My parents are not together, but they were both always around.
— Daveed Diggs
I think it's important that your work is in conversation with artists in your community.
I didn't aspire to be on Broadway.
Daveed Diggs is a very nervous person.
I majored in theater. I did plays. But musicals were not my thing.
If a project feels good to you, say yes. And do it with everything that you have and hope that the outcome is good.
The tricky thing about fast raps is not really the delivery of them; it's the writing of them, with consonants close enough together that you don't trip up over them.
Oftentimes, it feels like we spend so much of our life waiting to make art, waiting for somebody to let us do something. You don't really have to do that. You can make it all the time. And 99 percent of the time, it's not going to be a big deal on a global scale. But 100 percent of the time, it's going to make you feel amazing.
Being an emcee onstage is mostly about crowd control, about monitoring energy levels.
I think people understand I'm not actually the real Thomas Jefferson.
As a kid, you don't have a ton of spaces where you are honored, where what you think is honored and what you say is revered.
My favorite Prince album is 'Sign o' the Times.'
I can jump really high, yeah. I'm proud of that. I'll take it.
To walk into a casting room full of people who look like you is a crazy thing. What is the thing that necessitates all of us having the exact same shade of skin and having the same hair? What about this deodorant commercial needs that?
I have this thing. I can rap really fast. I can rap really, really fast. It's a thing I'm good at and I've trained myself to do; it's a thing I do in the Bay Area.
The fact that I got to do the 'Hamilton' BET Cypher is a totally crazy thing because I've watched the BET Cyphers since it started. I've seen every one. I study them. Because I'm a rapper. It's what you do.
Being multiracial has allowed me to feel comfortable walking in all different circles.
I think this idea of a big break is a lie.
Writing rap songs is about flow, about one word blending seamlessly into the next and creating a thing that is possible to perform in a way that feels natural.
I feel like, anytime I'm onstage, I tend to feel very connected with people in the audience or with the sort of heartbeat or tempo of the audience.
It's funny because as a rapper, there is - and this is something that Clipping challenges all the time - there is this idea about authenticity as a rapper, in the fact that you rap things that are yours. That's not what doing a play is. You're interpreting somebody else's words.
I was so stressed, man. When I was 17, I was so worried about what the hell was going to happen.
I was really aware, even while it was happening, that the discovery of arts education in my life sort of saved my life.
Neither of my parents live in Oakland anymore. They both got priced out.
The reason you write something that is exciting and visceral is to force people to hear what you have to say, especially if you're in any kind of marginalized community where people don't want to listen. You have to come up with tricks to make them listen.
At some point, I'll do more McDonald's commercials if I have to.
To be rapping in a musical on Broadway is just - that sentence doesn't make any sense in my brain.
The fact that rap has a strict meter and stays to a click means that you have to make your thoughts concise.
Being with a bunch of people who never take a day off means that you're not taking a day off.
I have a recognizable silhouette.
If you do enough rap shows, you get a pretty good sense of an audience. You start to develop this sense of what a feeling of a room or a group is.
I get excited to create things that don't exist in the same world as 'Hamilton' because that world is really well done and doesn't need me to inform it anymore.
Acting is about finding truth and finding the way to convey the truth.
That's the great thing about how 'SVU' works. They work with so many Broadway actors, they are very used to getting us out in time for the show.
