August 3, 2026
Meta Glasses + DJing = The Ultimate POV?
It’s always a challenge to capture great video clips of yourself DJing, without the assistance of someone else. So on the new episode of Beatport Te...
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Diplo Talks About His Hip-Hop Roots, Lil Xan’s 2Pac Comment
Diplo at Premier Nightclub in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Jan. 26, 2018. (Source: Facebook)
Before dropping his California EP on Friday, Diplo sat down with the popular No Jumper podcast for an in-depth interview. The conversation, which spanned one-and-a-half hours, covered a wide range of topics, like the current Las Vegas scene, the EDM bubble, and his most difficult DJ gig.
The Mad Decent founder also discussed his hip-hop roots and Lil Xan‘s recent controversial comment that 2Pac is “boring.” (Diplo has a track with Xan on his EP.)
On Diplo’s hip-hop roots:
“When I grew up, I loved hip-hop because I was obsessed with the graffiti. I was obsessed with the culture. … It sounds corny, but I was break dancing. I was doing graffiti. I was obsessed with the art side of it. … So I dug into the history. I watched this movie called Style Wars. I got into the history of old school hip-hop, like what it meant to be a DJ and I’m lucky that I learned that way. I’m obsessed with the old records, the old sounds, like what DJ Premier was doing all the way to like what the DJ are now.”
On Xan’s comment about 2Pac:
“I grew up loving West Coast hip-hop. [Pharcyde’s Bizarre Ride of the Pharcyde] is probably the album that made me wanna be a producer. … And then like Freestyle Fellowship, and then I got into like Snoop [Dogg] and [Dr.] Dre. … I wasn’t a big 2Pac fan, but then as a DJ I became a huge fan because [all of his music] worked. So I mean music just affects you differently, but people have the right to be fans and not fans of music.”
Watch the full convo below.
