Why Is Every Dude a DJ? Ft. Diplo

Summary

Podcast Summary

Smart Girl Dumb Questions

Host: Nayeema Raza
Episode: Why Is Every Dude a DJ? Ft. Diplo
Date: October 7, 2025

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this energetic, playful, and wide-ranging episode, Nayeema Raza sits down with superstar DJ/producer Diplo (Wes Pentz) to answer the “dumb question”: “Why is every dude a DJ?” Their conversation spins through Diplo’s origins, tales from the frontlines of global pop, the evolution of DJ culture, musical creativity, health hacks for the perennially jet-lagged, and the blurred lines between creators and culture. Equal doses of curiosity and irreverence mark their exchange, with stops at anthropology, foot fetishes, marathon running — and even a bet on whether Bill Nye knows Diplo’s name.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life, The Universe, and Bill Nye

• Opens with quick banter about space, the possibility of alien life, and a running joke about Bill Nye’s physique, setting the episode’s irreverent, curious tone.
• [00:40] "I was looking up topless pictures of Bill Nye yesterday because I want to know if he had, like, abs." — Diplo

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2. Why Every Guy Is a DJ

• Nayeema observes the ubiquity of DJs, especially on dating apps, prompting the episode's core question: Why are so many dudes DJs?
• For Diplo, DJing is “accessible”—you can grab some gear, learn the basics, and immediately be “the guy at the party.”
• [40:24] “It’s just easy to do it also means you’re… It means you’re cool. It means you’re like, functionally, I know what’s going on.” — Diplo
• He notes that not all self-described DJs are serious or skilled.

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3. Diplo’s Origin Story & Creative Approach

• The name “Diplo” comes from Diplodocus—his fascination with dinosaurs and an ex’s teasing nickname.
• Early grind: After initial struggles, Diplo sold homemade mixtapes, bootlegs, and edits in Philly, making enough to scrape by.
• [03:03] “I was making like $100,000 a year selling, like mixtapes, bootleg of my music I made, or like little edits I made and selling them.” — Diplo
• His breakthrough came with M.I.A. (“Paper Planes”): making lo-fi music in cramped apartments, learning production on the fly, and leveraging guerrilla mixtape distribution.
• On making it: “I make songs that are interesting. And they’re not hits, but they just somehow find their audience.” — Diplo [04:35]

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4. What Makes a Great Producer/DJ?

• A producer can be part-therapist, part-musician, part-brand manager; Diplo finds the job fluid and rarely formulaic.
• [19:51] “Producing can mean so many different things. There’s people like Prince who…just made the whole song…others like Rick Rubin…‘Maybe turn up the bass.’” — Diplo
• He compares producing and collaborating with different personalities, sometimes merging romantic and professional relationships — “I think I did date a lot of people I produced. I would never do it again. Maybe I would…” [21:18]
• Reading the crowd: Diplo explains how a good DJ senses a room’s age, vibe, expectations, and tailors music accordingly, wielding a vast, flexible arsenal.
• [24:33] “I could play a funeral. I could play a fucking rave for 10-year-old. I could play a…college tech house…I can kind of do anything.” — Diplo

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5. Musical Eclecticism and Cultural Curiosity

• Diplo’s musical career is shaped by a love for anthropology and world travel.
• [29:55] “I went to Temple University for anthropology. I was like, my dream job was to be a National Geographic photographer…or just, something cultural.” — Diplo
• Global experiences: majoring in film and anthropology, traveling across India and Pakistan, collaborating with South Asian artists (Diljit Dosanjh, Shah Rukh Khan), and incorporating global rhythms into Major Lazer and other projects.
• Fascination with cultural exchange, DJing in “sketchy” spots (like Islamabad with bomb threats), and the diversity and cross-pollination he sees in modern music scenes.

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6. Health, Sleep, and Party Life

• Diplo’s modern regimen: running clubs, marathons, barely any alcohol (“you can’t really drink and DJ”), selective LSD use “like a caffeinated boost,” and survival on minimal sleep.
• [14:23] “I’m probably on 340 flights a year…sometimes I get 9 hours in a day, but every other night it’s like four.” — Diplo
• The paradox of the party life: “So many DJs my age are just totally sober.” [14:57]

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7. On Making Hits, Earworms, and the Creative Process

• Discusses the accidental vs. deliberate nature of musical progress—some hits come from happy accidents.
• [26:29] “Everything’s probably accidental because I’m always fumbling my way into a great song…just messing with the audio file.” — Diplo
• Distinguishing hooks, loops, and earworms; the latter is a “can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head” moment.

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8. Fetishes, Footwear, and the Cultivated Eccentricity of Modern Men

• Tangents into cultural eccentricities and sexual fetishes—prompted by a lighthearted foot fetish story.
• [34:14] “I think it’s pretty random to have a foot fetish… You just kind of end somewhere.” — Diplo

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9. On the Future: AI, Next-Gen DJs & Enduring the Algorithm

• Diplo suggests the next “Diplo” might be an AI DJ/creator avatar.
• [55:50] “It’s definitely an AI creation blob like person. Maybe like a really hot girl that is AI and does everything.” — Diplo
• He emphasizes that while DJing is more algorithmic and accessible, the best DJs “give you music you never heard…confuses you, but you learn something.” [56:36]

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10. Collaborations, Major Lazer, and Bromance Fallout

• Confirms a second Jack Ü album with Skrillex exists, but their partnership is “broken” (“Skrillex hates me…I can’t understand why”). [58:00]
• Shares stories about Major Lazer’s return at Coachella, global block parties, and massive concerts from Cuba to Twitch marathons.

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11. Random Notables and Memorable Moments

• Ongoing joke/bet: “Does Bill Nye know who Diplo is?” — $100 wager with Nayeema. [29:31]
• Personal discipline rooted in his father’s military background and the family’s climb out of poverty via the GI bill. [44:13]
• Dives into family, how he tries (and fails) to teach his sons music, and the generational perseverance needed for success.
• Wild anecdotes: getting “kidnapped” by Indonesian police during a tour, playing clubs for dictators, surreal moments with pop icons.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “The name ‘Diplo’ is based after the animal, the dinosaur called Diplodocus… I shortened it to Diplo because it sounded interesting. I was into branding.” — Diplo [02:44]
• “I don’t do a lot of drugs…but my doctor said to me…your brain health, like you sleeping is more important than whatever this can possibly do to you.” — Diplo [13:41]
• “Our knowledge is a bit tainted, right? …There’s just something so pure [about being 11], when you start buying your own music.” — Nayeema Raza [46:13]
• “I accidentally became a DJ… I do consider myself a cultural agitator. My career was trying to do something meaningful in the fabric of humanity.” — Diplo [55:48 – 56:14]
• “A great DJ… gives you music you never heard and, like, you kind of confuses you, but you… learn something.” — Diplo [56:36]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:56] Why “every dude is a DJ” – episode’s main question
• [03:03] Diplo’s beginnings: selling mixtapes, bootlegging, grind in early Philly days
• [06:02] Partnering with M.I.A., early creative hustle, industry skepticism
• [14:23] Diplo’s insane travel & sleep cycles, health habits as an aging DJ
• [19:51] Explaining “producer” — from Prince to Rick Rubin
• [24:33] On reading the room & DJing any crowd
• [29:55] Anthropology and Diplo’s global music curiosity
• [34:14] Sexual fetishes & eccentricities — the culture of “quirky” men in NYC
• [40:24] Why DJing is so appealing (especially for men)
• [55:48] Who is the next-gen Diplo? It could be AI
• [58:00] Why Jack Ü (Diplo + Skrillex) isn’t coming back soon

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Tone and Style

Equal parts playful, self-deprecating, and insightful, this episode is an irreverent tour through the mind and life of a modern musical polymath. Both Diplo and Nayeema bounce between pop culture, personal history, and philosophy with humor and warmth, filled with side-bets and asides.

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For Listeners Looking for Takeaways:

• Diplo didn’t plot a straight path to global stardom — he hustled, made mistakes, and adapted constantly, powered by curiosity and “just showing up every day.”
• DJing’s current mass appeal is partly due to its accessibility, but becoming a great DJ/producer still demands intuition, taste, and showmanship.
• Global musical influences, cultural exploration, and a willingness to fumble through creative chaos are at the heart of meaningful modern pop.
• Health, sleep, and sobriety eventually matter — even for the world’s most tireless party-starter.
• Artificial intelligence is poised to transform even the role and cultural cachet of the superstar DJ.

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Memorable Closing Exchange

• [58:00] “Why has Jack Ü not gotten back together?”
  “Oh, that’s an easy one to answer. Skrillex hates me and I can’t even…and if you even follow me on Instagram and you talk to him…he’ll unfollow you. It’s a real kind of crazy hate that…I just can’t understand.” — Diplo

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Catch the next episode to find out if Bill Nye knows who Diplo is — and keep sending in your ‘dumb questions.’

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Recommended Tracks:

• “Paper Planes” (w/M.I.A.)
• “Lean On” (Major Lazer)
• “Purr” (feat. Shah Rukh Khan)
• “Sailor Song” (GG Perez)
• “Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley” (country album)

Transcript

[Diplo]

There's one point in our history where there was, like, all these humanoids, like, fighting for control. Like the little hobbit one in Indonesia. Like, can you believe that we are the only one that, like, we're, like, came back, we destroyed the rest of the whole thing.

[Naeema Raza]

That's like, my big question for Bill Nye, because I'm like, there must be life in other. Space time.

[Diplo]

Space time. What do you mean by space time?

[Naeema Raza]

Like dimensions? Or like, living in different time from us because they're at light years ahead of us or something.

[Diplo]

By rationality, there's. The universe is so huge that there's something else here. Yeah, that's one argument. But the other argument's like, there's just no reason to not ever know them.

[Naeema Raza]

We have to ask Bill, but has Bill met aliens? We're asking today. Well, we can ask him when he shows up, when you're eating lunch, we'll ask him.

[Diplo]

I was looking up topless pictures of Bill Nye yesterday because I want to know if he had, like, abs.

[Naeema Raza]

Does he.

[Diplo]

He has, like, a little V line.

[Naeema Raza]

Was there any, like, topless photo with him just in the bow tie, like a Chippendale style?

[Diplo]

There was, but I think it was AI Twisted kids.

[Naeema Raza]

All right. Shall we?

[Diplo]

That was in the beginning.

[Naeema Raza]

No, we're using it. We're definitely using that. I'm Naeema Raza. This is Smart girl, dumb questions. And I feel like these days everybody is a dj, or at least every guy I date is. Why is that? I'm going to ask that question today to legendary musician, producer, and legit DJ Diplo, who is not a guy I date, but is a guest today.

[Diplo]

I'm here.

[Naeema Raza]

How are you a good date? Are you a good date?

[Diplo]

Do you have a boyfriend?

[Naeema Raza]

I don't.

[Diplo]

Oh, could be.

[Naeema Raza]

Could happen.

[Diplo]

Could have gone to Marquee with me last night.

[Naeema Raza]

I was supposed to show up at Marquee last night, but I was delayed. I got into JFK at like, 1A.

