Quotes from Daveed Diggs

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.

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.

That's what hip-hop is - it's about meeting the music where you are, and then you add on top of that. It's about coming at it with your full self.

I didn't know a single musical soundtrack, really, growing up. Nobody listened to musicals. That wasn't a thing I did.

There's a lot of spaces that care about what kids are buying. There are a lot of spaces that care about what kids are watching. But there aren't a lot of spaces that care about what kids are saying.

I went to Hebrew school but opted out of a bar mitzvah.

My mom is a white Jewish lady, and my dad is black. The cultures never seemed separate - I had a lot of mixed friends. When I was young, I identified with being Jewish, but I embraced my dad's side, too.

Clipping is a very specific, concept-y thing. We have all these rules: we don't sample drums. We create all our own sounds. I don't speak in the first person. We come from a background of experimental music like John Cage... Philip Glass.

I majored in theater. I did plays. But musicals were not my thing.

I call myself a nerd all the time.

Daveed Diggs is a very nervous person.

Being with a bunch of people who never take a day off means that you're not taking a day off.

The act of being nice to somebody at Starbucks is actually a huge thing. It's a real change you can effect in somebody's life every day.

Neither of my parents live in Oakland anymore. They both got priced out.

I've been sort of gentrification-obsessed. Right before I left Oakland in 2012, I was feeling it. Now I go back sporadically, and the change is drastic.

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.

Learning how to get a point across is pretty useful in any situation.

The fact that rap has a strict meter and stays to a click means that you have to make your thoughts concise.

As more doors open for me, I try to always bring people who I know through.

I'm aware that not everybody gets that feeling of ease walking through the world that I have.

I have all of Kendrick Lamar on vinyl.

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.