Matt's Writing

Daveed Diggs released his music video for Fresh From the Hood , the first track on his mixtape Small Things to a Giant . It features shots all throughout Oakland, starting with him and members of the Getback on BART, and then shots at Lake Merritt and other spots in Oakland. He also has a section in the middle of the video where he mimics famous album covers from Tupac, Jay-Z, Biggie, and Lil Wayne. Check out the video: Also check out my review of his mixtape Small Things to a Giant .

How many Oakland hip-hop artists fill their tracks with Gertrude Stein references and turn nursery rhymes into extended political allegories? How many tackle issues of gentrification in Oakland? Can't think of any? Let me introduce you to Daveed Diggs. His free mixtape Small Things to A Giant shows that a new giant has stepped on to Oakland’s trend-setting hip hop scene. <p><p><p><p><p><p>&am...

<p><a href="http://rafaelcasal.bandcamp.com/album/mean-ones-new-release">MEAN ONES (NEW RELEASE) by Rafael Casal</a></p> I first met Rafael Casal in 2002 at a Youth Speaks poetry workshop for Bay Area teens. We met at La Peña and the instructor Paul Flores gave us a writing prompt: to view the world through another person’s eyes. Casal began furiously scribbling into his yellow notepad. At the end of fifteen minutes, what he revealed were several pages written from the vantage point of his grandmother with Alzheimer’s looking back at him, and him wondering what she sees when she looks through her eyes. I had written a one-page poem. Not only did Casal’s output surpass mine in length, but its complexity dazzled the other high schoolers in the workshop. His piece had a tight rhyme scheme, meter, and it was bursting with imagery, wordplay, and double-meaning. He performed the piece ...

Rafael Casal reps the Oakland Hills in his new Dr. Seuss-inspired music video Whoville . He raps while riding the Tilden Park Steam Trains (AKA Redwood Valley Railway) with Daveed Diggs and Chinaka Hodge of the Getback crew riding in small cars behind him. The end of the video features him walking up the Oakland Hills to the Chabot Space and Science Center where he looks into a telescope. Casal choosing to film the video in the hills showcases another side of Oakland that not many outsiders know about. The video captures Oakland's vibrant geography, natural parks, and wild landscapes along its border with Contra Costa County. The lighting in the video is superb. And given the conditions they were working with, shooting from a moving miniature train, pulling off a video like this is no easy feat. Casal and Nathan Lee artistically apply themes from Dr. Seuss into the Bay Area hip hop world. The attractive girl at the beginning hears a cry emanating from ...