[Diplo]

It's probably the weirdest backstage of all time.

[Naeema Raza]

Why?

[Diplo]

Because the one guy followed me around that I just got my hair done. The guy with, like, the bob that has all these viral videos.

[Naeema Raza]

I saw the pictures from your back then.

[Diplo]

G Eazy was there, and then Dean Ice, who's another great DJ, but doesn't really. I didn't expect him to come to, like, a hard techno set at Marquee. And then another bunch of other characters that were just very unique.

[Naeema Raza]

So I could have come.

[Diplo]

You could have been. You could have totally fit In.

[Naeema Raza]

That's a good idea for a podcast. Like the morning after podcast.

[Diplo]

Of a party.

[Naeema Raza]

Just morning after. No, of a hookup date.

[Diplo]

Yeah, that'd be pretty good. You just stay over, and then you bring them over, and then you're like. You wake up and the whole set's done. You're like, yeah, hey, babe. And then, like, the lights are on them.

[Naeema Raza]

Desta's there. They're like, this bitch is never leaving.

[Diplo]

That'd be really funny, actually.

[Naeema Raza]

Smart girl. Dumb questions. If you do not know who Diplo is. You definitely have heard Diplo. You came up in the Aughts, right?

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

I mean, you were making music forever.

[Diplo]

I've never heard, actually someone call it the Aughts. It sounds cool now.

[Naeema Raza]

Doesn't it sound good?

[Diplo]

The ought to means, like, the O. The O's.

[Naeema Raza]

The O's came up with the O's, making the amazing album Paper Planes with Mia. Since then, you have, like, been the mastermind behind Major Lazer. You have played every event in every corner of the world. You've come out with two country albums under Dipla Presents.

[Diplo]

Yeah. Thomas Wesley.

[Naeema Raza]

Thomas Wesley. And you've done just everything, including playing Marquis last night. First of all, explain who gave you the Diplo name.

[Diplo]

It's based after the animal, the dinosaur called Diplodocus.

[Naeema Raza]

Ah.

[Diplo]

It's a giant. It's this. It's this dinosaur here, see? And it's like a. It was, at one point the longest.

[Naeema Raza]

This is a good day because he's starting to take his clothes off. Yeah.

[Diplo]

The longest animal in the world. It's like a huge, like, brontosaurus kind of animal. And then I had a girlfriend. She did look kind of like a giraffe. And she had, like, these lips that when she ate, like, lettuce or whatever, she kind of had these, like, prance out, like, lit. I was. I always called her. She had, like, a giraffe face. And she said I had a diplodocus face kind of was in the dinosaurs. She knew that. And so I kept the name. I shortened it to Diplo because it sounded interesting. I started making logos and just. I was into, like, branding, learning about branding. I got this tattoo when I was, like, 17, and it was always going to be a marker on my life. Like, this is what I want to do. And if I don't make it in this. This creative, like, this brand, I will be very sad. You know, I have to always look at it.

[Naeema Raza]

Well, now you fucking made it kind of.

[Diplo]

But the story is funnier because I Didn't really make it. Ended up back at my dad's house after, like, Philadelphia kind of broke. Working on his, like, bait shop, catching shrimp at night. And then I got another tattoo that has, like, diplo, like, with a toe tag.

[Naeema Raza]

Okay.

[Diplo]

On my arm. That's just like. Basically I killed the thing, the whole project.

[Naeema Raza]

And then it literally has a little.

[Diplo]

Toe tag on the little diamond on the actual foot. Like, you know when you go like a morgue diplo.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, yeah.

[Diplo]

After that, I was like, that sucks. So I, like, went back and I really grinded back in Philly, and this is around 20, 22,001.

[Naeema Raza]

When did you feel like you made it? I mean, I guess you made it with Paper Planes. Right.

[Diplo]

That was the first song that I felt like, oh, people listening are listening to this song.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And. But it took a long time. That song took almost a year to each to reach radio. Like, it was just a record that. It's been a path in my career. I make songs that are interesting.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And they're not hits, but they just somehow find their audience. Like, Paper Plans was a number one again, like. Like last year after 20 years.

[Naeema Raza]

Love that. You can put your shirt back on, by the way, if you want. Whatever you prefer.

[Diplo]

Whatever. I'll just keep. Like I said, by the end of the show, I'll just have, like, no.

[Naeema Raza]

No clothing. I love it. Are you going to keep at least one crock on?

[Diplo]

That's next. That's going to go off next.

[Naeema Raza]

What is that? Okay.

[Diplo]

So, yeah. So, yeah, I had made that. And I just made that thinking I was going to live in this little apartment forever in Philly. I made it in my little apartment with Maya, who. Mia and I made that song. And we made a mixtape. But we saw I was selling it, and I didn't think it was ever gonna. Anything was gonna happen. And me and her ended up at the Grammys a year and a half later because I was nominated for record of the year, which is. Which is crazy because it's such a chaotic record.

[Naeema Raza]

And you guys were dating.

[Diplo]

Yes.

[Naeema Raza]

Good idea. Bad idea. Or inevitable to date people you work with.

[Diplo]

It's inevitable. I also was really young. I was only 20, like, 24 to 27. And I. And she was older than me. I couldn't believe she came to Philadelphia where I lived. Her even at. Her label sent me there because they totally thought I was a real producer, but I totally lied to them. I could not. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just a dj. I had played In London once or twice, because I built a little fan base with my party in Philadelphia. And she had a big record going on. I was interesting mixing music together in different styles, like grime and dancehall and house music. And she came to my show, she had a record called Galang. And it was like the popping record. I made it to her.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, it was the hottest record of.

[Diplo]

The hot before she got signed too. So that was. Signed her to XL Recordings. And they're just like. At the time, Nick Huggett was the anar at XL Recordings. XL Recordings, amazing label. I signed everything from Mia Bally, drum boy, Adele. Like, they're just kicks like a mule. They had rave music all the way to pop music. Crazy label. And she had the idea, like, go make some songs with Diplo. And then he sent her to Philadelphia. She didn't get a hotel room. I was like, okay, stay with me. I was like, living in that bunk bed in my apartment.

[Naeema Raza]

With your dad's.

[Diplo]

No, it was with my other friend. It was like, crazy. I was like, you can stay here. I'll sleep underneath it. And then I had a laptop. It was so crappy. And I made like. We made this music. None of it had made any sense. None of it was, like, good. I barely had a microphone in my studio. And we ended up with this mixtape called Piracy Funds Terrorism. And it had no real music. It was just her rapping on beats that I like Dead Prez and all these, like, hip hop samples and little things I made. And one of them was like, kind of Bucky Dun Gunn. But it was the only thing that I kind of. And we sent her back with it and we kind of started. I was like, I'm kind of in love with her. So we were like, dating after that trip. We sent her back to England after, like, four days. And they like, call me up like, what the fuck is this? Like, this is useless. And I was like, I don't care, okay? And then a couple weeks later, I was like, I can just sell this thing. I'll just make a mixtape out of it for her. Because that was sort of my. My grind. In Philadelphia, I was making mixtapes and selling mixtapes and hustling. I'm like, printing them and going to record stores and even places like Urban Outfitters and selling physical mixtapes.

[Naeema Raza]

And these are just like, one off mixtapes.

[Diplo]

There was a point where, like, how now you go to, like, really cool shops. They have vinyl on the wall like this. Like, they have their own selection of, like, cool records and things like that at some point, people are selling mixtapes and CDs at like shops like Urban Outfitters or Armand's Records or Funko Mart here in New York, where kids just buy CDs because they wanted the mixtapes. It was illegal music. I was making like $100,000 a year selling, like mixtapes, bootleg of my music I made, or like little edits I made and selling them and had a little cool artwork. They were called Holotronics. And I was like, I can do this with her music. And is my. It's like a first artist. Because at that time, people like Master P and all the cash money guys swish a house. They were selling mixtapes in their cities like Houston, Texas, New Orleans.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And they're like making millions of dollars.

[Naeema Raza]

When I made the Sublime document, like, the Sublime guys were literally like on the radio, calling in, requesting music, getting a little sample, and then mixing it all together.

[Diplo]

Were they on sign? I guess, yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

And that was before they were signed. They basically. I didn't know this, but their huge album, like the one with Bradley's back, that says Sublime, he was already dead. But it's a post homiest album.

[Diplo]

Yeah, the very first album even.

[Naeema Raza]

No, it was their third album, but it was just like their biggest. David Kahn produced it and it had all the hooks of like, what I.

[Diplo]

Got samples and stuff like that. It was like a really big fusion album. I love that album. I live in California now and I always thought, wow, how does Sublime come from this? Because it's such a cool, like, dance. Everything else in Cali from the era is like very rock and punky. And I was like, this is the Venice kind of. It's crazy. That sound was kind of what I was doing in Florida. There's a lot of reggae, dancehall, sky music. When I was going to high school, when Sublime got big, but I was selling mixtapes and I was making money, I was like, look, I just sell this. Fuck the label. I'll just sell this mixtape. And the mixtape actually was the harbinger. Like, people were like, I love this mixtape. This girl's doing like the hip hop format, whatever she wants. Because it's a time when I guess DJ who kid and 50 Cent was putting on mixtapes before they were signed. Because that's how you build up hype. We just use that sort of guerrilla marketing to make it for her. And she ended up signing to Interscope off of the back of that. And then I was like, okay, I'm back in the month. We can go work on music again. So we finished Bucky Dungan and some other records, and then she had a little run. She was a very cool artist. And then I did work on the next album, which was a little bit stronger, had better songs like Paper Planes on it, and. But I had to learn. I'd, like, really quickly learn how to produce, because I made that mixtape with her, and she became a big artist, and I had to, like, pretend that I knew what I was doing. So that was the beginning of me taking it seriously.

[Naeema Raza]

I love it. And then at that point, you were locked into Diplo, even though you had.

[Diplo]

The Diplo T Way too late. I'd already done, like, stuff. I'm like, 25 at that point. I just.

[Naeema Raza]

What would you change your name to if you wanted to?

[Diplo]

I mean, it's really hard to have a cool DJ name. I don't know. People used to use the real names or fake ones. Like, Calvin Harris is not his real name.

[Naeema Raza]

Calvin Harris is not Calvin Harris.

[Diplo]

Nope.

[Naeema Raza]

What? Okay.

[Diplo]

His name's Tiesto.

[Naeema Raza]

Is Tiesto, Right?

[Diplo]

His name is Tice.

[Naeema Raza]

That would have been equally good.

[Diplo]

Well, he's Dutch. Like, now. P's name is Maurice. Who's not a good. Steve Okey's name. Steve Okey. Fred again. Actually named Fred Fred again. Skrillex. His name's Skrillex. His name's Sonny.

[Naeema Raza]

No one's name is Skrillex unless they were born to Elon Musk.

[Diplo]

There might be a Skrillex baby out there somewhere.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, that's fair. Okay, so you don't know what you changed. You could always change it. It's like Prince.

[Diplo]

Oh, I already did. I have, like, 40 other projects.

[Naeema Raza]

I know you have so many projects. Okay, so do you have different personalities when you're, like, working in the different projects? Like, when you go do country and you're doing Thomas Wesley, you a different dude.

