Billboard Magazine

WorldMags.net out. Skrillex chopped and warped the 140 BPM tune into an 80 BPM bass monster the next day. The two DJs worked on the song some more on a private jet when they left the island. “I mixed it over the next five months,” says Diplo, “and then Kiesza performed it with me in New York for the very first time in front of 17,000 people.” He grins, clearly pleased by the way it turned out. This is how a modern hit gets made, Diplo-style: not in big-money studios, but on the move, in hotel suites, private jets, SUVs — bits and pieces pasted together with collaborators all over the world. “He didn’t grow up playing the piano; he came up as a DJ,” says Rechtshaid. “He has this naturally different approach.” But radio- redefining hits (from M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes,” which kicked off the current era of dance-music-powered pop, to Usher’s “Climax,” which spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100) are just one piece of Diplo’s empire, which, Billboard estimates, will earn him $12 million in 2014. In 2013 he played 221 live dates; this year he thinks he’ll easily eclipse that number — including 23 stops on his own Mad Decent Block Party traveling festival, which he has been headlining with help from acts including Outkast and Dillon Francis. He has a Saturday-night radio show, Diplo and Friends, on BBC’s Radio 1 that, like his music, he records on the fly. And in partnership with Dr. Luke’s Prescription Records, Mad Decent has its own song- publishing arm, which brings in massive cash from viral smashes like “Harlem Shake.” “Wes is one of the most important people in music,” says Skrillex. “He brings a really fuck-it-let’s-try-it attitude.” iplo’s first album, the DJ Shadow-ishFlorida , will be reis- sued this fall on Ninja Tune to mark its 10th anniversary. Which is also how long it has been since Diplo last had a day job, when he was living in Philadelphia, tutoring kids D in an after-school program. But even then he had multiple hustles, including digging for rare records, which he would peddle to elite vinyl heads like Questlove, sample-hungry producers including “ALL THE [BIG] DJs WERE AT MY VEGAS NIGHT a young Kanye West and record stores on St. Marks Place in New York. “I’d drive to flea markets outside Philly in New Jersey,” he ONE NIGHT, AND I PLAYED A JUICY J RECORD. says. “And I’d find things like Rufus Harley, this bagpipe-player THEY’RE LIKE, ‘WHERE DO YOU GET THESE record, and sell it in New York for $400.” At night, he and a DJ buddy named Low Budget began throw- RECORDS?’ I’M LIKE, ‘YOU CAN BUY THEM OFF ing a series of increasingly influential parties as Hollertronix, playing party-rocking sets that crashed Dirty South hip-hop into iTUNES!’ THEY REALLY HAVE NO IDEA.” The Clash into dancehall reggae into Brazilian funk. Not long after, he met and began dating M.I.A. Together they put out the He’s equally baffled by many of his DJ peers’ lack of familiarity very-Hollertronix 2004 mixtape, Piracy Funds Terrorism, and with records that don’t fall squarely into the serotonin-surge for- worked on her acclaimed 2005 debut album, Arular. With his mula of contemporary dance music. “All the DJs were at my Vegas then-production partner Switch, Diplo also crafted her follow-up, night one night — I’m not going to name names, but all the big EDM Kala, including the era-defining single “Paper Planes,” which got guys — and I played a Juicy J record,” he says, shaking his head. heavy play on virtually every radio format except for country. The “They’re like, ‘Where do you get these records?’ I’m like, ‘They’re track was built around impossibly catchy rap-sung vocals, gunshot on the radio! You can buy them off iTunes!’ They really have no samples and a guitar part lifted from The Clash. “Going to the idea. They live in these bubbles. I’m like, ‘Damn, dudes, use your Grammys that year felt like the turning point,” says Diplo. “We imagination a little bit.’ ” lost [album of the year] to Robert Plant and ... what’s her name? Alison Krauss. But everybody knew we should have won.” he SUV pulls up in front of Mad Decent’s HQ, Diplo sees a clear line between those early days and the music an anonymous corner building that started as he makes now. During his teen years in Florida, where his dad Rechtshaid’s space. During the past couple of years fished for shrimp and ran a bait shop and his mom worked in a it has grown into a hive of activity: three studios, supermarket, Diplo was exposed to the wild musical diversity of T live rooms, a vocal booth, a squash court-sized space used for towns like Fort Lauderdale, where he went to high school. “The video shoots. Aside from a mural involving Muppet-ish monsters three things I’d hear were Miami bass, reggae and heavy metal,” and lyrics from songs including David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” he says. “I still wonder why anyone would listen to any other the decor is basically nonexistent. “We rent this place for super music.” Which is maybe why, despite spending a lot of this year cheap,” Diplo says cheerfully. Studio B is currently occupied by DJ’ing monster EDM events like Electric Daisy Carnival and Ultra the Picard Brothers, two young-looking French kids who special- Fest, he doesn’t really see himself as a part of rave culture, which ize in sleek R&B. Diplo’s phone rings. He answers it, joke-barking, he dismisses as overly reliant on drugs and formulaic sounds. “What do you want?” and then, before the person on the other “They don’t even care about the music anymore,” he says. “It’s end can speak, says, “Stop being a little bitch.” The next moment about the experience and hearing things that are really familiar he turns serious. “Are you going to be in the studio? I need to get and comfortable over and over again.” some stuff from you. Text me when I can meet you tonight.” It’s 46 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 30, 2014 WorldMags.net.

Load more