As a DJ, it’s my job to break new music. And instead of it just being the stuff that’s coming from the major labels or the big pop records, I’ve always gravitated to something that’s just different, you know? – Diplo
A lot of DJs don’t realize they’re here today and gone tomorrow. They’re literally taking jets to every show. It’s crazy how much money they’re spending. – Diplo
It’s funny – some producers ask me, ‘Man, how do you work on a Bieber record? That would kill my career.’ I can work on any record there is as long as they are good records and you’re pushing things forward. – Diplo
I grew up in Florida in different cities. I was born in Mississippi. My parents moved a lot, so I moved to Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, all through the South. But my family’s roots were from central Florida, like Daytona Beach area, so we ended up moving there. – Diplo
You always have to evolve – the minute you start building a moat around you to keep yourself safe, you’re going to lose. – Diplo
Man, the only thing that’s important is what is due tomorrow. I don’t care what it is as long as it’s good. – Diplo
I’ve probably got the most eclectic social media there is because it literally goes from hanging out with my son at a park, to, like, Madonna’s house, to a rave in Africa. – Diplo
When I worked with M.I.A., who was, like, the coolest person back then, she was just a girl I met on the Internet. Or even when I met Azealia Banks on Myspace, I never thought, ‘Oh, she’s cool.’ I just loved what she was doing. So I’ve always been like that. And I think, as a producer, that’s what you’ve gotta do. – Diplo
I was making crappy beats since I was, like, 17 or 18, using Florida rappers, where I’m from. Then I started DJ’ing because I just wanted to have a new job. – Diplo
I’ve realised that if I aim for a successful record, I probably won’t have any success. But if I keep making weird things, then hopefully the audiences will come to us. – Diplo
K-pop is a weird term because K-pop has everything – rap records – it’s very pop-sounding; there are really boy-band-sounding records. – Diplo
When it comes down to helping kids, a lot of ways for education to move forward is through music because that’s exciting to kids. Reading books and going to a bookstore is not that exciting. – Diplo
Money, for me, is just to create bigger and better things. A lot of guys in the deejaying world flaunt it, but I don’t see any use in that. I don’t need anything. I live in hotels. Most of my clothes I get for free. I like to invest in ideas. In people. – Diplo
I was never good at scratching, but I was good at collecting old records. Florida was a great place for that, because it’s where people go to die. – Diplo
To me, rap music is bigger than who’s the coolest rapper, the biggest rapper. It’s everything about your personality. – Diplo
Dance music is so interchangeable. There’s not a lot of face to it. It’s a bunch of Dutch DJs with the same haircut. – Diplo
Every time I want to impress someone about samples and hip-hop, I play ‘Portrait of Tracy.’ It’s one of the greatest bass players ever doing a whole composition with only the two harmonics of electric bass; then a three-second loop in it became every great R&B song in five-year intervals. – Diplo