DIPLO
TEXT MARISA BRICKMAN
AND JACLYN MARINESE
DATE JANUARY 23, 2004

Wesley Pentz, aka Diplo, aka one-half of DJ duo Hollertronix is on some serious shit of his own. We first heard of Diplo when he DJed with partner-in-crime Low Budget at grimy spots up in Philly and NYC where we’d go to get crazy on the dancefloor. We got on our hands on a few of the several mixtapes that seemed to appear once every few months, reinforcing the fact that Bun B mixed with Depeche Mode done right is totally slammin’. The parties in Philly that Hollertronix started at Ukie Club are now infamous, as are some of the mixtapes that you can’t find. While the typical Hollertronix fan used to be a baggy t-shirt wearing young Philly thug, anyone who likes to break it down and is up for a good time is going to take a liking to Holler’s live DJ set – which is self-proclaimed to never be the same.
While Hollertronix’s Never Scared mix has secured a spot in DJ land for Diplo and Low Budget as a team, Diplo is also a skilled producer who’s been creating crunked Southern beats on minimal gear since his younger years as a teenager in Southern Florida. His latest solo album aptly entitled Florida (Ninja Tune/Big Dada) really displays his full range as a producer and as an artist who can truly excel on his own two.
While that dirty South, new wave, electro, hip-hop aesthetic once defined his sound, his recent more reggae-based work with artists like Vybz Kartel and M.I.A. has put him on the map as a producer without any kind of musical boundaries.
‘Sup sat down with Diplo over some Jack Daniels, extended late-nights, some emails, and a telephone and what you’re about to read is the result. And did we mention that Wes is one funny motherfucker?
Marisa: Tell me about the tour you’re on. RJD2 and the Def Jux crew – seems like your kind of guys (laughing).
Haha. You suck. Tonight was awesome, besides the sound being crazy fucked up and having bass blow up all over the club, records skipping, knocking the mic stand over and breaking it, stopping my whole set and even laughing. Yo people were crazy hating me. I just gave up. I played a Dead Prez instrumental and then I was like, ‘Who wants an encore?’ And people were laughing and just saying, ‘Encore,’ and the record started to skip. I said, ‘That’s it… perfect ending.’ Cleveland is garbage. There was even a skunk wondering around on the street after I left the club. But two hot girls bought my vinyl. That’s what’s up. I was like, ‘Did you see the set? Are you sure?’
Marisa: So, Diplo is short for Diplodocus – what’s that all about?
Diplo is just a word, a concept now, a made up name like Hoobastank. It is its own entity now, but has roots in the Diplodocus name, which doesn’t have much behind it.
Jackie: Your solo record, Florida just came, like Tuesday, on Ninja Tune. You’ve been around for a minute, why did you decide to release your solo record now?
It was finally ready to go and all the things were in the right place. It took about two years to play ’round and get it where I thought it was alright.
Marisa: On the promo version Maria Topley Bird (Massive Attack, Tricky) sings on “Into The Sun” – why didn’t that make the final version?
But she actually did! We just didn’t credit her cause her label was on some bullshit! And we are grimey!
Marisa: I spent some time in central Florida as a teenager whiling out with lots of white kids in Daytona Beach who were on some bootie-bass, white trash shit. Does that sound familiar to you?
Did you go to raves on some E on county fairgrounds? Man, electro never left Florida from the early ’80s. Mad white kids were loving the electro break. Florida breaks rave music hard. That scene was huge there. Magotron was big in the Miami bass scene. Kids just loved taking drugs and dancing in the swamps. Now the music is so different. There’s so much love for the Southern hip-hop in clubs down there.
Marisa: E on the fairgrounds? That’s a blast from the past. I know your dad owns a fish camp – nice website by the way – did you grow up around there or is that something new?
The fish camp has been part of the family for seven years. But I’ve always had family in New Smyrna/Volusia County. My grandma had nine kids there starting when she was 13 years old. My parents met in high school there. I always grew up visiting that bait shop and fishing in the rivers and I hated it. I just made up stories about manatees and tried to scare my dad saying that I saw the dolphins with shark teeth trying to tip the boat. He began to stop asking me to help him.
Jackie: Were you making music at that time too?
Yeah, a little bit on some stolen samplers from Mars Music and some cheap PC programs. I was living between Orlando and Daytona working and DJing and doing a radio show in Winter Park, Florida. This is when I was like 18 or 19 years old. I started DJing hotels in Daytona around 17 and those were my first gigs. I was buying every record I could for a dollar just trying to learn about music. I had plenty of Florida club records from other DJs that just gave ‘em to me or I stole them’cause I knew they weren’t djing anymore.
