“12:00am” is a dark sci-fi video showing a man climbing the side of a building which becomes a garden which becomes a bedroom which becomes a workout room while the track follows suit, peeling back layers of consciousness verse after verse, flung back and forth between Daveed Diggs (Clipping., True Neutral Crew) and Christian McLauren IX (Signor Benedick the Moor, True Neutral Crew). Filmed in 2013 but just released now, the video wad directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada who has previously collaborated with Diggs and producer Jonathan Snipes on equally trippy Clipping. videos such as “Summertime” and “Inside Out”.
“12:00” starts with an ominous melancholy piano melody underscoring a Blade Runner-esque voice presenting the question, “how effective is self preservation against ourselves and what happens when the foundations we’ve built crumble and new heights are just out of reach?” The question is never quite answered but it’s volleyed back with copious Matrix references, a verse from Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman”, and an anxious refrain that undercuts both the late night revelations and the the late night paranoia: “it really don’t matter because everyone’s asleep.”
Some of Diggs’ solo work is now out on cassette on Deathbomb Arc. He is also currently starring in “Hamilton” on Broadway.
