The Life and Career of Diplo

Transcript

The year is 2000. Diplo is a 22-year-old college dropout working as a schoolteacher. But just five years later, he would go on to create a global hit that racked up a billion streams and would ultimately launch himself into stardom. On his rise to fame, he built EDM supergroups like Major Lazer and Jack Ü. He's been accused of sabotaging careers on purpose. Yet today, he remains one of the greatest DJs of all time. People adore him, but that doesn't mean the superstar DJ comes without controversy. So without further ado, this is the entire story of Diplo.

Diplo was born Thomas Wesley Pentz on November 10th, 1978, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Little did he know he would eventually become one of the biggest names in dance music. But growing up, he never thought he'd be able to pursue music as a job, because when Diplo was just a teenager, he didn't really know anyone making a living as a DJ. The idea that it could be a real career wasn't even on his radar. Back in the '80s and '90s, being a DJ wasn't even a career choice. Instead, he thought he could become a filmmaker or maybe even a writer. But growing up wasn't very easy for young Wesley. He was considered a bad kid and was constantly getting in trouble. His parents got divorced at a young age, which left him bouncing around different homes and schools all around the South. He eventually settled in South Florida, where he got sent to a military school at age 14.

"I was a pretty bad kid. I was bouncing from high schools and different middle schools, and I was actually sent to a military school at one point, at that age, like 14. And I even got expelled from there, and then that was like my last shot, right? And I came back, they let me back in 'cause it cost my family a lot of money. It was like $3,000 for me to go there, because I was getting sent out at every school."

While most people thought he was going nowhere fast, Diplo was already foreshadowing his career in music. He was developing a real taste for music culture, soaking in everything from Memphis rap to Miami bass, sounds he discovered as his family constantly moved from place to place. But it was in high school when his love for producing music really caught on. In high school, Diplo played football and even acted in plays. However, he found most of his enjoyment in music production classes that were available for students to take during their free periods between classes. He would even steal CDs out of his local Target just so he could expand his knowledge of different music genres, and you'll find out later that this was a common occurrence for Diplo. But it wasn't long before he began producing records for local rappers under the name Diplodocus, a dinosaur he'd been obsessed with since childhood.

"This girlfriend in high school kind of had these weird lips that looked like a giraffe, and I used to call her a giraffe. Then she called me DL. I don't know why she called me that. And I was really into dinosaurs as a young person, so I made that my project. It was called the Diplodocus, my first album. Super hard to say. People know it as the short version. I say it's a Latin word."

"So I shortened it to Diplo at some point, and that's kind of been my name."

He also began trading and buying turntables and samplers to create and sell mixtapes. But it was in college when Diplo would soon realize he's not just any regular musician. He graduated high school in 1997 and got into the University of Central Florida in Orlando, a school Diplo claimed was just something to advance him forward in life. There he majored in filmmaking and anthropology, where he became a DJ for the student radio station. He experimented with blending the southern rap he loved with electronic, reggae, and international sounds. But during his time working for the radio station, he ran into some similar trouble from when he was a teen. During his alone time in the studio, he would sneak off with vinyls without permission, and this led to Diplo getting fired. Years later, that same radio station tweeted at him: "Hey Diplo, many moons ago you were a DJ at our station. You were unfortunately fired for stealing some vinyls from us. We'd like those vinyls back, or at least a shout-out on one of your vastly successful social media accounts." Diplo responded with a shout-out, tweeting, "They aren't lying."

He eventually transferred to Temple University in Philadelphia to continue his studies. While Diplo's dad wanted him to pursue a more adequate and safe career, Diplo stuck with the same majors, and let's just say his dad wasn't very happy.

"My father was also like, 'This is a huge mistake. What are you doing? What about accounting? That's a great degree to have.'"

Still, there was a bigger problem. Diplo realized his passion for film didn't align with his academic program. He felt like it wasn't giving him the real practical experience he needed to break into the film industry. So by his junior year, he dropped out.

"So, like, what am I doing here? I don't want to learn. These people aren't even in the business, you know? The real business is going out and making it yourself."

