Daveed Diggs tackles gentrification in Oakland in "Small Things to a Giant"
From his first track “Fresh From the Hood,” Diggs dazzles the listener with his wordplay. He speaks in playful metaphors and raps off of multiple meanings of the word “fresh.” He addresses negative stereotypes of Oakland perpetuated in the mainstream media (in TV shows like Gang Wars: Oakland) and flips them on their head, saying “And they want to say that the Bottoms is the bottom.// But I’m calling it the top.// If they feel me, then I got ‘em."
By “Bottoms” Diggs means the West Oakland neighborhood Lower Bottoms. By championing this area, Diggs is shifting the discourse on West Oakland away from the prevailing media narrative that typically uses terms like “grit” and “ghetto” to describe this section of town. Instead, he’s reconstructing the identity of Oakland to outsiders, showcasing the city’s value and vibrant cultural history, while having fun in the process.
Daveed Diggs portrait by Laura Tomlinson
Throughout the album, one can hear Diggs's unique language influenced both by his Ivy League education and living in Oakland during the Hyphy Movement. Diggs delivers punchlines like "There's more drug dealers on MTV than in the streets" on “Trappers.” But at the same time, he recites profound lines like "Embrace your contradictions because nothing is truer" on "Fresh from the Hood."
Like the poetry of Saul Williams, I had to listen to his tracks several times for them to sink in and get the references. His verses are a rich tapestry filled with lyricism, allusions, and puns. On a first listen, the songs sound deceptively simple, but the more I continued to listen to the album since its January 2, 2012 release, the more I came to respect its profound critique of Oakland today.
To complement his insightful lyrics, Diggs delivers his lines like the seasoned actor he is. He even gets self-referential about his stage presence on the album with the line "I'm underrepresented except for my voice on these tracks." His training as an actor and having played the character Watts in Chinaka Hodge's groundbreaking play Mirrors in Every Corner enhances his performance on the album.
Despite his dynamic stage presence on the album, he has a few lines about being preoccupied with whether or not his work will be heard (I think because he's putting it out as a free mixtape, and it isn't being distributed by a major record label).
However, he downplays this in "Jes Grew," saying, “If no one hears your songs, do they still make a sound?// Shit, I slap them in my own ride scrapin’ through the town.” He’s making a defiant statement that he doesn’t really care what you think about his lyrics because he’s writing for himself and doesn't care about the critical reception of his album. If only other hip-hop artists could be this mature.
A Closer Look at the Final Track on Small Things to a Giant
As the third member of the Getback with Chinaka Hodge and Rafael Casal, Diggs holds his own with these two other rising stars from Oakland who make guest appearances on his album. The final track called "Small Things to a Giant" features biting social commentary on Oakland. Diggs quotes Gertrude Stein's “No there there” quote about Oakland, and then Chinaka Hodge delivers a provocative verse.
What makes her lines striking and controversial is that she's vocalizing what many established Oakland residents feel, but few have articulated. She challenges the conventional wisdom in the press like the New York Times article "Oakland Gets a New 'There'" and the East Bay Express article "Fruitvale the New Hipster Hangout?" by saying that this influx of new residents in Oakland should be reexamined.
Chinaka Hodge recites: "Just the same old Chinak// Can't afford to raise my babies and maintain on this block// I'm watching Dogtown plummet// to this Pixar, hipster, art walk summit." Hodge raises valid points about the consequences of gentrification, similar to how Mission Local has covered how the influx of high-tech/social gaming companies moving into San Francisco have raised rent prices and priced-out existing communities from San Francisco's Mission District. Hodge raises similar concerns as Ise Lyfe raised in my interview with him about the restoration of the Fox Theater and Oakland's African American population plummeting in the last decade.
Art Murmur photo by Joe Sciarrillo
Diggs has similar lines that address this, including: "Feeling the weight of a city grown fat off hipster chic// fusion food, organic beets,// It's a wonder why we're still tongue-in-cheek// When there's so much hand-to-mouth in the streets."
Art Murmur and restaurants like Commis, run by Oakland-native James Syhabout, which earned Oakland its first Michelin Star, add to Oakland's culture. But Hodge makes the counter-argument in 38th Notes that the New York Times celebrating Oakland because new San Francisco-based chefs are moving to town, misses the vibrant culture, art, and food that's already here.
Hodge, very informed about the history of Oakland, also brings up in her verse industrial pollution in West Oakland, Chauncey Bailey, and Your Black Muslim Bakery. Her other lines could be viewed as a critique of gentrification in Oakland and Jerry Brown's contested 10K plan for downtown "revitalization." It's a very complex verse that I haven't entirely sorted out, so I recommend you give it a listen and write your comments below.
Ending on a track like "Small Things to a Giant," dealing with all these social issues in Oakland accomplished the goal of a mixtape: it left me wanting to hear more. I also wanted to hear more of Diggs singing, as he does in the opening of "Dirty World." Luckily, Diggs has already released a new track with Rafael Casal called “The Trip Remix" available at the bottom of this 38th Notes article. Small Things to a Giant is definitely an album worth listening to for anyone interested in West Coast hip-hop. I look forward to hearing more from Daveed Diggs, this rising giant on Oakland's hip-hop scene.
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Editor's note: This post was previously titled "Oakland Digs Diggs"
