In an interview with Rolling Stone out this week, American DJ/producer Diplo touched on a wide range of topics, including collaborators, EDM, ageism, and his social media feud with Taylor Swift.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Diplo had a lot to say about pop artists, given his impressive catalogue of production credits and collaborations (M.I.A., Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, and more), most recently coproducing several tracks on Madonna’s new album, Rebel Heart. “She created the world we live in,” he said about the pop star before going on to talk about the sexism and ageism rampant in the pop music industry. Despite her popularity, “no one seems to want her to succeed,” he said.
As for age being a factor for his own career, the thirty-six-year-old admitted that “there’s not usually the old white dude in the music industry. . . . But age has nothing to do with it, as long as people are paying attention to me.”
On EDM, Diplo spoke optimistically, saying, “It’s been a slow evolution in America . . . but it’s got young people excited about music.” He goes on to cite his Jack Ü collaborator, Skrillex, as a trendsetting electronic artist with huge potential: “There’s no precedent for what he’s doing and what he could do.”
Speaking of JackÜ, Diplo also goes on to talk candidly about Justin Bieber, who lends vocals for the duo’s track “Where R U Now?” “He’s a rich kid and he’s pretty much gonna have to be a jerk,” he says, adding, however, that Bieber was “respectful” and is “good at everything.”
Not surprisingly, given his track record of candor, Bieber wasn’t the only person Diplo was willing to lambast. When asked about his social media feud with Taylor Swift (which he says is quashed), the DJ knocked her fans: “[They] loved the beef. . . . That’s all they have—they don’t have, like, real things going on.” He also went on to say that Ed Sheeran unfollowed him on Twitter after Diplo’s comment that “someone should make a Kickstarter to get Taylor Swift a booty.”
If you’re wondering why a DJ/producer so freely opens these cans of worms, the answer may be in an unlikely source. “It’s the Kanye West theory,” Diplo says, explaining that fights make your social media numbers explode, even if it makes you look like a “prick.”
Well, just as long as he’s taking life advice from someone as wizened as the likes of Kanye.
Read the full article at Rolling Stone here.