[Diplo]

I'm completely schizophrenic. I just, like, go put a country song on. I wear a cowboy hat. I'm like, snap into it. I kind of am, actually. I guess physically my ears have to be in my. My vibe, but I'm same person.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

But I did have a pretty bad haircut during my first country album. I had, like, a mullet and a.

[Naeema Raza]

Gold tooth, but I feel like that's the vibe.

[Diplo]

It was pretty weird because I had a real gold tooth because my. This tooth fell out, and I was going to get a knee.

[Naeema Raza]

How did it fall out?

[Diplo]

I got into a fight a long time ago, and someone headbutted me in my mouth and. And the tooth was like this. And I somehow like shimmied it back into place. I was like, oh shit, I couldn't afford dental. This is like when I was like 18.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, I think dental's a scam, but.

[Diplo]

I needed a tooth. But Anyway, slowly, over 10 years, it started to get grayer and grayer and I was like, this tooth is dead.

[Naeema Raza]

So tooth aside, tooth aside, I want to know. I actually, your team sent me this message. Last week, Diplo celebrated Laser Weekend with events including an Apple Music Radio takeover surprise set during kai Senate's Mafia THON3 restream. Multiple pop up performances in a 12 hour twitch live stream across Las Vegas. The marathon stream saw them training with the UFC champ Merab d'. Alicia. Diplo moonlighting as an aquarium mermaid. A mukbang at a Michelin Star award.

[Diplo]

That's a lot of stuff.

[Naeema Raza]

Restaurant in Tai Fung. Multiple sets across the city, including a massive charity block party for 6,000 people, giving one fan a 10,000 shopping spree. $10,000 shopping spree and more. Okay, so I read this and I'm like, I hate this question in journalism when people are like, when do you sleep? Because it's such a sycophantic, annoying question. But for you, I literally have this question, like, how many hours a week do you sleep or a day?

[Diplo]

Sometimes I get like, I got a nine hour day last week, but every other was like four.

[Naeema Raza]

Four. But you sleep every night Sometimes barely.

[Diplo]

Like an hour or two if I got red eye or something, you know, But I try to, I would imagine I get that's four times seven. 28, maybe 30 hours a week.

[Naeema Raza]

30 hours a week, yeah. So that's on average like. Yeah, four.

[Diplo]

Yeah. I mean it comes up to it. You could probably ask Bill Nye if I'm like, have brain damage. Maybe on the next.

[Naeema Raza]

You don't seem like you have brain damage. I think you're highly dangerous.

[Diplo]

Yeah, I'm pretty good at like. Yeah. Concentrating on hiding the brain damage.

[Naeema Raza]

Right now the sunglasses are hiding the brain damage.

[Diplo]

He told me to put him on. I was like, hey, put this on before you talk to her.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. Cause you didn't sleep last night.

[Diplo]

I did sleep.

[Naeema Raza]

I think you look great.

[Diplo]

I did sleep last night, but I only slept. I went to, I did your marquee and I went to, you know, after party because I wanted to see what's going on in New York City.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

Until like 6am and then I missed Charlamagne, the God podcast, which I really wanted to do, but I felt like I was gonna go on the Breakfast Club. Charlie, God, I'm really sorry. And I will come on your show and it's been my dream. I met him this week at iheartradio and he was, I was like, can I come?

[Naeema Raza]

I love being Charlamagne's fluffer. That's my jam. So good.

[Diplo]

Yeah, he's so, he's, he's really, he just, he's like, he's so consistent.

[Naeema Raza]

Like, he's so consistent. He's so animated all the time. So you do you wear an aura ring? You don't wear a whoop band. A whoop band. So that's how you know how much you sleep.

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

And do you have any tricks for like when you're jet lagged or, you know, what is it drugs? Like, what do you do to like be able to do this?

[Diplo]

I don't do a lot of drugs, but I would take like a Xanax on a plane or I, I don't, I don't, I don't think that's bad for you. But my doctor said to me, I was like, am I going to get like, are this going to have memory loss? And he's like, it doesn't matter. You just need to sleep. Your brain health, like, you sleeping is more important than whatever this can possibly do to you. And he has a point. But I want to just have like a time where I just can have normal sleep REM hours on a real time zone because I switch time zones like twice a week sometimes, you know, like I'm always on a flight. I'm on, I'm probably on, I would say how many days are in a year? I'll probably be on 300. 300, that's it. That's good. I'm in 300. Probably 340 flights a year.

[Naeema Raza]

How long do you think you keep doing that?

[Diplo]

I told my manager I didn't want to do it this year and they still made a bunch of flights still, because it's towards the end of the year, I have to do all these run clubs and promo and stuff, so.

[Naeema Raza]

So. And then you got super into health. You started this run club like a couple years back or.

[Diplo]

I started it. The run club I started last year was the first one we did where we publicly like, said, hey, I'm going to DJ a party. You want to buy a bib? You want to come run with me? And we did two cities, San Francisco and Seattle, and it was a huge success.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And this year we're doing eight.

[Naeema Raza]

You have a major obsession with health these days. Did something happen to trigger that for you?

[Diplo]

I think just talking about my lifestyle, I don't really drink and you can't drink. I'm 47 years old. You can't really drink. And DJ. I had like a period, probably my 30s. Like this is crazy. This is so much fun. I'm drinking and everything. At one point I'm like, this is. I can't even get up. I'm sick. And you know, it's not a sustainable life. The sleep is the hardest thing to do. Drinking is not. So many DJs my age are just totally sober. Like barely any of us drink. But I do take lsd. Yeah, pretty consistently as like a caffeinated kind of.

[Naeema Raza]

That helps with the brain damage.

[Diplo]

It does. I think it might even out the brain damage so it fills up the part that's damaged and it just makes it look like normal kids.

[Naeema Raza]

If you're listening to this, I've had.

[Diplo]

A lot of sound bites of like taking LSD by accident. Like I ran the first marathon on lsd. I did la and then I ended up doing the New Year's Eve interview with. Was on cnn.

[Naeema Raza]

See, it's that memory loss from the fan act.

[Diplo]

It was with Andy, it was with Bravo Andy, you know, Andy. And I was. And I forget the other guy was on it, but anyway, I was on LSD and I was. They asked me, hey, when's the last time you took lsd? And I was like, I'm on it right now. And then it was like it went viral.

[Naeema Raza]

So love the honesty. But nothing like no major life event.

[Diplo]

Just you deciding, no, it wasn't, it wasn't. I've always been a healthy person. And after you get like 27 and 28, as a man, you have to really take care of your body. Like it's so many years, you're just like, ah, this is it. I have like abs, I'm doing whatever, I eat like hamburgers. At some point you look at yourself and you're like, whoa, what's going on? And then you. I was always kind of a runner. I liked running, I like riding bikes, I like fighting, I like boxing, I just like to do activities. And then as you get older. I'm 47. As you get older, you have to put more hours in every week.

[Naeema Raza]

And you ran the 2023 LA Marathon with our mutual friend Alexi Pappas.

[Diplo]

Yeah, I love her. She actually gave me some good running advice. I think I'm just Naturally, I've kind of. You kind of figure out running like you're technique as it just your body does just kind of does it normal because you have to do such a long time. But Alexi talks a lot when she runs. Yeah, it's like crazy. I had my headphones in the first marathon. I was like, oh, that's gonna roll me. I was like, put the headphones in, listen to some vibes. She's like, so what's up with your dad? How's it doing? And I was like, you know, he's cool, put him back in. She's like, oh, that's really cool. Like, you know what, how's the favorite?

[Naeema Raza]

I was like, Alexi told me. So you ran that with zero preparation. And he was very curious. I mean you probably talked about this, but how your experience is an endurance musician.

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

Makes you an endurance athlete if it does.

[Diplo]

I mean some DJ sets, they're usually like three to four hours, but sometimes they go 12. Some people do 24 hour sets. So that is hardcore that there are drugs involved in those sets. I've never done. I've done like 10 or 12 hours like twice. And the hardest thing is not to pee on yourself and. But you do like leave after a while and put a long song on and getting food. But the energy is just kind of there. It is pretty tiring. And I think there's a study that ravers that go for more than five hours have. Do more steps than marathon runners.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh for sure. Like, I love seeing my steps after I'm out.

[Diplo]

So you can actually, I think really lose weight. Like my dancers, when I used to have dancers on stage for my major leaguer shows, we have four dancers and. And I'm always like, what do you got? They were so fit, like abs, like bodies were crazy. I was like, what do you guys wanna ever come to the gym with me and work out? And they're just like, we don't do the gym.

[Naeema Raza]

We don't work out.

[Diplo]

We just dance. Like, we don't do anything. We're just like.

[Naeema Raza]

They're just naturally hot and heavier than.

[Diplo]

It's like. But dancing, you just, it's crazy. It's like two hours of like intense boot. It's like, yeah, you don't need to do any exercise.

[Naeema Raza]

Famously. Like when you were having this experience of like going back and forth between trying to make it living in your dad's place, I heard you say in some interview that you thought you'd never make it as a musician or you knew you would Never make it as a musician. So you decided to become a producer.

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

Well, is that right? I think I'm quoting you, right?

[Diplo]

I don't remember exactly what that quote is.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, the quote was, I knew I could never be a musician.

[Diplo]

Okay, that's true. I guess a musician is crazy because musicians are someone that's like playing in the opera or, I mean, John Mayer. I don't know, you know that you're a musician. I can play music now. I had to learn how to do it. But in no way would you put me in a music battle with anybody. My kids are, like, way better than I am. They play just piano and drums and they rip way better than me. I'm just a lot better at using my laptop or DJing, so.

[Naeema Raza]

Okay.

[Diplo]

That's my skill set.

[Naeema Raza]

What is a producer like for people who don't know music?

[Diplo]

Did you not read Rick Rouman's book?

[Naeema Raza]

No, I know what a fucking producer does. I made a documentary on the band Sublime. I'm asking for my audience.

[Diplo]

Oh, your audience? Well, audience read a bunch. Producing can mean so many different things. There's so many levels of it. There's people that are producers, like Prince, who's a musician, who produced Stevie Nick. Stand Back or something, who does. He just made the whole song. Sing this. I wrote it for you. I produced it. And there's people like Rick Rubin that kind of like, I don't know, maybe turn up the bass. Like, something like that. You know, that's what he does in the couch. And just like, I just, you know, whatever. Like this. The vibe is cool. Like, something like that. There's people that do that. There's people like the Beatles producer. Who's Brian? What's his name? Andrew. You know this equipment? Brian. Brian Epstein, guys.

[Naeema Raza]

Brian Epstein.

[Diplo]

Whack last name, but he was Brian Epstein. That's why I didn't want to stay it up. Podcast.

[Naeema Raza]

Thank you.

[Diplo]

Jeremy, not related to the other guy. He was like, let's do some weird shit. So he's like, let's put in some plate reverb. Let's do it. And the Beatles revolutionized after their first US Tour, which was like, them, I want a whole genre. Then they're just like sitars. They're like, we can never go on tour again because we make music. That's crazy.

