Diplo made his first trip to Nairobi on February 7, courtesy of the city’s professional event and photography service, Kenya Nights. In the week prior to the event all the advance tickets were sold out, it was at that stage when the event organizers said Nairobi won’t ever be the same again. They turned out to be right—the Westlands Tree House Club became so cramped they ended the night early when the floor started falling-apart.
When the doors first opened, Diplo worked non-stop until the nightclub called it quits. Staffers moved people away so the floor wouldn’t sink any further. Diplo said, “[tonight was] literally one of the craziest parties I ever did. We had to shut down my set ‘cause the floor was about to collapse.” While suddenly interrupted, it became clear, hosting Diplo would be one of Nairobi’s biggest entertainment events in 2014.
Diplo succeeds by swinging between different tempos, tones, and rhythms to keep the night interesting. Between funk rhythms and even sampling the Ghost Busters’ theme song, the only drawback to his performance was the limited space to dance.
Last year after Daft Punk released Random Access Memories the robotic duo told Rolling Stone Magazine hat modern electronic dance music is like “an audio energy drink.” Sure, it can be repetitive, aggressive, and over-stimulating like it’s over-compensating for real substance. However, every so often there’s a curious artist who borrows from the old to create something new.
By blending Brazil’s favela funk, Jamaican reggae, and American hip hop, the Mississippi-born Wesley Pentz first gained recognition outside of the Philadelphia DJ scene when The New York Times’ rated his mixtape Never Scared as a top ten album of 2003. Better known as Diplo, this inquisitive artist splits his time between touring, running his label Mad Decent while recording new tracks when he finds time.
While declared as the Grammy’s Producer of the Year in 2013, in the past decade Diplo produced what has already been cemented in music history as classics, from M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” to Beyoncé’s “Run the World.”
As a globetrotter, tastemaker, and general curator cutting edge music, Diplo raises the energy levels of any night—even when the clubs are sinking like a ship.