Los Angeles-based artist Diamond Ortiz is on the brink of releasing of his latest project, Loveline. As a connoisseur of G-Funk and boogie, the 31-year-old mastermind has carved out a comfortable niche for himself in his home state. Similar to artists like Dam Funk or The Zapp Band, Ortiz has perfected the use of a talkbox, which gives his voice a more robotic sound. In Part I of the RAPstation interview, he talked about his origins and how he fell in love funk. In Part II, he talks about his move to Los Angeles from the Bay Area, working with Nipsey Hussle and “no biting.”
RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): Why did you make the move to Los Angeles? Did you not find what you were looking for in the Bay Area?
Diamond Ortiz: I just celebrated my one year of living here. Thank you, thank you hold your applause, please [laughs]. I've always planned on living here ‘someday’ and always saw myself living here. I was coming down more and more, and I was always so inspired and fascinated by this town when I came.
How long have you been working with LA artists?
I have been working with LA based artists since 2010 when I did my first feature doing talkbox on a song with Nipsey Hussle. I have been part of many, many records since then. If it came out of LA from a young artist and had talkbox or was on the funk tip, either me or one of my homies had a hand in it.
I have proudly worked and am working with a who's-who of LA underground rappers and have humbly been one of the go-to funk and talkbox guys for that crowd for a hot minute. I’m proud to be a contributor and have a lot of material out there floating around.
Anyway several years later, A window in my life kind of opened up and the time was rite to just make the move instead of making what felt like a lateral move physically and metaphorically in my life. I had to move ahead, and coming here has been a great experience for me. I love the creative community down here and all the opportunity thats available to us. That’s what I think is really awesome and different than the Bay. Not better or worse, it just has its own speed that I really vibe with here.
It seems like there would be so much competition in LA.
Honestly, it might sound crazy, but in my circles and this community of creators, I have found the opposite. Kats are caring less and less about the status quo, and coming truer and truer to themselves, just making their own individual art. That to me is a beautiful thing. Just young cool people making their art and living life, and making a living doing it. That’s the name of the game.
How do you stand out?
For me, humbly speaking my music has always stood out, maybe not even always because of quality, but because the medium is the message, you see? No one is really doing what we are doing. It’s just me and a handful of guys out here. The question is, how does someone so underground with such a fresh, rich sound and such limited resources protect our scene from being ripped off and having this rich sound and style co-opted? Let’s just say there is a new song on the radio right now, that when it dropped my phone didn't stop ringing for a week because everyone thought it was my goddam song. [Laughs] oh lord have mercy. But no, just bitten again. You can’t hear that new song and tell me they haven't heard what we are doing. The art we make here is important. But see, we are right on that brink with our scene, where someone could co-opt it and get the big break from it, while we stay relatively hushed and underground. Good news is we have already laid so much groundwork that our footprint does exist. If you were to look at where this new sound is actually coming from, you'd see we are the proponents of it. Funny things is, I knew it was going to happen, too. I met an engineer who was working in Burbank on the record and he said, ‘Breh, they bit your shit. It’s all talkbox and Diamond Ortiz'd out.’ What can you do? Just keep doing it. I’ve seen my peers bite me, too, but hey, I’m all about inspiring people. Just don’t bite my shit breh [laughs]. I want to inspire you to be like you—not necessarily inspire you to be like me [laughs].
Please tell me the concept behind Loveline.
Loveline is largely a compilation of early Diamond Ortiz material—older songs that I revisited and chromed out. I am sitting on mountains of unreleased heat [laughs]. I wanted to start here with this material and let my progression unfold because I got a lot mo; funk comin’ at ya. Loveline means lovin' on the go.You can get everything uyouwant from your pandora’s box/crystal ball. Even this brand new groove you are seeking. Sp pick up your phone, tap into the Loveline, and get that funk fix straight to the dome from ya boy Diamond. I got the lovin’ you need.