[Naeema Raza]

They fucking played in the Save Bangladesh night in the 1970s in New York City with the first sitar to be in Master Garden.

[Diplo]

But they could never recreate their albums. Revolutionize. What does it mean to be A musician. So that's. Brian Epstein is a good example.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. Who else is in the Brian Epstein Files besides the Beatles?

[Diplo]

And during that era? I like whatever. Producers in the era, though, are like, there's so many crazy ones that I'm, like, obsessed with because I really loved that era of, like, 60s, 70s, soul, jazz, rock and roll. So another crazy producer is the guy that did the Ronettes from Motown. Wallace sound guy. Give me that name right here, too, Sir Phil Spector. Another great guy, another great producer, who also. Crazy person kills somebody at his house. So there's a lot of weird producers.

[Naeema Raza]

Out there, but okay, so my friend David Kahn, who produced the Bengals, who produces Paul McCartney, produced Sublime, he told me that being a producer is like half therapist, half musician.

[Diplo]

Yeah, yeah. That's a good example. When you do something huge like I'm in the studio with Madonna or I'm in the studio with, I don't know, Halsey or somebody. Yeah, you. I kind of. You spend the first day or the first five hours talking about what's, like, how are you? It's like casual, you know, but, you.

[Naeema Raza]

Know, therapists aren't supposed to date their patience.

[Diplo]

Yeah, I mean, I didn't. I never. I dated some of them, but I don't think. I mean, I think I did date a lot of people I produced. I would never do it again. Maybe I would, but it was just kind of happened and it was natural and it was always great. No, no, no vibes. Even Maya people. It was always like, Google, that's like, we hate each other. But like, we're like, bet. Like, I think we're really cool. Like, for 25 years. Like, we're super cool.

[Naeema Raza]

I think it also happens when you work with someone on creative projects. Like, it. It happened.

[Diplo]

I did learn a lot about relationships, though, because I was younger and I didn't. And also dealing with someone in real life, like your boyfriend that you met at a restaurant or works like, I don't know, a lawyer. And dating somebody that is famous 247 on camera and has to pretend there's somebody else, like, by nature.

[Naeema Raza]

Right.

[Diplo]

Is very difficult because you don't know who that person is sometimes. And, like, how do you switch it off?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, when you date actors, it's really hard because you're like, is this real or is this not real?

[Diplo]

It must be difficult to understand when it, like, I was like, damn, I was starting to date, like, the other per. I don't know who I was, you know, and then I didn't know who and I was also becoming kind of famous too. And I'm like, I want to be more famous, so how do I do this? And. And what's my job? And all those things you understand, like, those are the kind of procedural ways to work a relationship out. But you. It's just on another level because it's so amplified when they're popular or famous.

[Naeema Raza]

So now do you think about that when you're in a relationship, like, who is Diplo or who is Thomas Wesley or who's Wes or.

[Diplo]

I just kind of fumbled my way to who I am. I kind of just me all the time. I don't really know. I don't have to put on a mask. Like sometimes I did put on these glasses to look smarter and not as tired, but usually I am just normal.

[Naeema Raza]

I think you look smart and tired with that.

[Diplo]

Yeah, that's cool. You can be smart and tired.

[Naeema Raza]

You look smart and tired.

[Diplo]

I think Smart and Tired is my next album title.

[Naeema Raza]

I mean, that's great. I think that could be your podcast. That could be my smart girl. Dumb question. Should I change? You won't change your fucking name. And you're changing my podcast name. Hang tight for a second. We'll be right back. What is the difference between a hook, a loop and an earworm, if anything at all?

[Diplo]

A hook, a loop or earworm? Yeah, Well, a hook is, I guess, the hook of the song. So you want a big, bright chorus. Right? A loop is just. I mean, I'm from the hip hop world, so I learned how to make music by looping, you know, three, four, five second loops of stuff I love, like a psychedelic rock song or whatever. Drums. Any earworm is just something that you have to listen to over and over again. You can't get it out of your.

[Naeema Raza]

Head, you know, when you look at like, what do you think is the hookiest? What's. What's an earworm that you've had recently? Either you produce.

[Diplo]

I didn't want to say this, but I downloaded that golden song finally from Hunter Huntricks yesterday just in case that party was. Was like into that. And I played it and I was like, damn this, I can't. I was in my head now for like 24 hours. That golden song.

[Naeema Raza]

Didn't play it.

[Diplo]

I didn't end up playing it. It's a weird, swingy, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It's kind of like, doesn't. It's not very danceable. It's kind of Indian. It's kind of has a. Indian music is very danceable. But not for white people.

[Naeema Raza]

Not for white people.

[Diplo]

In the party on a rooftop, it always ends.

[Naeema Raza]

I want white people dance to Indian music.

[Diplo]

No, it doesn't actually. But the rhythm wise Indian does like a 3, 4 time signature that white people definitely can't get, that Indians can bounce to.

[Naeema Raza]

But we can do it.

[Diplo]

I personally can bounce to.

[Naeema Raza]

You can do it.

[Diplo]

But I think I can. I'm not gonna get on the mic and be like, everybody, give it a bounce. But if I was with Major Lazer, we could teach the men how to dance. Like that's what really good. We can stop music, be like, everybody dance like this. And people will try it and people will do it. Yeah, that's what a good DJ Lazer.

[Naeema Raza]

How do you guys. How do you know how to read a room when you're DJing? Like what the room needs, is that just something you know?

[Diplo]

Yeah, you can see right away, the age, the people, the reason you're there, who they are, what country you're. I mean, it's kind of easy to read, but we. I have a really dynamic arsenal of music. Like I can kind of do anything. I could play a funeral. I could play a fucking rave for 10 year old. I could play like a elementary school party. I could play a fucking raving college tech house. I can kind of do anything.

[Naeema Raza]

What would your funeral music be? What would you start a funeral?

[Diplo]

Sad. Bim bim ba bim bim. I don't know, like tequila.

[Naeema Raza]

Very happy tequila.

[Diplo]

Why would you want to be sad?

[Naeema Raza]

That's fair. How do you know when a song's a hit?

[Diplo]

Oh, I obviously don't know because my hits, they take like years to hit. I just drop them and I pray.

[Naeema Raza]

Can you make a song a hit or can only the crowd make a song a hit? Like a mixtape back in the day.

[Diplo]

I will tell you what, when I did lean on and like taking that record to like the ending, I did really meticulously use my Max Martin, Dr. Luke part of my brain. Like everything has to be per. I did take that. I don't have that kind of patience. But I did make that song. Like, I remember having so many small changes where I was like, okay, it's actually as perfect as I can make it.

[Naeema Raza]

What is in your vault? Like music you haven't released that you.

[Diplo]

Oh, shoot. I got so much. I got a dope ass Gwen Stefani song that's like crazy that we never put out some Rihanna stuff. Like pretty much any big artists have some scratches that are just insane, you.

[Naeema Raza]

Know, like do you ever go back and listen to that stuff?

[Diplo]

It's not out because it kind of sucks.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, really?

[Diplo]

Some of it's pretty good.

[Naeema Raza]

David told me sometimes it's like the best song from somebody might not come out because they feel they can never hit that height again. Is that true?

[Diplo]

Do you think about somebody like Jai Paul, Right. He put out his record, like, years ago, and it kind of. His family was like, cousin or something, leaked it, and he never put out music again. But he probably has, like, hundreds of records that were so awesome. He just doesn't have the confidence, doesn't care. I'm not sure if that's the guy, but there's so many people that are just home, bedroom, like musicians, you know?

[Naeema Raza]

How much musical progress do you think is accidental? Because so much of your music, like, you hear something, you get inspired.

[Diplo]

Me personally, yeah, everything's probably accidental because I'm always fumbling my way into a great song. You know when people bring up that clip on the New York Times of me producing with Skrillex, where you now. And there's like a dolphin sound in the back. That's just me learning how to use a certain part of Ableton that. It's a pitch shifting. And you just go 12, 24 times up. And I'm just messing with it and stretching and entertaining. That's just me messing with the audio file. So I'm like, that sounds kind of interesting. Nobody else would do that except someone. Me, who that's really bad at playing music. I'm just like, I can fuck things up till it sounds interesting to me.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And I think I learned a lot of that from. One of my mentors was this guy named Switch. He was a house producer in England. He was the first member of Major Lazer with me. And he was just a drunken English scientist that was just so good at Logic, this program. And he always just would make a whole song, just print the reverb and then edit it back and start the whole song over again. He was just drunk and crazy, like an old PC cap, like Bill Nye on acid or something. So I learned from him. And I. And I didn't even know how to. I was like, that's how you make music. And then I went to, like, work with Dr. Luke or whatever, and I'm like, oh, you make music like that? I'm, like, confused. So I used a little bit of both of, like, one's chaotic. One is like, super clean, perfect.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

Jeff Bhasker type of style.

[Naeema Raza]

And then it feels like music has gotten, like, more polished. I feel like, you know, in the late 90s 2000s, like, especially like dance hall, like electronic music. It was gritty. And now it's really like, where are you now? It feels, you know, it's like.

[Diplo]

I feel like that's a pretty rough song. I mean, I feel like it's getting. I like when I talk about paper planes. It was nominated for a Grammy, but it had, like, gunshots.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, but that was gritty.

[Diplo]

We didn't mean to do that. Was literally on a porch recorded. That's not what the Grammys, I think, wanted the Grammy. The Grammy. I think the Grammy family was like, we have Allison Krause and Jimmy Page song. We like. We need to like, this is Herbie Hancock. I'm like, what the fuck is this kid screaming about robbing you? And the drums are distorted snails. Like, it was a moment in time. So. But we had, like. It was a real controversial record. We nominated for the Gram for record of the year. Because record the year is like, everything the way it sounds. The marketing, the production, the writers, everything about it. And I think that they just trying to. That's the beginning of the Grammys being kind of cool. Because after that, you don't have those old people on the Grammys anymore. That was like when the who would play the Grammys. Now it's just like, who's like the new person that's going to get naked on who is great?

[Naeema Raza]

Who's fucking cool?

[Diplo]

Okay, but the who's great. I love Teenage Wasteland, but I think now it's like, how can we get enough young people to watch it?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. Now it's like, what are 14 year olds listening to? So what are 14 year olds listening to? You?

[Diplo]

There's some. I can't believe my fan base is probably like 11 year olds too, because I did a lot of K Pops even younger now, like 7 year olds to, like 60 year old. I mean, God, so many people are like, my dad's your favorite. I mean, is your biggest fan. And then like, my. It's very weird.

[Naeema Raza]

Is there an age over which, like, people don't know you? Like, if people are like above the age of 50, they are unlikely to know you. Or 40.

[Diplo]

I'm almost 50.

[Naeema Raza]

But like, I wonder if Bill Nye, when he meets you later, for sure.

[Diplo]

Bill Nye knows why. If he doesn't, I'll be real sad.

[Naeema Raza]

Well, Casey, his head of space policy at the Planetary Society, was like, I'm not familiar with Diplo's work.

[Diplo]

Casey, do you Guys want to put money that Bill Nye knows who I am. Okay. Okay, I'll put $100 in.