Afterward, he traveled the world, immersing himself in different musical cultures, something that would unknowingly help his DJ career later on. At the time, though, he didn't see DJing as a career. He was just doing it for fun while working odd jobs like teaching, selling tickets at a movie theater, and even working at Subway. But none of these jobs stuck. He admitted he wasn't very good at them and definitely didn't want to be trapped in a nine-to-five forever. Little did he know his DJ career was about to take off.

The Record Hustle

By this point, Diplo had already built a massive collection of records, from stealing CDs out of Target as a teenager to hunting down rare vinyl in Japan after dropping out of school. But this record collection was more than just a hobby. It gave him a global understanding of music culture, and he turned his record collecting into a job. He was selling records, bootlegging them, and making mixtapes out of them.

"That was like this weird hack I found, traveling and buying records. I did it in India. I did it in Philadelphia. I would go to New Jersey, I'd go to New York, and I would buy old records and sell them to different record collectors. Questlove was one of my first guys I sold to. I sold records to Kanye West when he first started producing."

He was the guy who used to be found on the corner selling music, and then he started selling his own mixtapes as well. At this time, Diplo was doing good. He was making a lot of money doing this and even bought a house. But as a DJ, he was hitting roadblocks. Little did he know, he was about to start one of the biggest DJ duos of the early 2000s. He was a new DJ having trouble getting gigs around Philadelphia until he realized the one thing that DJs weren't doing at the time. There were parties that only played house, DJs that only played rock, but there weren't parties for it all. Diplo had music for all of it because of his vast understanding of different music cultures. So his solution was to create his own parties.

"I just started doing parties, and then I saw what you do if you do your own party. You can invest in yourself and promote a party, and then you take everything, right? So I started learning small little business acumen from just doing parties, and then eventually I could quit my job."

But these weren't any regular parties. They were unique, and they were called Hollertronix, a groundbreaking underground party and mixtape series started in Philadelphia by Diplo and DJ Low Budget. They pioneered a post-genre of mashup sounds by blending diverse genres like southern hip hop, Baltimore club, and even dance music. The movement, named after a Bone Crusher song, gained a cult following through word of mouth and underground forums. These underground parties became a sensation in Philadelphia's club scene, drawing fans from all over and growing in size each month.

Diplo and Low Budget released a mixtape called Never Scared under the Hollertronix name in 2003. It received national attention, and The New York Times even named Never Scared one of its top 10 albums of 2003. Thanks to all of the buzz, the Hollertronix parties even attracted special guests. And that's how they met the little-known Sri Lankan artist M.I.A., who was about to change Diplo's life forever.

Meeting M.I.A.

By this time, Diplo's identity as a DJ and producer was fully taking shape. In late 2004, he released his debut solo album, Florida, on the UK label Big Dada Records. But the real turning point came when he met M.I.A. in 2004. M.I.A. heard one of Diplo's tracks at a London club and tracked him down backstage. She loved it and thought he would do great producing for her. So her team flew to Philadelphia to record, and Diplo ended up co-producing tracks for her debut album. Even though they only finished one song there and burned through the entire budget, that session changed everything. Diplo learned the basics of producing by working with her. They came out with Piracy Funds Terrorism Volume 1. From there, Diplo became her DJ on tour, and the two started dating.

In 2007, Diplo and fellow producer Switch worked with M.I.A. on her second album, and that's where they created "Paper Planes." The song became a hit, top five on Billboard and Grammy nominated. But with the success came tension behind the scenes. Things got ugly, and M.I.A. accused Diplo of jealousy. She claimed he was trying to hold her back and even trashed her hotel room at one point. In interviews, she claimed Diplo was jealous of her rise. She said he would downplay her accomplishments, mocking her magazine covers, discouraging interviews, and warning against going mainstream. According to her, when she signed a major label deal, Diplo was furious. She even described one incident where he smashed her hotel room in anger. After five years together, the two split, and later Diplo confessed he had control issues early in their relationship, and watching her star rise left him conflicted, half proud and half insecure.

But Diplo kept moving. He stayed close with Switch, and together they launched Major Lazer. In 2009, they dropped Guns Don't Kill People, Lasers Do. Then came one of the most streamed songs in history, "Lean On." But Diplo didn't stop there. He teamed up with Skrillex to form Jack Ü. In 2015, they dropped "Where Are You Now" with Justin Bieber, and that track won two Grammys. Today, Diplo is still everywhere, still making music, still throwing parties, still caught in controversy.