Jackie: Where was the first place you ever DJed?
A small hotel in Daytona that had an old black man that was the DJ and he only used cassette tapes. It was crazy. He had songs on singles and just cued ‘em up with rewind.
Marisa: I think it’s funny that people were comparing Hollertronix to 2ManyDJs and you hadn’t even heard of them. What does Hollertronix do differently than 2ManyDJs? Or even a guy like Z-Trip?
We just don’t know what we are doing. 2ManyDJs are all over the place playing music and mixing things up beforehand and it’s sounding really good but it’s really hard to listen to. We do everything live and never begin with a routine, we just freestyle it all. A few sets work though so can expect a 10-minute piece a few times. But even that really bores us after three or four shows.
Jackie: It seems like while you were living in Philadelphia, that things really started to change for you. How did your experiences throwing a regular jam in Philly affect you as a DJ and affect your outlook on music and parties?
Hollertronix came out of necessity. I scoped out this [Ukranian] club cause it looked cool, actually Ben Harris – the photographer of Never Scared did, and we got memberships there because it just seemed fun enough and we were both a little bit Eastern European, if not Ukranian. Somehow we scammed ourselves in and got memberships. And then we were able to rent the club for 150 bucks. That’s it. Nobody showed up to our parties. It was a mess and then two years later it’s off the hook and more expensive. I never had a chance to DJ in Philly just ’cause its too competitive and the DJs there are too fucking good. You had to suck dick to get in the game or just have some history. With our party we just started something outside the loop kinda like what Dave P [who started the Making Time parties] did. And it popped off. Fuck the dress code spots and the old city jersey spots and the white kid coke spots, but somehow we’ve become all those spots at once though. We just burned something new in the scene and we had total control. So we came with a real original style. That’s the only way you can really do something fresh as a DJ without a promoter or club owner on your ass.
Marisa: Your focus now seems to be more on doing solo stuff as Diplo – how did that transpire and what happened to get you to that point?
It’s always been. But I’ve only now figured out how to make money at it. I’ve been producing long before I was DJing seriously. And I only began to DJ serious ’cause I made more money at it than my day job as a social worker last year.
Jackie: What would be your ideal vision for where you would want to take yourself on a production level? Are there some top MCs you’d like to make beats for? Do you want to advance your use of musical sounds over samples? Do more remixes?
I want to do more remixes, be better at musical samples, and just music in general. I want to be able to really be good at making melodies. I’ve been asked for beats by some big people now and I’m thinking it’s because people like me; Prefuse, Madlib, and RJ, who are also doing some big things, have some grasp of club music at least, and we are way cheaper then Neptunes and Timbaland – and still doing things just as progressive. I’d like to actually be a musician, I’m really not one by any means, and I’d like to work with more dancehall cats like Vybz [Kartel] and Cecile. I’m working with M.I.A., a new artist on XL, who is incredible.
Jackie: What artists have you remixed, and what has been the most memorable experience so far?
M.I.A. has really inspired me. I did a new track with Prefuse 73 and a remix for his money studies release. It’s a new genre called thug trance music. I’ve never heard anything like it before. Working with Vybz was real interesting. I’m really just starting out. But watch out cause I’m really just figuring out my whole sound.
Marisa: What kind of equipment you use and what sort of things you do with it?
I start by sequencing a SP1200 and then just drop samples and things over it with another sampler, an AS20. Then I just track vocals and things to fake like it’s a real song on cheap programs like cool edit. Then add some crack cocaine and some girls and I got a hit.
Jackie: I know you are a crazy fanatical record head. What are some of your favorite old rare records? What about some of your secret weapons on the dance floor – old and new?
I was already down with that no wave stuff on 12-inch like Jack Black and the Slits and New Order and electro singles right when they popped off a year or two ago and I still like to drop all that stuff. I like Depeche Mode a lot. That’s like my favorite thing to put down. Like “Enjoy the Silence” or “Everything Counts” or the other electronic singles. It’s really hard but if you get it in right, that’s a killer. And then just keeping up to date with the tear the club up stuff.
Jackie: What are your next plans?
More Brazil. The next Twista and Lil’ Kim albums. Hollertronix 2, Houstontronix for Murder Dog. More touring that’s gonna suck. More mix tapes to promote me as that dude that does the damn thing, and M.I.A. Lots of her.