Full Clip: Daveed Diggs' Favourite Albums

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

1. FunkadelicThe Electric Spanking Of War Babies

George Clinton’s my favourite artist of all time, and Parliament-Funkadelic is the most important musical project that ever existed. I could have chosen almost any of their albums, but The Electric Spanking Of War Babies was one that my dad used to play a lot when I was a kid, so there’s a lot of personal nostalgia for me with this record. It opens with those pitch-shifted voices: ‘I, at the early age of 17, was abducted by aliens…’. My dad and I used to do that skit together all the time – he would do the deep voice, and I would do the high voice. There’s a lot of different vibes on this album, as well – there’s a reggae song, and there’s some guitar freakouts, and there’s also some straight-ahead funk bangers. If, for some reason, anybody reading this hasn’t listened to much Funkadelic – which seems unlikely – it’s a good starter album, because it covers a broad range of what they do.

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