[Naeema Raza]

All right. I will see your $100.

[Diplo]

Oh, I'm bet against me.

[Naeema Raza]

Bet against you. Let's go, let's go. It's our other podcast.

[Diplo]

Okay, so artists. Okay.

[Naeema Raza]

Betting. That's you. One of the things I love about your music is, like, how globally referential it is. Did you always have that sense of the world growing up in Florida?

[Diplo]

Well, I don't know if you know this, but I went to Temple University in Philadelphia for anthropology. So I went to the. Like, I went to. It was a big anthropology school because I also wanted to make documentaries. So I majored in film and anthropology. And I was like, my job, my dream job was probably to be a National Geographic photographer or someone, you know, embedded with orangutans people or giant orangutans or cannibals, whatever it was. Or maybe just people in, like, Mississippi, where I was from, just like, something interesting that's like, this is cultural. I want to archive this. And I learned a lot in anthropology school, but there was. But I learned so much more afterwards just being out there. Because like, anything, any discipline that's academic, you got to go do it. You can't stay in universities, like, especially when it comes to creative things like culture, art, or film. You have to just go and grind. There's no way to stay in school. And when I remember being there and I'm about to go to grad school, I tried a bunch of schools. I was like, man, these. All these. All these professors are just like, guys that didn't make it. They kind of like. I was like, I need to get out of here. This is like a trap.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. And that's. When that's.

[Diplo]

I dropped off and I was like, well, I'll just try everything. And my first thing was going to India. And my. My professor in. In At Temple University was awesome. He brought a group of kids to India, and I just. They just left us there.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And I'd already. I just kind of finished there, and then I just bought a motorcycle and traveled around India for six months.

[Naeema Raza]

And you've been to Pakistan?

[Diplo]

I've been to Pakistan twice to Sambad, Right? Yeah. It's pretty much like more of a chill city, though, right? I want to go to Karachi.

[Naeema Raza]

You got it. Yeah. Karachi is. The party's at. And also, have you been to, like, the mountains, the north?

[Diplo]

We had a girl that played with me called Elephant. She was a Swedish girl, and she we did the show in Zomban. It was still kind of sketchy because we had like bomb threats. People were going, we're going to kill everybody at the show, Whatever.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And I was like, well, whatever, let's go. That'd be a cool Wikipedia way to end. Just blew up in Islamabad.

[Naeema Raza]

I always think of that, like, want to die young and full of potential.

[Diplo]

I was like, really? Am I going to get blown? Am I going to get blown up in zombie. That's kind of fire. Like, like, let's go. So that didn't happen. The guy was. It was a fake.

[Naeema Raza]

There's always next year.

[Diplo]

Yeah, I can go. We can try another time. Anyway, this girl was there and she's like. I was like, where's your flight out? She was like, no, I'm gonna stay for like two weeks. So I'm just gonna go up into the mountains. All.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, she went to like Gilgath and stuff, bro.

[Diplo]

She was like by herself. This like little Swedish girl. And I hired her up like two weeks later. She was like, it was the best. I spent like $4. I saw the most beautiful. I shot a video by myself. Everybody was so nice to me.

[Naeema Raza]

But in the north of Pakistan, people look like that. They're much fairer. Blue eyed.

[Diplo]

Pakistan's a really diverse country.

[Naeema Raza]

It's super.

[Diplo]

I met people from Pakistan that are like very dark skin, curly hair. Some people and then people that are just like, could be, I don't know, Russian.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

So you're from Pakistan, you went to Indonesia?

[Naeema Raza]

I grew up in Indonesia.

[Diplo]

Did you like, do you like Bhangra then?

[Naeema Raza]

I love Bhangra because when I was.

[Diplo]

In Pakistan I didn't realize like how shared the culture.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. Because Punjab is split.

[Diplo]

Bhangra is crazy. I worked with Diljit and oh, Diljit is awesome. He's so badass.

[Naeema Raza]

He's great.

[Diplo]

Should I take my sunglasses off now?

[Naeema Raza]

Take him off. What do you think your team's like? No, I think it's fine.

[Diplo]

I'll put them back here. But we're gonna do some. We're gonna do some outfit changes. Let's go.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, let's go. Do you want to wear my clothes at some point? Do a trade?

[Diplo]

Wear your shoes here. What size shoe do you wear?

[Naeema Raza]

37.

[Diplo]

I don't know what that is.

[Naeema Raza]

Six and a half.

[Diplo]

You got some small feet. You want both shoes?

[Naeema Raza]

This is good. Let's see. Look, Annalisa trying to get her camera. If you break my fucking Manolos. I'm just kidding.

[Diplo]

These are really manolos yeah, they're Manolos. They're making money in this podcast, huh?

[Naeema Raza]

That's before my podcast days.

[Diplo]

Dude, this don't fit. One tail. Try it. You just hang out on these all day long?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

Sucks to be a girl, but.

[Naeema Raza]

You don't like them? I feel these are really comfortable because they're probably. I got to say, your shoes are a little bit sweaty.

[Diplo]

They are, but I put insoles in them because I'm trying to. I have to do Run Club no more. My heel broke. That's disgusting. I'm sorry. Take the insoles out. Take the insoles out. You want these back? What do you think? I do. Your feet are wet, too. I bet. Let me see your feet.

[Naeema Raza]

They're not sweaty. My feet are not.

[Diplo]

Do you think the insoles are real? Let me see your feet. They're kind of dirty at the bottom.

[Naeema Raza]

They're not dirt. Well, let's do that. They're not that dirty.

[Diplo]

My shoes are off, then. Okay, let's keep going. More shit's off.

[Naeema Raza]

More shit's off, Bill.

[Diplo]

And I won't be naked, but I will.

[Naeema Raza]

A couple episodes ago, I talked about how my first boyfriend had a foot fetish. And then I thought everybody had a foot fetish. No, because that was, like, my first experience having sex. So my second boyfriend, I'd be like. And he's like, what the fuck are you? He's like, that is kind of crazy. Yeah.

[Diplo]

I think it's pretty random to have a foot fetish. I do think a lot of, like, sex fetishes are just kind of like. You just kind of end somewhere. Like, you just kind of like. I don't know if you're born with them, but you just kind of. You just.

[Naeema Raza]

I think a lot of them are, like, cultivated eccentricities. Like dating men in New York. They all have, like, weird habit. They're like, oh, I sponsor a sloth facility in a sloth.

[Diplo]

That's his fetish.

[Naeema Raza]

Costa Rica. No, I mean, just meet people with, like, cultivated eccentricities because they're, like, not interesting. And then they.

[Diplo]

Oh, sex fetishes are a random thing. Or just. What's the word you say?

[Naeema Raza]

Cultivated eccentricities.

[Diplo]

Eccentricities.

[Naeema Raza]

Is that not how you say it?

[Diplo]

It is.

[Naeema Raza]

I just did eccentricity.

[Diplo]

I just can't pronounce words that well.

[Naeema Raza]

Okay.

[Diplo]

That's the brain damage.

[Naeema Raza]

We're never going to get to Ali Sethi.

[Diplo]

Okay, this is Ali Sethi.

[Naeema Raza]

Ali Sethi, the musician behind Passori, said that you seem to love South Asian culture and women. I added the second part. Are you planning on exploring desi grooves and melodies in a more comprehensive way? Like would you play with more instrumentation?

[Diplo]

I was just so inspired by India. Just the craziness and I was there. I would say I was there around the time the real industrial revolution was happening. Like there was still. The trucks were on dirt roads running over cows.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

There's no women in the street after 9pm and I go to Mumbai now and it's like girls are dressed like it's Berghain with like leather till like 4am it's like a completely crazy place now. So I saw like this transition and you know, cool thing about Indian music now is that a lot of it is like artists making it themselves and not soundtracks, just forever. It was like 100 years of just Asha Pootly. I had like all these people like music soundtrack. The same five people singing every song, right?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. Yes.

[Diplo]

And now there's like people like Hanuman Kind and all these like dope rappers and like the kids are just like asserting themselves and it's really cool. I was there from the beginning, remember like recording kids that were freestyling and make. I had a little band when I was in. I lived in Gujarat for a little while. Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

Do you ever eat in the hotel mg?

[Diplo]

I lived in a. It's Ahmedabad, right?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

I was in the sticks.

[Naeema Raza]

Okay.

[Diplo]

Place called Halvat on the border with Pakistan was not hotels.

[Naeema Raza]

I've only been to India once. It's really hard to get a visa as a Pakistan. It's like a. I kept.

[Diplo]

Used different passport to travel around them. But I was like around. I could have walked. It was after the earthquake for sure.

[Naeema Raza]

You would have gotten.

[Diplo]

That would have been a good.

[Naeema Raza]

That would have been a much less exciting way to go.

[Diplo]

There's a long border though. I probably could have found they do the Waga border.

[Naeema Raza]

Did you see the crossing? They do like that.

[Diplo]

They had some sketchy ones like a couple months ago. They were like starting to like have a little more beef. I love that though.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. A little beat.

[Diplo]

We should do that with Mexico. Every once in a while we'll do a little boring. You're standing there having a little show of power at the edge or whatever.

[Naeema Raza]

I feel like the Mexican side of the dance would be so much better. The American side of the Americans would.

[Diplo]

Just be so boring. Like do it with the Canadians.

[Naeema Raza]

That's going to make America look better.

[Diplo]

Yeah, they would be real boring.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

You win that culture.

[Naeema Raza]

Although the best strip clubs in the world are in Montreal.

[Diplo]

I Thought that. Then I went to a really bad one last month. I felt like I fell in love so many times in Montreal, the strip clubs. And I was like, let me go see what's going on. And I felt like I lost. The era is gone. But that place is just a horny place. That's where Pornhub. It's just a very porny city.

[Naeema Raza]

Canada. Porny. They have a hot prime minister now. Prime Minister Carney. He's. Yeah, he's.

[Diplo]

He's hot.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. I saw him speak this week during the UN General Assembly.

[Diplo]

He came to General Assembly.

[Naeema Raza]

Sorry. I went to a member of Council on Foreign Relations. So I went to hear him speak.

[Diplo]

To the council and now Katy Perry is dating Justin Trudeau.

[Naeema Raza]

I know. Fuck.

[Diplo]

Pretty fire.

[Naeema Raza]

I know so many people who like.

[Diplo]

Kind of dated Katy Perry. Like me.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, did you date Katy Perry? I meant Trudeau.

[Diplo]

Oh, I did date Trudeau too.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, that's gonna go.

[Diplo]

That was a weird one, though.

[Naeema Raza]

Really? Why?

[Diplo]

Because I'm just not into.

[Naeema Raza]

He's a prudent.

[Diplo]

I'm not into politicians.

[Naeema Raza]

I call him Prudo. Yeah.

[Diplo]

Have you met him before?

[Naeema Raza]

No, I haven't. I think he's hot.

[Diplo]

He's kind of hopping. You know who his dad is?

[Naeema Raza]

Who's his dad?

[Diplo]

Fidel Castro.

[Naeema Raza]

No, is not 100%. You think his dad is Fidel Castro?

[Diplo]

It's. It's. It's on the Internet.

