California native Diamond Ortiz personifies funk in every way, shape and form. It’s in his blood and pulses through his veins. The 31-year-old grew up playing bass in his family’s band, Diamond Ortiz (named after his parents). According to the Bay Area native, they used to “rock so hard,” they’d start walking on tables as the crowd would go crazy. He carries that same energy into his latest endeavor, which finds Ortiz at the helm of his own funk ship.
Now living in Los Angeles, Ortiz continues to contribute to the resurgence of modern-funk and boogie, and is often mentioned in the same breath as Dam-Funk, Brian Ellis, XL Middleton, and others. Ortiz is preparing to release his first full length LP titled Loveline on November 18 via MoFunk Records.
His latest single, “In The Cut Like Whaat” featuring P-Funk’s Reality Jones and The Revolution’s John Payne, soars with an infectious G-Funk style that demands repeated listens. In part one of the RAPstation interview, he talks about how his environment shaped his musical style, playing in his family band and how he fell in the love with the funk.
RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): First and foremost, where are you from and how did your environment shape your musical style?
Diamond Ortiz: I’m from San Francisco/Bay Area and born on California Street in San Francisco in 1985. My big brother taught me music and brought me around the older East Bay cats that he was playing with at that time when we were kids. The way those cats played was special and I knew i always wanted to play that certain way. It's blues based and firmly rooted in rich R&B tradition.
I was fortunate to be from a place where everything is at your fingertips, and I was exposed to and fell in love with all things old school from a very early age—about 13. As a kid, I'd go to punk rock shows and the really cool kids were into Rockabilly. When I started absorbing that electrified music, I understood how eternally hip it is to make your art a hyper-stylized modern take on something traditional and rich. It's still totally similar and, in my mind, parallel to what I’m doing now, but with that funk I grew up playing and loving.
Where does your moniker come from?
Diamond-Ortiz is actually our real last name—my brothers and myself. It's just a hyphenated last name. My name is Jeremy Diamond-Ortiz. Our mom is Diamond and dad is Ortiz. People always think we made it up. People have told me I sound like a Mexican porn star or luchador with that name [laughs]. But whatever, we deal with the hands we are dealt, right? My dad is actually Italian, born in Rome. Our great-grandfather Domenico Colao was a well known, but unsung painter in Italy around the turn of the century and has paintings in all the famous museums. My dad's step-dad, who adopted him at a young age, was Mexican and named Ortiz. We have a big, loud, colorful, creative family. Thats where our Mexican last name comes from. Thats to answer all the homies that come up to me and ask, ‘Ayy foo…so what’s up, you Mexican? [laughs].’ On my moms side, our family last names are Diamond, Beer and Amsterdam.
Diamond Ortiz was, for many years, the name of our family band. It was my big bro, me and a drummer. My big bro is a supremely amazing guitar player and band leader, and I was his bass player. I spent many, many years playing bass and singing. We'd play everything from Hendrix "Little Wing" to Little Richard "Send Me Some Lovin'" and everything in between. We rocked so hard and would put on a hell of a show. We had synchronized steps with our guitars, and would go into the dance floor and play on our knees and walk on tables. We had weekly residency gigs, where I really cut my teeth as a young player. Eventually, our loyal trio disbanded. My brother picked up writing novels as his creative pursuit in addition to guitar these days. And I just never stopped making funk in my studio around the clock as I always have. I never dropped the name of the original family band because it’s still the funk that my brother taught me. That comes from our family business and years of rocking houses together.
What initially drew you to the G-Funk sound?
The Bay's indigenous version of G-Funk is what we call MOB Music—that ice cold Vallejo, Oaktown, Frisco, late ‘80s to mid ’90s funk, and it’s the fucking best [laughs]. E-40, Too Short are up at the top, too. All that is such potent funk that was done so well and still sounds dope as ever. When you're from the Bay, that music is just part of your DNA and part of the soundtrack to your teenage years.
One night, I was with my older brother and his friend who had a ’68 Buick big ass boat, and they put in something that literally changed me forever. It was E-40's In a Major Wayalbum. It blew my mind. In that moment I got it. How you can be pure funk and old school, but gangsta, and super sized, unique, fresh, bad, and all that at the same time? That spoke to me. And here I am all these years later just making gurped out playa-istic funk slaps [laughs]. That’s still exactly where it is for me.
What characteristics do you look for in a person when considering a collaboration?
I like folks who are spirited, like me. When its time to get it poppin' in the studio, let’s have some fun—drank a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ and light a little something up—do your thing and let’s make some magic, you dig? And we're gonna use a dynamic mic in the middle of the studio—no headphones. We’re going to keep the party popping with all of us singing. I want to spread some love and joy and funk and soul and flavor with this music
