This, like, 17-year-old kid is crossing the street. I'm running past him, and he dropped his stuff on the ground. 'Oh my God, you're Thomas Jefferson!' i was like, 'That's the first time anyone's ever said that to me, but yeah. I am.' And then, you know, he took a bunch of selfies, and we talked for a little while.

Daveed Diggs

Categorized in : Entertainment

My favorite Prince album is 'Sign o' the Times.'

Daveed Diggs

album sign prince favorite

I have a recognizable silhouette.

Daveed Diggs

recognizable silhouette

Being an emcee onstage is mostly about crowd control, about monitoring energy levels.

Daveed Diggs

crowd control being energy

Acting is about finding truth and finding the way to convey the truth.

Daveed Diggs

finding acting truth way

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.

Daveed Diggs

me well-done done world

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.

Daveed Diggs

feeling back go change

I was really aware, even while it was happening, that the discovery of arts education in my life sort of saved my life.

Daveed Diggs

my-life education discovery life

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.

Daveed Diggs

you challenges time funny

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.

Daveed Diggs

day you change life

I call myself a nerd all the time.

Daveed Diggs

call myself nerd time

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.

Daveed Diggs

how great work time

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.

Daveed Diggs

say kid think you

I was so stressed, man. When I was 17, I was so worried about what the hell was going to happen.

Daveed Diggs

going happen man hell

I think people understand I'm not actually the real Thomas Jefferson.

Daveed Diggs

understand think real people

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.

Daveed Diggs

feeling start good you

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.

Daveed Diggs

i-feel-like feel like people

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.

Daveed Diggs

waiting time life art

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.

Daveed Diggs

possible next writing way

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.

Daveed Diggs

you enough together writing

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

Daveed Diggs

never day you people