Blindspotting.
I wanted to speak with Diggs and hear more about his early beginnings as a artist, how he got in to art, gentrification in the Bay Area, his top 5 Bay Area rap songs, and more!
Justin Walton: When you were younger and you got asked the question “what do you want to be when you grow up”, what was your go-to answer?
Daveed Diggs: That’s funny, I think I wanted to be a dinosaur at some point as a kid. But then I wanted to be an astronaut at some point, which is like super cliche. When I was maybe 11, I wanted to be a track star. I always wanted to go to the Olympics.
JW: How old were you when you were first exposed to the arts, and what art was it?
DD: I've always been sort of exposed to the arts in one way or another. My mom was a DJ when I was a baby and before I came along, so we always had a house full of music and old records. Before I was born she also ran lights for Berkeley Rep Theater actually in 1959, way back when they first opened up, so she’s always been super into theater, too. I remember going to plays when I was hella young. I would also go to concerts with my pops all the time, so I was always sort of around art even before I was doing it.
JW: How has the bay inspired your art and you as an artist?
DD: For me it's become everything. Its like my north star. For me it got even stronger when I left the bay and in the times where I haven't been there. I went away to college and started to get a sense of how different The place I came from was from everywhere else that I go. it's just how I identify, like “I'm from the bay”, as opposed to from anywhere else. It bleeds into my art too. Obviously my music is very bay centric, but even the way I work on characters when I'm acting is a thing that feels kind of particular to the theater scene in the bay area. It’s pretty utilitarian in a certain way. I'm less concerned with my personal goals for the character or the show and more concern in making the thing work. That’s something I’ve learned from the Bay Area arts community as well.
JW: How did you meet Rafa? What is one of your favorite memories with him?
DD: oh mannn! I mean we met at a poetry slam at Berkeley High but I didn't really know him then. I was a senior and he was a freshman, so we didn't start kicking it until I came back from college. But some of my favorite memories really are just like driving up and down the 5 in between the bay and LA. We used to do that drive so much! I would have stacks of CDs in my car. I never wanted be without all of my options. It was cool having him in the passenger seat, because he would go through all my CDs for shit he’s never heard of, and would play that song.
JW: Nice! How did you get into theater? What are some differences between screen acting and theater and do you prefer one over another?
DD: I got into theater just like school plays. I just used to do them when I was in elementary school, middle school and high school, and I just kept on doing them through college. In terms of the differences, the real difference is in the way that you tell the story, like if you’re doing a play you tell the whole story every night and the magic trick of that is making it seem like it's the first and only time this has ever happened, every night. So that's like the big magic trick with a play. The big magic trick with TV and movies is pretending that it's all one story because, you’re shooting everything out of order and as an actor you really have to keep your focus on where you are in the story at every point. For which one I prefer, I don't really have a preference, I'm itching to get back on to a theater stage you know, ‘cause in the last couple years I've been doing so much TV and movies, but thats still all pretty new to me, so the cool thing about doing a whole lot of TV and film, is that every time I do something I feel like I'm learning. I learn like a hundred things every time I get to the camera, so It's a really deep learning curve for me right now and I enjoy that, like challenge in a good away.
JW: What was it like being one of the main characters of Hamilton?
DD: It was dope! Lin has been a friend of mine for about a decade so when your homie is like, “hey I wrote a new play, will you come do a reading of it?” Or whatever, and then three years later its hamilton, is pretty mind blowing. It was just on some homie shit, like “come do this play I wrote”, and I was like yeah fasho, and then it ends up being what it is, so for me, like working on it felt so much like everything else i've ever worked on, which is really about a bunch of people who care a lot about each other getting in a room together and figuring out the best possible way you can tell a story. For me the experience from the inside was really familiar, but outside of that, the response to it was different than anything i've ever done. It will likely end up being the most popular play in the history of musical theater which was different for someone who has done plays there whole life. So to be apart of a quadruple or quintuple platinum at this point play, selling out historic theaters in New York city was magical. To have a play be the thing that really springboarded my career in a lot of ways is still kind of crazy to me. Like I would of never predicted that. So Hamilton changed my life in a very cool way.
JW: That's amazing man. How do you stay true to yourself as an artist?
DD: I think you just gotta keep asking yourself why you are doing it. And sometimes the answer it's going to be for the check. But you want to be aware of that. and if that's true, then you have to monitor how you are putting yourself into it right? And also keep an eye on how that feels. and if it feels bad you just do your best to limit the amount of times that your doing something just for the check. As long as you are aware of all those things and then also pushing yourself you should be set. I think being true to yourself sometimes can get mistaken for just doing the same shit over and over again, and I don't know if that's necessarily true, at least that's not how I see myself as an artist. I always look for stuff that is going to be hard for me or that i'm not sure I'm going to be great at. For example, Hamilton. Hamilton was a challenge for me, I've never done a musical before, that's the only musical i've ever done in my life, so it was super challenging for me. I had to learn how to read music for voice and spend hella time writing scales with the music director just to develop some sort of singing voice cause I've never really done that. I'm excited by things like that.