[Naeema Raza]

What? This is misinformation.

[Diplo]

No, he is.

[Naeema Raza]

This is like. What kind of crazy conspiracy shit are you reading?

[Diplo]

His dad, his Canadian Dad. I took 10 before I got his. I would not be this active. His dad was going down to Cuba a lot. Had a regular relationship and his mom was hot and his mom was like hanging out with Fidel and then they had a fucking baby. And that is true. Do.

[Naeema Raza]

Okay, I'm going to take your $100 bet on Bill Nye and give you.

[Diplo]

I'll double this Trudeau. Google this. You see? Did you look it up on the Internet? Someone put up dust.

[Naeema Raza]

Is going to look it up. It's a Trump claim. It's a Trump claim.

[Diplo]

No, that's. It was before Trump.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, man.

[Diplo]

Let's go. Move on. This isn't a politics podcast.

[Naeema Raza]

Sometimes now it's really not.

[Diplo]

I did go to Cuba. We had a huge concert there right before when Obama was president. They had like a two year period. We were all chilling there and we went and played for almost 2 million people.

[Naeema Raza]

So cool.

[Diplo]

In front of the American embassy.

[Naeema Raza]

I love that.

[Diplo]

That's pretty Cool.

[Naeema Raza]

That's awesome. Where would you like to go that you haven't been trying to go to? Like, Pyongyang, North Korea.

[Diplo]

I'd like to go there.

[Naeema Raza]

I've been there.

[Diplo]

Really?

[Naeema Raza]

For eight days.

[Diplo]

Do you know there's a club there called the Diplo?

[Naeema Raza]

No. Fuck, really?

[Diplo]

Yeah. It's the only club in Pyongyang.

[Naeema Raza]

What is the weirdest gig you've ever played? Did you play, like, Kim Jong Un's 40th birthday or something? Secretly.

[Diplo]

Kim Kardashians.

[Naeema Raza]

Kim Kardashians.

[Diplo]

Kim Kardashian. Jung Yoong.

[Naeema Raza]

I went to a thing recently where it was, like, the Forbes marketing conference, and they had a special guest from Live Nation. Everyone was so excited. And then it was Eddie Vedder, and I didn't know who Eddie Vedder is.

[Diplo]

Really?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. I mean, I know who Pearl Jam is. I know who Pearl Jam is, but I know who Eddie Vedder is, But, like, all these women were swooning for him. All these, like, kind of Gen XY women.

[Diplo]

This is a Silicon Valley kind of thing.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. And then fast forward to I thought, like, within five minutes, I was like, this guy's a fucking rock star. Like, I was swooning for him.

[Diplo]

He looks like a rock star.

[Naeema Raza]

Like, once a rock star, always a rock star. Right? Did, like, do you think you had that swagger before you became diplomatic Back from the dead, deceased toe tag Diplo?

[Diplo]

I mean, I think I had just, like, a wandering, you know, kind of cowboy thing in my mind all the time. I just didn't. I could always be myself just on a trip, you know? I kind of feel like I'm always on my own journey. And that might be the only real swagger that I have, because I'm still pretty dorky. Like, I don't really have, like. I don't. I'm not like Eddie Vedder.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

I got with Axl Rose once, and he was like. I thought he was really cool, too.

[Naeema Raza]

Wait, you think Eddie Vedder's, like, a.

[Diplo]

Bigger star than you as far as a rock star? Yeah. I mean, I'm not, like. It's weird. I'm a DJ, so it's like, DJs.

[Naeema Raza]

Are rock stars now.

[Diplo]

It's a new thing. But we're not, like, actually cool. We're pretty. It's a pretty dorky job.

[Naeema Raza]

Why is everybody a DJ right now? Does that really annoy you? Like, every guy on Raya is a dj. It's like a dj, slash attorney, a dj, slash whatever, dj.

[Diplo]

It's just easy to do it also means you're. It means you're cool. It means you're like, functionally. I know what's going on. Like, if you like write it.

[Naeema Raza]

But does it actually mean you're cool?

[Diplo]

No, it doesn't at all. Yeah, I'm a good dj. It's like my job. I really take pride in it.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, I know you're.

[Diplo]

I still love doing it. Like, I can. I can pull up. Even last night, I had the best time at that corporate party. I was like, it, let's go. Let's drop some Katy Perry, let's do whatever. Let's do this. Buy some squirt. And then I just have fun. And I can always kind of understand a crowd. Then I went to Marquee and I played like hardcore, like more techno kind of vibes. And I mixed it with like Brazilian music. And then at the end I was playing like, I don't know, some weird shit. It just was. It went off into like whatever. I go. Whatever journey I want to go into. So I think it's just accessible. All you need to do is buy this thousand dollar thing. And I can teach everybody, but they change every day. Now there's like one box that's called like Alpha Theta that just has a thing instead of having two CDJs or turntables. That's another old thing.

[Naeema Raza]

I've seen. I've seen Snoop dj and he'll be just like smoking a J and pointing at shit that someone else does. Yeah, yeah, that's also DJing.

[Diplo]

He just is fucking the. The coolest person.

[Naeema Raza]

He's the coolest. He doesn't need to be a dj, but he can.

[Diplo]

But that's. Just.

[Naeema Raza]

Hang tight for a second. We'll be right back. Okay. How are we doing on time, by the way? Good.

[Diplo]

I got six hours. What do you got? How much time we got?

[Naeema Raza]

We've been here forever. No, we gotta be. But I think it'd be. It would have been fun to have you and Bill Nye together.

[Diplo]

I'm ready. I'll stay till he comes.

[Naeema Raza]

We'll need another chair or Dusto will kill me.

[Diplo]

But yeah, we should have.

[Naeema Raza]

No, no. Oh, my God, Kenny. I'm actually gonna play in this random clip from Joe Rogan.

[Diplo]

I hope he knows me.

[Naeema Raza]

Joe Rogan said, I know I've like, really tapped at your inner insecurity. That Bill Nye, our childhood parent.

[Diplo]

How actually old is he though?

[Naeema Raza]

69. What an age.

[Diplo]

That's a good one.

[Naeema Raza]

What an age.

[Diplo]

He's been 69 for five years. Okay.

[Naeema Raza]

Anyways, a friend of mine, Ryan, whose Burning man camp you played the year that you and Chris Rock ran away from Burning Man.

[Diplo]

I probably played, like, 20 camps in a year.

[Naeema Raza]

I know.

[Diplo]

What's the name of his camp?

[Naeema Raza]

Ryan.

[Diplo]

The name of the camp's called the Ryan.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, I don't know what his name is.

[Diplo]

Come to the Ryan.

[Naeema Raza]

I don't. I've never been a Burning Man. Anyways, people call you the forest Gump of music that you play.

[Diplo]

I never heard that.

[Naeema Raza]

Ryan called you that. From the Burning Man. Ryan Gosling Ryan. Who You've forgotten from the one of Ryan camp.

[Diplo]

This guy's fake. He made it up.

[Naeema Raza]

Camp Ryan. No, but Forrest Gump of music. Like, you play every single genre. You dabble in everything. Do you identify as the Forrest Gump of music?

[Diplo]

Well, I'll tell you what. Forrest Gump is from Alabama. I'm from Mississippi. So we're like, kind of like, right there next to each other. Born there, but other than that, I will tell you one thing. I really love history and culture. That's, like, the thing that I'm into. And when I showed my children Forrest Gump, it was the first, like, movie that they were, like, understood, like, history a little bit. It's a great film to watch. American History. It's, like, in the music. That soundtrack, like, changed my life.

[Naeema Raza]

That soundtrack is wonderful.

[Diplo]

So much is the only thing me and my dad, like, really bonded with. It was like, I'm a huge Karina's Clearado revival fan. Like, all everything on the Jimi Hendrix. That soundtrack is amazing. So it's like, that movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. So I love that he thinks I'm Forrest Gump. He was good at running, though, way faster than I was.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, well, I mean, you're kind of like the Forrest Gump because you're playing music, you're running.

[Diplo]

But I think he didn't do with purpose. He just kind of, like, fell into it. I feel like I do have a little more purpose than Forrest Gump.

[Naeema Raza]

But you watched it with your kids, and you said your dad watched the movie.

[Diplo]

It was the first time I saw my movie. Right. Like, I was like, they like the history that they. Because my father also went to Vietnam, and I really. It was a big turning point for my whole family, because it wasn't. It meant a lot to how I was brought up because we're from a really low class, like, family in Florida. Like, you know, like, fortunately, my dad had to go to Vietnam, and my dad went in his little early 20s. But he came back on the GI Bill, went to college, and because of that, me and my sisters were the only kids that ever went to college because my dad went to college and had money to put us in college. So, like, it was like, it broke a cycle of kind of poverty for my family.

[Naeema Raza]

Right. So probably inspired a grind.

[Diplo]

Yeah. And it just. It was. And he. You know, he brought back the discipline from the army that really. He instilled in me secretly. So I never really understood that until I was older and I. People like, why are you so determined? How you always figure out? And I'm like, that was kind of like, what my dad and me and him fought all the time when I was younger, but I still was like, damn. To get from point A to B is such a skill. That's what a lot of young people don't have. And I'm glad I got that from my father. When a lot of musicians don't find their way to, like, success, it's because you're. It's. It's not a clean path. It's not like a checklist you can get off of YouTube. It's literally just every day, show up, do it. Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

Like, how do you teach that to your kids? Do you teach that to your kids?

[Diplo]

Can I ask, do I type my what?

[Naeema Raza]

Do you teach that to your kids? I'm trying because, like, now you're fancy.

[Diplo]

I'm seeing them. I'm seeing them learn. They're into music now without me. Like, they don't even want my help. And I'm, like, trying to teach them. Like, this is AI. This. You should do this. This is it. They're like, nah, dad, we're good. We just play drums.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

But I slowly saw my son. I don't want to. It's hard when you're a father because you just want your kids to be kids as long as possible. So I just, like, my son's about to be a. He's a sophomore in high school, and I'm just like, man, stop a wreck. Just get over here. Get the. Go to this and that, like. But I'm like, kind of a waste of my energy with him, you know? And then I was at the house the other day, just hanging out, like, sitting there while he's playing kind of like on his Rubik's Cube. And he got obsessed, and he ended up doing. He. Like, after two days, we're just, like, walking around the room cubing. And he can do it in, like, it's 40 seconds. Now.

[Naeema Raza]

Amazing.

[Diplo]

So I was like, okay, 40 fucking seconds. I was like, he. I was like, he. That's discipline. So he kind of got his secretly getting it without me beating the shit out of him or something. He's like actually kind of just. I like this. I want to get good at this.

[Naeema Raza]

I feel like so much of like what you end up doing as a kid. I interviewed two 11 year olds. They're actually my favorite guest. I've had a lot of star fuckery kind of guests. But like, am I.

[Diplo]

Am I smarter than the 11 year olds?

[Naeema Raza]

They might have been the wisest.

[Diplo]

Okay.

[Naeema Raza]

Probably anyone that I've had on the show.

[Diplo]

Well, that's good you say that because my kids when they. They were 12, they're like writing love songs at like 12. And I'm just like, what do you guys know about love? But it's interesting.

