Roo AOTD #54 Diplo

All aboard the hype train for Bonnaroo 2024! Only 81 days until we are all on the Farm again, can you believe it? It’s coming up fast and we can’t wait to be dancing with all of you at Bonnaroo! Today’s Artist of the Day is the one and only Diplo. Learn more about the artist below. Don’t forget to check out all of our artist spotlights! Thank you for reading these posts!

Artist Biography

Diplo, aka Thomas Wesley Pentz, is a DJ who was born in Tupelo, Mississippi but mainly grew up in South Florida. He worked in his father’s bait shop as a kid while fixating on becoming a paleontologist. He started college in Florida, studying film studies, and finished his undergraduate degree at Temple University in Philly in 2003. Right before he went to Philly, he sent his beats to Big Dada Records who signed Diplo before he finished college. After graduating, he took on various jobs including social worker, after-school mentor, and movie theater employee all while being a gig-by-gig DJ. He was struggling to pay his rent, which drove him to team up with DJ Low Budget to start their own club nights in Philly playing as Hollertronix. It became a hot event that pulled people from all along the East Coast. In 2003, Diplo released his breakout mixtape Never Scared which made it to the top albums list for the New York Times. The next year he released his debut album Florida but didn’t find major success until he branched out into funk carioca, a derivation of Miami bass music inspired by Brazil. In 2005, Diplo started his label Mad Decent Records. Four years later, Major Lazer came about as a project started by Diplo and DJ Switch which was a fictional Jamaican bounty hunter turned DJ. From there, Diplo became what he is today, a superstar DJ sought after as a collaborator, working with artists including Sia, Travis Scott, Lil Yachty, Dua Lipa, and Sturgill Simpson.

Genre

EDM, DJ, Pop, House

Scheduled at Bonnaroo

Saturday (Link to Daily Schedules)