JW: Dope. In your most recent film Blind Spotting, I know one of the biggest themes is Gentrification. How does it feel to come back to your city and see what's taken place?
DD: It's tragic in a lot of ways. Especially when you’re in and out so much, when I'm not there to sort of feel it changing gradually it feels very sudden and violent you know. It feels like I just come back and hella shit is different. And it's not really the different shit that's problematic it's the sort of stress that I feel on my people. It's the sort of fight to hold onto space and culture. That is the tragedy of it. But, there is some hopefulness to. There is a hopeful side to the way that I see people fighting. The response to Barbeque Becky is like my favorite shit of the year. To come out and barbeque harder and turn it into a real party is so incredible to me. Its like, “you want to call the cops on us, all right next time we'll invite Angela Davis to the barbeque”. That’s some real town shit to me and I love that. Oakland is a city that's been changing forever. It's not a city that's gonna go backwards, that's not how it works, but my hope is that the city of Oakland is a place that has not forgotten what Oakland was, and is trying really hard to build on what has always been Oakland and make something new acknowledging that, and acknowledging the new communities that are there as opposed to completely ignore what was there before.
JW: Where’s your favorite place to eat in the bay area?
DD: Oh shitttt. That is tough man. Everytime I come back the two must haves for me are Cheesesteak shop on Lakeshore and Gordos, really the one on Solano. When my mom went back to school, we were living in Albany in the student housing down there, and I must of gone to that Gordos like every other day. Those are my necessities in the bay. Also the Sinaloa taco truck on 23rd and east 14th is another one. There's so much more, food for the bay is clearly just hella good Zachary's pizza is fire too.
JW: I love all of those places as well bro! Alright, so this is my last question. What are your top 5 favorite Bay Area rap songs?
DD: WOAHHH! Damnnn. This is tough. It changes like everyday. Top 5 bay area rap songs…. Lets say boss tycoon By Mac dre, LIQ by E40, Lets throw Fonky expedition by the conscious daughters, I got 5 on it by the Luniz, and lets do Bit*ch Im platinum by Turf talk, It opens up its true sound of the bay (Laughter)!
Daveed Diggs is an actor, rapper, writer, and poet as well as the vocalist for the hip-hop group Clipping. He is one of the stars of the hit musical Hamilton, which earned him both a Grammy and Tony award. Diggs is also notably known for his roles in Blackish, Wonder, The Get Down, and his most recent film (which he created and starred in himself) Blindspotting.
I wanted to speak with Diggs and hear more about his early beginnings as a artist, how he got in to art, gentrification in the Bay Area, his top 5 Bay Area rap songs, and more!
Justin Walton: When you were younger and you got asked the question “what do you want to be when you grow up”, what was your go-to answer?
Daveed Diggs: That’s funny, I think I wanted to be a dinosaur at some point as a kid. But then I wanted to be an astronaut at some point, which is like super cliche. When I was maybe 11, I wanted to be a track star. I always wanted to go to the Olympics.
JW: How old were you when you were first exposed to the arts, and what art was it?
DD: I've always been sort of exposed to the arts in one way or another. My mom was a DJ when I was a baby and before I came along, so we always had a house full of music and old records. Before I was born she also ran lights for Berkeley Rep Theater actually in 1959, way back when they first opened up, so she’s always been super into theater, too. I remember going to plays when I was hella young. I would also go to concerts with my pops all the time, so I was always sort of around art even before I was doing it.
JW: How has the bay inspired your art and you as an artist?
DD: For me it's become everything. Its like my north star. For me it got even stronger when I left the bay and in the times where I haven't been there. I went away to college and started to get a sense of how different The place I came from was from everywhere else that I go. it's just how I identify, like “I'm from the bay”, as opposed to from anywhere else. It bleeds into my art too. Obviously my music is very bay centric, but even the way I work on characters when I'm acting is a thing that feels kind of particular to the theater scene in the bay area. It’s pretty utilitarian in a certain way. I'm less concerned with my personal goals for the character or the show and more concern in making the thing work. That’s something I’ve learned from the Bay Area arts community as well.
JW: How did you meet Rafa? What is one of your favorite memories with him?
DD: oh mannn! I mean we met at a poetry slam at Berkeley High but I didn't really know him then. I was a senior and he was a freshman, so we didn't start kicking it until I came back from college. But some of my favorite memories really are just like driving up and down the 5 in between the bay and LA. We used to do that drive so much! I would have stacks of CDs in my car. I never wanted be without all of my options. It was cool having him in the passenger seat, because he would go through all my CDs for shit he’s never heard of, and would play that song.
JW: Nice! How did you get into theater? What are some differences between screen acting and theater and do you prefer one over another?