[Naeema Raza]

So I asked them all about it. Like they're.

[Diplo]

Our knowledge is a bit tainted. Right.

[Naeema Raza]

I think there's just something so pure. And the reason I liked 11 is. I think actually it was. Relates to music. When I was buying my own music because buying CDs was like going. And I felt like I had my own taste. All of a sudden, like, I think you start having an independence, like a sense of self at that age.

[Diplo]

There's something that happens because you're buying this for you. Like you're buying that poster for your wall. This represents me. And I think my son doesn't even have that. He like only has like five songs on his Spotify.

[Naeema Raza]

Really? Are they all by you?

[Diplo]

No, they're all. There's a mix. One of mine, one really had Chili Peppers. There's like a.

[Naeema Raza]

Which Red Hot Chili Peppers song he really likes? I saw them at Coachella in 2014.

[Diplo]

What song is that? And then he really likes Green Day.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, I love Green Day.

[Diplo]

He likes Green Day.

[Naeema Raza]

Dookie.

[Diplo]

He likes Dookie a lot.

[Naeema Raza]

That's great. It's all vintage. Everything is like. Everything old is new again.

[Diplo]

And he likes U2, Sonny Blade is Sunday. He likes. He likes Vi.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

I think that you don't get a lot from electronic music. You get from the bands like when we had. Our generation was so lucky to have. You know. I don't know if you were a Pearl Jam fan, because you didn't.

[Naeema Raza]

No, I'm like a little young for Pearl Jam. Yeah.

[Diplo]

You like Nirvana?

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. Nirvana. I like.

[Diplo]

But like, what was your favorite, like rock band when you were growing up?

[Naeema Raza]

I feel Green Day was maybe my favorite. And I love no Doubt. And when I interviewed Gwen for I Love no Doubt, I interviewed Gwen and Tony for the Sublime doc, and I was, like, so, like, you know, obsessed, because they were.

[Diplo]

They were after.

[Naeema Raza]

They were around the same time, and they're both at Interscope, but, like, they. They came up in that kind of ska surf skate culture of California that is very similar to, like, the kind of ska surf skate vibes of the 90s in Indonesia as well.

[Diplo]

Really?

[Naeema Raza]

So, yeah, Because, I mean, we. It's like you surf.

[Diplo]

Like, people surf outside of Bali all around Indonesia.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. But, like, that was the whole. That was like, middle school. Like, you know, my boyfriend was on a skateboard, and it was like, people were graffitiing. It was just. That was so cool. It was, like, edgy at that time.

[Diplo]

I really love Indonesia. Super weird.

[Naeema Raza]

That's where all boy bands are minted, by the way. Like, I went to some test for 98 degrees, like, when they were, like, a test band.

[Diplo]

Oh, they go there to see the market likes it.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

Okay.

[Naeema Raza]

Because that's where they take off beginning.

[Diplo]

When I first started going to Indonesia. My first time I went there, we had a major laser, had a show there, and I got kidnapped.

[Naeema Raza]

What?

[Diplo]

At the. At the show? By the police.

[Naeema Raza]

The police kidnapped you?

[Diplo]

Yeah, they took me offstage while I was DJing and dragged me into their car and, like, top the music. And then the promoter's like, what do you have? And they took me in the car and drove me to, like, a random street.

[Naeema Raza]

They just were bribing you?

[Diplo]

Well, the promoter had to call his cousins, like, prime minister guy. And he walked over to the police with, like, his pajamas on. Like, oh, fucking. Like. So the police were trying to do some, like, hustle thing. Like, we just. Yeah, the permits weren't pulled right. Like, whatever it is. And I was in the car, just on my phone, didn't care. I was like, I'm kidnapped. Can someone come, like, figure out where I'm at? And then this guy came, like, all angry. His pajamas, like, doctor. And I'm like, get down there. They got a walk to, like, another car and went back to the show.

[Naeema Raza]

There's always that shakedown.

[Diplo]

It's not as bad as, like, I guess India might be the hardest.

[Naeema Raza]

Speaking of India, you did. You did a song with Shah Rukh Khan? Yeah, for Jab. Harry met Sal.

[Diplo]

Yeah, I'm in the video. Dancing.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

My. My kids met Shah Rukh Khan, and I have a picture of them with him. It's really cool.

[Naeema Raza]

He basically got, like, denied at the Met gala this Year people didn't even know who he was.

[Diplo]

He's a. Oh, really?

[Naeema Raza]

Such an icon.

[Diplo]

He's bigger than Tom Cruise.

[Naeema Raza]

I know. He is Bollywood star, like global icon.

[Diplo]

He has a place in Goa and I remember my friends, like, we want to meet Shahrukh Khan and he flew me to Goa and we just like drank whiskey at his little villa there and talks about that song. And then. Yeah, I love that we saw that video at the Houdini house in. In la. One word for him, interstellar planetary phenomenon. He's so good looking still.

[Naeema Raza]

See, I love it. So what?

[Diplo]

Okay, so you know, it's a good looking Indian guy, but he might be out Hrithic Rosham had this crazy Hrithic Russian, this crazy face. Just like looked like. Didn't look Indian, but he looked like this, like, like. Now he looks like one of the WWE guys that are from India because there's a lot of them now that's so big there. But he was like the first. Like, yeah, buff. Like that's a good thing.

[Naeema Raza]

Everyone's getting into the manosphere. Everybody's like working out to Hasan Piker doing the thing.

[Diplo]

The girls back in those days, like, I can't remember their names now, but all the actresses around that time were like insane.

[Naeema Raza]

Dimple, Kajal, Aishwarya, Rashwarya.

[Diplo]

Oh my God. She was like. She really had green eyes.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, those are her eyes.

[Diplo]

I have a shirt, like a fan shirt of hers that has like her.

[Naeema Raza]

Her face.

[Diplo]

Yeah. Like it has like her name on it. Like a. It was like notorious. But it just says her and it's like beautiful.

[Naeema Raza]

We didn't answer this, but where did you want to go that you haven't.

[Diplo]

Been a lot of Africa, because it's so massive. I've been a lot over Africa, but there's so much. Even the Sahara is so big.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

You know, Sudan. I don't know some crazy places that just like, what the hell's going on there? I want to go to fucking. You know I want to go.

[Naeema Raza]

Where?

[Diplo]

I want to go to Yemen.

[Naeema Raza]

By the way. There are so many parties all over the place. What do you think is hot and not overly played out in the party scene?

[Diplo]

What city?

[Naeema Raza]

Part of the world. Yeah.

[Diplo]

Oh, there's like a circuit. Do you know about this? It's like kind of like it's Ibiza. Tulum Canarios, like the Hamptons. Like this kind of.

[Naeema Raza]

But don't you think that's all played out? Like, isn't it something else?

[Diplo]

The same exact people and there's like, nobody knew. And I went. When I first went to Burning Man 14 years ago, 15 years ago, it was. I'm just walking, wandering around. I had a bike and listening to dubstep or whatever. I'm just like, what the hell? It's just so crazy of a thing. And now when you go there, it's just like the same promoters and rich people from every city that just go. There's nothing. There really was like, an inept of culture unless you really. You can find it. But I'm. I've already, like, made my way to, like, the top of it, so I'm kind of bouncing around those places, and it's hard for me to, like, get integrated to, like, where the culture was anymore there. I'm sure it is. I just think it's. It's dead for me.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. So you don't go to Burning man anymore, right?

[Diplo]

I can go last year. No. Or this year.

[Naeema Raza]

You're gonna go again?

[Diplo]

I think I did my time.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

I think it served its purpose for me.

[Naeema Raza]

No longer a burner. But you're going back to Coachella for the first time in 10 years. Right. That's awesome.

[Diplo]

So you're talking about all the stuff I did in that day for Major Laser, right? Because we started doing Major Laser again, which is a really old project in today's 15 years old. Right. So.

[Naeema Raza]

But people. I feel like young people know Major Laser for sure.

[Diplo]

Then our songs come back, like Lean on comes back on TikTok and becomes big again and some things. Then we have a new girl that joined the group named America Foster. And it's important to, I guess, to show kids, like, we did all that streaming on Twitch for one day, and we were on.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, my God, that's crazy.

[Diplo]

We did all that so we could. You guys are really. Someone's getting arrested here.

[Naeema Raza]

Crime. Crime scene crime. We got to look into.

[Diplo]

Who's the mayor?

[Naeema Raza]

Eric Adams. I interviewed him. I interviewed him.

[Diplo]

Is he going to win?

[Naeema Raza]

No chance. I mean, they're saying that he's going to drop out this week.

[Diplo]

So for him, who's going to win?

[Naeema Raza]

Cuomo was at a dinner telling donors that he's going to go out this week. Zaran? Probably.

[Diplo]

Why don't you run?

[Naeema Raza]

Huh?

[Diplo]

Why don't you run for mayor?

[Naeema Raza]

You think I could run for mayor?

[Diplo]

You're pretty smart.

[Naeema Raza]

No, I think that I have too many skeletons in the closet.

[Diplo]

Yeah, but I mean, Trump, you can kind of, like, get rid of them, I guess. I don't know.

[Naeema Raza]

I can't Because Fidel Castro is my dad, I didn't want to come out.

[Diplo]

And that's pretty bad. But as long as you're born in America, it's fine, I guess.

[Naeema Raza]

I was born. I was born in D.C. and then I left when I was 16.

[Diplo]

Then your dad's Cuban, but it's fine.

[Naeema Raza]

Dad's. But it's not fine. Okay, wait. Sorry. So you were saying this Coachella. You have to. We're all over the place. We're under the outside trying to break.

[Diplo]

Into this place while I'm doing the podcast, trying to take me and Bill Nye to jail.

[Naeema Raza]

So at least then he would find out who you are. In jail.

[Diplo]

We'll be in jail together.

[Naeema Raza]

You could be, like, a prison couple.

[Diplo]

What we in here for? I don't know. Doing some physics, some science tricks.

[Naeema Raza]

What's amazing about Bill Nye is so iconic, his visual, that I'm now picturing him in, like, an orange jumpsuit with a bow tie.

[Diplo]

Oh, he would. That would do that for him. I quit this podcast. I'm out of here.

[Naeema Raza]

Call Charlamagne.

[Diplo]

What the fuck?

[Naeema Raza]

I feel like you have time.

[Diplo]

We can just edit all that in there.

[Naeema Raza]

No, it's fine. We're going to leave it in. It's just a reality.

[Diplo]

Well, I don't even know what I was talking about. I was trying to tell you about Coachella.

[Naeema Raza]

Major laser. Why you want to bring the kids.

[Diplo]

The project back to people is important. Brand awareness. So, like, when we go to Kaisana's stream, that's a big deal. He's doing this mapiathon. You talk about not sleeping. I don't sleep that well. But this guy's awake for 30 days.

[Naeema Raza]

Kaisanat.

[Diplo]

Yeah. And even at night, when they put him in a bed, you can just donate money and they slam the bed shut. Why he's in it and, like, spin it around and pour water on him. Why?

