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New York feels like the whole city is into dance music. That's not how it felt when I was younger. There was more of a hipster scene.
Diplo -
Man, I don't read books! I just read a bunch of 'Walking Dead' comics. I don't even read comics, but zombies are something I just can't get enough of.
Diplo
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Gucci is a rapper that doesn't try and be anything he's not - he's straight up. Yeah, maybe it's ironic and all, but I'm just a fan and have been one since day one. Gucci Mane is the cool uncle I never had, even though I'm sure I'm probably older than him.
Diplo -
As a youngster, I lived in Philly for 12 years, and I would go up to New York to do shows and make money - it was the dream to maybe be able to survive there and live there.
Diplo -
When I first started producing, all I had was this little crappy sampler called a S20, which had, like, a minute sample time. 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. I was a schoolteacher for a while, and it was the worst job.
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I never got tied down to any social scene. I was just into creating stuff. And I think, even today, that's how I'm able to work and move between so many different genres - I want to be part of what's happening, I want to make new things.
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How mad would it actually be to do an 'Avatar' type animation film, but about something mundane like a Winn-Dixie cashier's day at work? That'd be something else, I think.
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We first started to rent old VFW halls in Philly or whatever; we rented kegs and did parties and played our own music. We had to find a way to do it because nobody else was helping us, and I think now it's important to keep those dialogues happening, those parties happening.
Diplo
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I've been in jail a couple times. I've been caught shoplifting.
Diplo -
You always have to evolve - the minute you start building a moat around you to keep yourself safe, you're going to lose.
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The traditional media never gave Bernie Sanders the time of day. But he went viral the same way hip-hop and new dances go viral. And I'm part of that culture.
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I'm trying to always do new things because if you stay behind and fight the future, you are just going to be left behind.
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Selling MP3s or physical copies, it's still cool, but I think it's slowly becoming outdated to where people just want to build a culture.
Diplo -
I have heard, 'Never go to bed angry,' and that makes sense. Unless you're always checking yourself, a grudge or something small can break apart a relationship, and you start to forget what is so amazing about your partner.
Diplo
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Sometimes I make more money in a weekend than my grandpa made in a year.
Diplo -
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?
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A lot of producers get famous because they decide to be superstars for their own reasons, but I'm inspired by Timbaland and Pharrell and Swizz Beatz 'cause they're doing things that are so different. I like how they're introducing ideas I never would have thought of.
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Attention. That's all girls want.
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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 -
When we think about big records, a lot of producers are thinking of how to make it as standard as possible. I think those days are gone. I think you have to surprise the audience in 2015.
Diplo
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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.
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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.
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You just have to do; you can't live by the rules of what you're supposed to do. I think every person is good at something, and you just have to push that forward.
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When I was fifteen, I used to run around reading 'Adbusters' and dumpster diving, trying to find ways to make the U.S. government unwind into chaos through hardcore punk and metal.
Diplo