“Sebastian has two songs, but where’s Scattle?” Marshall says the filmmakers realized when crafting the adaptation. DeLuca came up with the title, playing off the slang for “gossip,” which Scuttle (Awkwafina) excels at — sort of.
“She’s so confused and never puts the words together, so it was a fun idea like let’s make her a crazy rap,” says Marshall, explaining that “The Scuttlebutt” is another montage song used to explain the rumors about Prince Eric’s decision to propose.
So, Menken creates a Caribbean-inspired melody and Miranda writes the rhymes, which culminates in a fast rap back and forth between Scuttle and Sebastian (Daveed Diggs). It was just, ‘Oh my God. That was so delicious,” Menken recalled. “But then, Awkwafina and David Diggs sang it, it was like, Man, this is special.”
Knowing that Scuttle would be getting her own number was an especially pleasant surprise for Awkwafina, since she’s a huge fan of Miranda.
“It was great doing a song he wrote for the character,” Awkwafina says. “It’s like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ But then I was like, ‘At the end of the day, if it doesn’t work, you don’t have to use it.
The decision to add Diggs’ vocals came later, with the winner, Tony admitting that he has been a fan of Awkwafina since her earlier rapping beginnings. “Maybe you asked for noise vocals,” Diggs adds.
About his reunion with his “Hamilton” creator and co-star Miranda, Diggs says, their familiarity paid dividends during recording. “His speech patterns are very familiar to me,” Diggs explains. “Rap music, for people who don’t rap, seems like a magic trick. But it’s like anything else.”
