Brad Knutson

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been more than four years since Diplo first burst on the scene with his revolutionary Hollertronix mixtape "Never Scared." Surprisingly, in the ever fickle club scene, the funky mashed-up crunk sound immortalized in that tape is still very much in vogue and Dilpo is as in-demand as ever. In addition to helping out in the production of "Kala," the latest album from Diplo’s fabled love interest M.I.A., he recently dropped a five-song EP on iTunes and is currently in the process of recording a follow-up to his full-length debut album "Florida" as well as a collaboration with current tourmate DJ Switch.

On top of all that, Diplo has been hard at work cultivating his own record label, Mad Decent, which he launched last fall. "It takes a lot of time," he says about his new life as a label guy. "It seems that’s all I’ve been doing in the last year, besides working on the M.I.A. stuff." Of course, all work and no play makes for a very dull DJ, so this fall Diplo decided to take a break and embark on a long overdue club tour. "Last time I was on tour was with Bonde de Role and CSS, so it was more like a band tour…[this time around] I wanted to do just a proper dance music kind of thing," he says. As much as he loves running his own label, Diplo admits that once things get settled with Mad Decent, he’s looking forward to being able to focus more on spinning records rather than selling them. "I want to chill out more, DJ more and produce more in the next couple years…musically there’s a lot more I want to do."

Despite all his success, Diplo is surprisingly modest about his abilities saying that he does what he does only because he doesn’t know how to do anything else. "I got fired from about twenty jobs since I was 20 years old," he says. "Everything from Subway—I got fired from there for stealing those Sub Club cards—to the movie theater..to the Philadelphia Zoo. I never was good at jobs, I’m only good at making music."

Diplo performs September 18 at Metro, 3730 North Clark, (773)549-0203, at 11pm. $20.

(2007-09-11)

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