If you plan on seeing Diplo in the near future, you might be in for an abrupt change. In a new interview with Rick Rubin in Interview Magazine, Diplo, real name Thomas Wesley Pentz, talked about his upbringings as an artist, how he approaches himself as a brand and a musician, being a father and much more. He also causally slid into the conversation that he was looking to retire the Diplo name and focus more Major Lazer. Rubin asked the "Revolution" DJ how he separates out his many creative projects, and Pentz dropped the bomb about his career. "Well, I'm trying to actually retire Diplo material at this point. Diplo has a ceiling in Vegas, and I'm doing great there, but I'm so proud of Major Lazer-the way it sounds, the way it's mixed. I feel like if I devote my time to that, it could grow."
The news is a shock to Diplo fans who are used to seeing his name on new records a few times a year and then seeing him tour extensively around the world. There are no further details about how much more time he would devote to Major Lazer, which is becoming very important with an album slated for release on June 1 and their animation show finally getting on the air this past week. This will also give him more time to focus on his collaboration with Skrillex as Jack Ü this summer. There is no timeline for the retirement, but we will see in the coming weeks and months.
Earlier in the year, Childish Gambino made a similar announcement. He said he was going to retire the Childish Gambino moniker, but continue working on music as a producer of some kind, but wanted to wrap up his career as the artist known as Childish Gambino.
Diplo has been a proponent of selling more than just music, he wants to sell a brand and culture and he emphasizes that to Rubin, who agrees with him.
Diplo reasons, "Selling MP3s or physical copies, it's still cool, but I think it's slowly becoming outdated to where people just want to build a culture. The culture's what you're selling at this point."