DD: I got into theater just like school plays. I just used to do them when I was in elementary school, middle school and high school, and I just kept on doing them through college. In terms of the differences, the real difference is in the way that you tell the story, like if you’re doing a play you tell the whole story every night and the magic trick of that is making it seem like it's the first and only time this has ever happened, every night. So that's like the big magic trick with a play. The big magic trick with TV and movies is pretending that it's all one story because, you’re shooting everything out of order and as an actor you really have to keep your focus on where you are in the story at every point. For which one I prefer, I don't really have a preference, I'm itching to get back on to a theater stage you know, ‘cause in the last couple years I've been doing so much TV and movies, but thats still all pretty new to me, so the cool thing about doing a whole lot of TV and film, is that every time I do something I feel like I'm learning. I learn like a hundred things every time I get to the camera, so It's a really deep learning curve for me right now and I enjoy that, like challenge in a good away.
JW: What was it like being one of the main characters of Hamilton?
DD: It was dope! Lin has been a friend of mine for about a decade so when your homie is like, “hey I wrote a new play, will you come do a reading of it?” Or whatever, and then three years later its hamilton, is pretty mind blowing. It was just on some homie shit, like “come do this play I wrote”, and I was like yeah fasho, and then it ends up being what it is, so for me, like working on it felt so much like everything else i've ever worked on, which is really about a bunch of people who care a lot about each other getting in a room together and figuring out the best possible way you can tell a story. For me the experience from the inside was really familiar, but outside of that, the response to it was different than anything i've ever done. It will likely end up being the most popular play in the history of musical theater which was different for someone who has done plays there whole life. So to be apart of a quadruple or quintuple platinum at this point play, selling out historic theaters in New York city was magical. To have a play be the thing that really springboarded my career in a lot of ways is still kind of crazy to me. Like I would of never predicted that. So Hamilton changed my life in a very cool way.
JW: That's amazing man. How do you stay true to yourself as an artist?
DD: I think you just gotta keep asking yourself why you are doing it. And sometimes the answer it's going to be for the check. But you want to be aware of that. and if that's true, then you have to monitor how you are putting yourself into it right? And also keep an eye on how that feels. and if it feels bad you just do your best to limit the amount of times that your doing something just for the check. As long as you are aware of all those things and then also pushing yourself you should be set. I think being true to yourself sometimes can get mistaken for just doing the same shit over and over again, and I don't know if that's necessarily true, at least that's not how I see myself as an artist. I always look for stuff that is going to be hard for me or that i'm not sure I'm going to be great at. For example, Hamilton. Hamilton was a challenge for me, I've never done a musical before, that's the only musical i've ever done in my life, so it was super challenging for me. I had to learn how to read music for voice and spend hella time writing scales with the music director just to develop some sort of singing voice cause I've never really done that. I'm excited by things like that.
JW: Dope. In your most recent film Blind Spotting, I know one of the biggest themes is Gentrification. How does it feel to come back to your city and see what's taken place?
DD: It's tragic in a lot of ways. Especially when you’re in and out so much, when I'm not there to sort of feel it changing gradually it feels very sudden and violent you know. It feels like I just come back and hella shit is different. And it's not really the different shit that's problematic it's the sort of stress that I feel on my people. It's the sort of fight to hold onto space and culture. That is the tragedy of it. But, there is some hopefulness to. There is a hopeful side to the way that I see people fighting. The response to Barbeque Becky is like my favorite shit of the year. To come out and barbeque harder and turn it into a real party is so incredible to me. Its like, “you want to call the cops on us, all right next time we'll invite Angela Davis to the barbeque”. That’s some real town shit to me and I love that. Oakland is a city that's been changing forever. It's not a city that's gonna go backwards, that's not how it works, but my hope is that the city of Oakland is a place that has not forgotten what Oakland was, and is trying really hard to build on what has always been Oakland and make something new acknowledging that, and acknowledging the new communities that are there as opposed to completely ignore what was there before.
JW: Where’s your favorite place to eat in the bay area?
DD: Oh shitttt. That is tough man. Everytime I come back the two must haves for me are Cheesesteak shop on Lakeshore and Gordos, really the one on Solano. When my mom went back to school, we were living in Albany in the student housing down there, and I must of gone to that Gordos like every other day. Those are my necessities in the bay. Also the Sinaloa taco truck on 23rd and east 14th is another one. There's so much more, food for the bay is clearly just hella good Zachary's pizza is fire too.
JW: I love all of those places as well bro! Alright, so this is my last question. What are your top 5 favorite Bay Area rap songs?
DD: WOAHHH! Damnnn. This is tough. It changes like everyday. Top 5 bay area rap songs…. Lets say boss tycoon By Mac dre, LIQ by E40, Lets throw Fonky expedition by the conscious daughters, I got 5 on it by the Luniz, and lets do Bit*ch Im platinum by Turf talk, It opens up its true sound of the bay (Laughter)!
