Diplo

Ahead of his gig tonight at Town Hall in Newtown (tickets available here) and at The Assembly on Friday (tickets available here), we were asked to do a post dedicated to Diplo so here we go:

Info

Birth Name: Thomas Wesley Pentz

Date Of Birth: 10 November 1978

Stage Name: Diplo (most common), but also works under the alias' Diplodocus, Wes Diplo and Wes Gully

Also Part Of:  Hollertronix - alongside LowBudget/Low Bee, known then as Diplodocus 

                      Major Lazer - originally alongside Switch, now Jillionaire

Music Label: Big Dada 2003-5 (signed to) 

                       Mad Decent 2005- (started)

Known For: Experimenting with 'different' sounds, cross-bending genre's and his work with M.I.A on her                                    2004 mixtape as well as all her albums to date.

Early Life

Having worked in his father's bait shop as a kid, he became fixated on manatees, alligators and dinosaurs with hopes of becoming a paleontologist. However he wound up changing his mind and started a degree in film studies at 2 different colleges in Florida. Before completing his studies, Thomas temporarily moved to Japan in order to escape his everyday life in the United States. While in Japan he made a demo of  some beats he had made and sent them to Will Ashon at Big Dada Records. He then signed to the label and moved back to America and finished his undergraduate degree in film studies at Temple University in Philadelphia in 2003.

Career - Self

While in Philadelphia, he began working as a DJ to afford rent and would often run into fellow DJ Low Budget and together the two decided to pool their resources and start Hollertronix as well as Hooked on Hollerphonix, a DJ-duo and a monthly club night in Philadelphia respectively. All this was done so that they could control the music played as they disliked what was played at the time in the Philadelphia club scene. In 2003 they released 'Never Scared', a mixtape of the music Hollertronix was becoming know for (check it out here).

Next up for Diplo was his first solo album 'Florida', released off Ashon's Big Dada in 2004 which can be heard here. 'Never Scared' was a more down-tempo and relaxed release compared to the madness of the Hollertronix mixtape of the previous year. He went on to release numerous compilation albums and original tracks but his work on M.I.A's 2004 mixtape 'Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol.1' is what was most spoke about at the time. The mixtape which was made up of tracks intended for her debut album 'Arular' mashed up with samples from other recordings, this broke M.I.A's U.K borders and exposed her to the world. 

Craving a "more worldy" sound, Diplo started record label Mad Decent in order to release music and promote artists with similar sounds. In 2009 the label signed a distribution deal with Fontana and Downtown Records and the first release was a collaboration effort by Diplo and DJ Switch under the moniker Major Lazer (a fictional Jamaican bounty hunter) and later that year released Major Lazer's debut album 'Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do' (listen here).

His own productions include:

C'mon (Catch 'Em By Surprise) feat. Tiesto &  Busta Rhymes

Hey! feat. Laidback Luke

Amplifier feat. Skrillex

Horsey

Summer's Gonna Hurt You

U Don't Like Me feat. Lil Jon

Masta Ace feat. Afrojack

as well countless remixes including

Dead Prez. - Hip Hop (Diplo Remix)

Bingo Players - Get Up (Diplo Remix)

Last Month, on June 12 he released a 6-track E.P. titled 'Express Yourself' featuring collaborations with Datsik and Elephant Man to name a couple of the many

Career - Producer

Diplo produced 1 track for M.I.A's 2005 album Arular, 4 tracks on 2007 album Kala and 1 track off 2010 album Maya, these tracks are 'Bucky Done Gun' off Arular, 'Hussle'  'XR2'  'Paper Planes' and 'Big Branch' off Kala, and 'Tell Me Why' off Maya. During this period, through M.I.A, he was introduced to DJ Switch who helped him co-produce many of the tracks on the albums.

Through the years he has collaborated with and produced for high profile artists such as Santigold, Drake, Amanda Blank, Snoop Dogg, Robyn, Das Racist, G-Dragon & T.O.P., Chris Brown, Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, Nicola Roberts, Lil Wayne, Wale, Yelawolf, Marina & The Diamonds, Travis Porter, Usher and Justin Bieber. It's pretty safe to say Diplo has accomplished many goals set out by any and every producer - establish yourself and collaborate with the best.

I hope you found this informative, if you want another artist reviewed please let us know in the comment section or the chat box on the right hand side