I've been contemplating on whether I should invest in some turtlenecks recently and I'm slowing finding them everywhere. Perhaps they're an essential for every man's closet for the fall. Pair them with a trench, vest, suit, sportcoat, or alone, it's understated and classic. I hope I can find some good ones this season.
GQ: Was the Beyoncé opportunity an awakening?
Diplo: I still haven't really slept since that whole thing started. That week was so crazy. I was working with Roc Nation and they wanted to produce some other stuff—I was there, I did a show, got arrested, had to go to jail, after jail had to fly to Vegas. Every weekend is just getting weirder and weirder. I feel like I'm a snowball, I don't know what is going to happen. I'm not catching up to what is going on in my life. I got in a bar fight and the guy pressed charges. Nobody in Beyoncé's camp knew about it, but I thought it was embarrassing. I had to go to court a bunch of times and had to go to anger management courses. It's the one part of my day or week that's all fucked up—going to some anger management class in Compton every Tuesday with teenage gangsters that beat their cousins and listen to them talk about their lives. It's pretty grounding.
GQ: Do you fit in at your anger management classes?
Diplo: Definitely not. The first thing I said in my anger management class was, "I know everybody's gonna say this, but I definitely don't belong here." The lady was like, "Yeah, whatever. Shut up and read this book." It really is a bunch of teen gang members that beat their moms and stuff. It's depressing. I'm always grounded. I smoked DMT last month and that grounds you really quickly. That's ego. It's all bad things. It's like, every ounce of paranoia you get from smoking weed magnified by a million. You also get like a tripping-out, crazy, intense experience. It's mind-blowing. That's my advice for all celebrities. Go to some anger management classes, smoke DMT once every two or three months, and you'll be good.
GQ: What led you to smoking DMT?
Diplo: I'm not into those kind of drugs, no hard drugs, but that's something that's inspiring, to do other things. It's a catalyst for a lot of ideas. I don't even know how the ideas come anymore; we had Bruno Mars in the studio and were going to make a Bruno Mars record but he ended up rapping on a totally different record that made no sense, and it ended up being a really good record. Nothing ever comes out like how you expect. It's not pop stuff. It was like a joke accident. For [The Major Lazer song] "Hold the Line," it was like, how did it end up like this? We did a record with Vampire Weekend. Everything we do is an accident. Everything that we have, that happens, just happens in a certain way that's inspiring to us. We don't dismiss anything. We take advantage of anything strange that happens. All the underground guys...it's how we developed. We're not the best songwriters, we're not good singers, we're not the best looking, we just see the little cracks that need to get filled.
GQ: You're probably one of the most famous people in the industry that doesn't sing or rap.
Diplo: 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. The same way I love Radiohead. We're in a different world where we aren't selling as many records as we used to, but everything I do has gotta be a part of the brand, a part of the Internet presence, the art side of things, you work really hard being just everywhere. The new tool is doing everything. Putting out everything you can. What Lil B does, he puts out thousands of songs. It's not about the quality, but it got him famous because you can't get away from him. They were so obsessed with his honesty and his outright craziness, you know? It's not even about quality. You just gotta do everything you can.
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