[Naeema Raza]

He got in trouble in New York. He, like, caused a kerfuffle.

[Diplo]

In a kerfuffle?

[Naeema Raza]

Yes, a kerfuffle. You're DJing the San Vicente Bungalow holiday party.

[Diplo]

I didn't know that.

[Naeema Raza]

Don't you know that?

[Diplo]

I do know that.

[Naeema Raza]

Huh.

[Diplo]

I just found that out.

[Naeema Raza]

But what is that?

[Diplo]

I don't just. I don't know what that is. I just. It's in la. I'm taking my kids out to Halloween, so it's like I just drive there and get some money, I guess.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. How much do they pay for these things?

[Diplo]

Can you say I can't but there it's a lot to leave my house, I guess to go do something like that. I like to do everything.

[Naeema Raza]

What do you do for free that you like doing?

[Diplo]

I played for lab. I don't know, I show up randomly. So many places just play parties sometimes.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, this podcast.

[Diplo]

Yeah, I'm here, I'm sending a Venmo to the guy with that. I mean, so many times like, like random bars, like fundraises for kids. I mean just Burning man, things like that. You just show up like 10 shows in a row, just bang, bang, bang. I mean, I try to get the money when I can and then spend my energy on things that are that mean more profile wise. Like when we did the major laser, you know, show on the street or the one in London and for free. That's, that's, that's optics.

[Naeema Raza]

Is there a time in your life that you miss?

[Diplo]

I don't miss anything. Everything that, everything that made me. I'm so happy that I had like went through it. Like I think every moment in my life and I still have full control of my life and I, I can still do anything. Like there's still so much to do.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

And I'm so happy with all the bad decisions I made because I learned from them and the good things and the accidents that I had and then you know, they're like, well, how'd I end up here? And then like I said, you just got to show up every day and just try to do your best and make the best out of it.

[Naeema Raza]

Two last questions. Or three, actually. One. Who's like the next generation Diplo? Who do you see? Who's young, who's doing this?

[Diplo]

I would, I would hope it's not just a dj because I kind of like accidentally became a dj, I think.

[Naeema Raza]

Do you think it's just chat GPT or something?

[Diplo]

It's definitely an AI creation blob like person. Maybe like a really hot girl that is AI does everything. Avatar girl. Because I do consider myself sort of like a, a cultural agitator. Like I'm, I'm purposefully trying to like mix things up and do things weird. That it's not just regular. I'm not just trying to be the biggest dj, I have the biggest hits. I think my career was like trying to do something meaningful.

[Naeema Raza]

Right.

[Diplo]

The fabric of humanity. But I don't know if there's. That's another DJ can do that. Not just like gassing myself. But don't think that's like the purpose anymore of DJing. I think it's going to be somebody like another phase, like something like an AI really. Because when I look at my. What it's what. What it's recommending. Yeah, it's pretty perfect. Like, I'm on YouTube or I'm on Spotify or whatever. So it's kind of knows who I am.

[Naeema Raza]

It knows who you are.

[Diplo]

It knows who you are. So it's like a DJ's job is to sort of like surprise you with, like, what? I always try to give this quote and nobody picks up on it. But a great DJ can, you know, rock a party and make an amazing situation happen. But I really like the next level. DJ gives you music you never heard and, like, you know, kind of confuses you, but you, like, learn something, you know, that's kind of like what a great, great DJ can do.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, they like incept.

[Diplo]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Naeema Raza]

Is acoustic ever coming back? Acoustic music? I feel like acoustic music was so big.

[Diplo]

Do you not heard Gigi Perez, she had Sailor Song last year. It was like just a current guitar.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, that's true.

[Diplo]

Number one. She's awesome.

[Naeema Raza]

But remember the days of, like, MTV Unplugged? And now it's like, everything is very produced.

[Diplo]

I mean, Justin Bieber's swag was like, fully like, that's fair room mic, I.

[Naeema Raza]

Guess there's no one kind of music.

[Diplo]

Everything's just kind of. Everything's everything.

[Naeema Raza]

Do you ever think about, like, not making stuff? Because there's so much stuff out there, like the world and so why? What keeps you going?

[Diplo]

I just want to add to that whole garbage pile.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, shit.

[Diplo]

Because that's where I make money. I mean, I have a project called Doomscroll that's literally just like me trying to make the craziest TikTok ready insane Memphis funk music to just blow people's minds is, like, released as fast as possible.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah, and you spell it all funky like Elon Musk is your baby daddy.

[Diplo]

Exactly. It's kind of like the whole idea is like, what does the end of the Internet sound like? And that's this genre.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah.

[Diplo]

So I try to push every, you know, every time, just try to find something new.

[Naeema Raza]

I love it. Okay. Why the has Jack you not gotten back together?

[Diplo]

Oh, that's an easy one to answer. Skrillex hates me and I can't even. And if you even like, follow me on Instagram and you talk to him and he. He's like, he'll unfollow you. It's a real kind of crazy hate that. I just can't Understand?

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, wow.

[Diplo]

Yeah. I don't know. I don't really know what is the real issue, but we've tried to have some mediation. I tried. There's no on his side, but I just. I love the guy. You know, we had a. We were like a brothers. And I think I'm a bit of an older brother to him. I'm a lot older than him. But maybe there's a dynamic that didn't work and it just was broken. But I just freaking love him. We had a whole second album.

[Naeema Raza]

I mean, that music was. You guys had a whole second.

[Diplo]

We did a whole second album. We recorded so many weird records with Charlie xx, Florence the Machines. Probably feels dated now, but we were really a good combo because I have real wild out of pocket ideas for pop music. And he just is. Nobody's better than him at creating sound that just sounds like, what the fuck, you know? So together we had a great combo.

[Naeema Raza]

I had every episode of Smart Girl. Dumb questions. Asking my guests, like a dumb question they had that they haven't bothered to find out. I mean, yours is obviously whether or not Justin Trudeau was Fidel Castro's baby. Anything else that you have, like a kind of question.

[Diplo]

We do ask him to do a DNA test.

[Naeema Raza]

But something that you. Yeah, like what's a question that we could go help answer for you? I think that this one, I am pretty sure I got money on it.

[Diplo]

So. Okay, it's a thousand dollars and then bill knife for me is 100, whatever. 100. I'll catch up to you about it later. My question is, how do water mammals, like, drink water? They live in salt water, like dolphins and stuff. What do they drink?

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, they. I think they desalinate. Right.

[Diplo]

That's a pretty complicated thing to do, huh?

[Naeema Raza]

I like that question. I don't know the answer. You've stumped me. Okay, we're gonna find out. I love it.

[Diplo]

Manatees, like that, that's a thing, they kind of like float into the fresh water to drink it. So like dolphins and whales.

[Naeema Raza]

You're gonna be a cultural anthropologist or a marine biologist.

[Diplo]

I just like manatees, but I was gonna be a cultural anthropologist.

[Naeema Raza]

You worked in a zoo?

[Diplo]

I did.

[Naeema Raza]

What was your favorite animal?

[Diplo]

They're all pretty sad looking, but just alligators.

[Naeema Raza]

It's so sad to see animals in zoo.

[Diplo]

I saw one really awesome animal that I never saw again at the San Diego Zoo. It is the condor from Alaska called the stellar sea eagle. And it's like taller than you. It's like an eagle that only flies for 20 minutes a day because it's so heavy and has a fine one.

[Naeema Raza]

Does it wear Manolos, too?

[Diplo]

It does wear Manolas.

[Naeema Raza]

I knew it.

[Diplo]

But it was, like, on a perch, and it was, like, taller than her.

[Naeema Raza]

Oh, I love it. Okay, cool.

[Diplo]

Stellar sea eagle.

[Naeema Raza]

That's a good favorite animal.

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

All right, thank you so much, Wes. Thanks for putting up with this, like, loud, crazy, funny.

[Diplo]

I can't believe you picked it up on the mic.

[Naeema Raza]

Yeah. I'm sad that you kept so many clothes on, but, you know, you said.

[Diplo]

My shoes are sweaty. I felt really. I felt kind of weird about that. So I'm going to put them back on. No, pants are going to go off next, too.

[Naeema Raza]

Were they?

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

It's not too late.

[Diplo]

I got the. I mean, I have a swim stone. I'm going to go to yoga.

[Naeema Raza]

Now we go. Shall we? Abs to compare to Bill 9.

[Diplo]

Yeah.

[Naeema Raza]

Just kidding. I'm just.

[Diplo]

No, really. Show him.

[Naeema Raza]

Show Bill N. Look at that.

[Diplo]

Wait, it's not like Bill. Bill Nye. Come at me. You don't know who I am. Bill Nye.

[Naeema Raza]

Thank you so much. You're great. What a trippy episode.

[Podcast Narrator]

And it really answers this question of how to be so prolific, which, in Diplo's case, involves lots of running, very little sleep, and a ton of peripatetic travel, which, yeah, is not necessarily a lifestyle I would recommend. And speaking of which, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see behind me is south of France. I'm in Europe right now with Diplo. Of course. I'm kidding. I'm here for a wedding, which is not my own. But while we're fact checking, I should also say that Fidel Castro is not Justin Trudeau's father. That is definitely, definitely misinformation. And Diplo is, though, as he said, a very good dj, as you reminded me. But what I really liked in that episode was how he talked about not just wanting to be a hitmaker, but trying to do something meaningful in the fabric of humanity. And what he said about AI, you know, being the next him was wild. But I really think that his work has done that. And for me, it was really reflected in the diversity of it, the internationalism of it. You know, there's so many parts of the world and so many different cultures that he infuses into his work. And, you know, when I was doing the sublime documentary, a lot of times I would hear this term cultural appropriation. People would ask me what I thought about that, and I would always reply that I think there's a lot of love and respect and homage in the work that was being done there, a lot of care for the music and a lot of love and dignity in that music. And I think that I would say the same about Wes's music. What I hear and see when I listen to him is a lot of love for the different cultures that he gets to experience, and I just love knowing that he kind of approached it with this desire to be an anthropologist or a documentarian. And I think in a lot of ways his work does that. So anyways, I encourage you to check out Diplo's work. If for some reason you haven't heard it, you should definitely check out the song Purr that he did with Shah Rukh Khan for Jabhari Met Sejal. You should also check out his country album Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley. And you should very much check out his music with Skrillex, which OMG I'm so sad that they are never ever getting back together. It sounds like, though I would love to hear the other side of that story too, to know what happened. Want to end that bromance. But that's it for this week. If you want to know if Bill Nye knew who Diplo was and who won the bet, you got to tune in later this month for the Bill Nye episode. It's awesome. He is a national treasure and we have a great conversation about science, why it's so important we invest in it, and his work at the Planetary Society, this awesome institution. Anyways, that's it for this week. If you like this show please like review comment. Please definitely follow the show and encourage your friends to do the same. This episode was produced with Annalisa Cochran and Healy Cruz. It was recorded and edited by Desta of Wonder Studios. Our on site engineer was Jared Saldiviera and our theme music is by my great friend David Kahn who was discussed in this episode. I'm your host Naima Reza and I'll see you next week on Smart Girl Dumb Questions.

[Diplo]

Sam.