Diggy Simmons can’t hear the screams of teenage girls chanting his name outside Club Nokia as he sits in a dressing room waiting to go on stage at the “Scream” tour in Los Angeles. Rap-Up TV caught up with the 16-year-old heartthrob backstage to get an update on his highly-anticipated album, discover which artists outside of hip-hop he would like to work with, and share encouraging words from Pharrell. The son of hip-hop icon Rev Run recently shot a video for his new single “Do It Like You” with Jeremih. “It’s amazing. You’ve never seen me in this way before,” he teased. “It’s gonna be a big video and it’s my best video.”
After coming off tour, Diggy will return to work on his Atlantic Records debut, slated for an early 2012 release. “It has a lot of shock value to it and it’s definitely just a great project,” he said of the album, which will feature some surprise guests. “Sonically it’s just something that you can listen to from top to bottom. Each song is different, but they all just feel great.” The material already has the stamp of approval from his mentor Pharrell. “He loved it. He was going crazy over the production and the content and the subject matter. He was just so proud.”