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For the Puerto Rican comedian, see Ramón Rivero. Thomas Wesley Pentz,[1] better known by his stage name Diplo, is a Philadelphia-based DJ, producer and songwriter. Together with DJ Low Budget, he runs Hollertronix, a club and music collective. Among other jobs, Pentz worked as a school teacher in Philadelphia. In addition to his solo career, he dated and worked with M.I.A..[2] Pentz's alias, short for Diplodocus, derives from his childhood fascination with dinosaurs.[3]
[edit] CareerBorn in Mississippi and raised across the southern United States, Diplo picked up much of the local culture.[4] Baile Funk or Funk Carioca is a special interest for Diplo, which he encountered while DJing at a house party with Hollertronix and he has used for sampled beats in numerous productions.[5] He released a full-length solo effort, Florida in 2004. After hearing a song, M.I.A. approached Pentz in 2004 when he was DJing one night at the Fabric Club in London. M.I.A. said "It had that same homelessness about it. It didn't have a particular genre, which is what people always say to me: Your song doesn't fit anywhere. So I went on a mad mission to find other people like that, because then we could make a home."[6] Diplo adds "Besides me being a white dude from Florida and her being a Sri Lankan girl in England, everything else was the same: [We were both] film graduates, [listened to] all the same music when we were kids, were going in the same direction right now in music, it was amazing."[5] he said of their meeting. Coincidentally, Diplo was playing her single "Galang" as she entered the club, which he got from a worker at i-D magazine.[5] Diplo also toured as M.I.A.'s DJ during her 2005 Arular Tour. He has also worked with fellow Philadelphians Spank Rock, Amanda Blank and Santogold. Diplo can be attributed with playing a role in bringing the musical genre funk carioca from Brazil to the United States. After traveling to Rio de Janeiro and experiencing the music first hand in 2004, he released a number of baile funk mixes, such as Favela on Blast: Rio Baile Funk 2004 and Favela Strikes Back, which introduced Funk to some listeners in America. He later went on to co-author the mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1 with M.I.A, an underground success which included some Baile funk themes.[7] Diplo additionally produced a documentary on Baile Funk, entitled Favela on Blast, (2009) which he hopes will continue to bring attention to the genre. [8] In 2006, Diplo wrote a blog post on MIA saying
In 2006, he started his own label, Mad Decent, signing Brazilian baile funk group Bonde do Role, and Baltimore rapper DJ Blaqstarr. Pentz has been involved in social relief projects, and in 2007, started the Heaps Decent Project with partners Andrew Levins and Nina Agzarian, following gigs on the Winter 2006 Big Day Out festival tour. Work has included recording songs with inmates at a juvenile detention centre with M.I.A. and he has expressed interest in taking the project to other countries.[citation needed] Diplo is signed to the Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada. He has gone on to remix and work with other artists. Diplo attended the University of Central Florida and Temple University in Philadelphia. He has also toured with Switch and Justice. He has released an album as Major Lazer, a collaboration with Switch recorded in Jamaica.[10] He is currently touring throughout 2008. Diplo is one of 9 artists who participated in thetruth.com’s Remix Project, where he remixed the Sunny Side song "Typo". [edit] Discography[edit] Albums
[edit] EPs and Singles
[edit] Mixtapes
[edit] Remixes[edit] 2005
[edit] 2006
[edit] 2007
[edit] 2008
[edit] 2009
[edit] Soundtracks
[edit] PodcastsDiplo presents these podcast serials.
[edit] References
[edit] External links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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