“I had a session with her, and Future was also invited”. “You know, I was editing this song earlier [plays sounds on laptop], and the longer I spent on here, the more I felt like, God, this sucks. I was so contact high”, he continues when speaking to GQ.
“I played her ‘Lean On, ‘” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Diplo does admit “I’m not good at anything specifically” because there’s no recovering once Rihanna’s laid waste to your career. Future played her, like, 700 songs.
On the music front, GQ documents Diplo’s love for Afro-pop artists like Davido and Burna Boy (alongside his long-standing relationships with acts Mark Ronson and Skrillex) during the candid interview, which was conducted throughout Diplo’s post-Coachella African tour.
During the candid Q&A;, the Mad Decent boss and Major Lazer frontman voiced his opinions on Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, an event he’s played multiple times in the past, saying: “I’m into Ultra”. “I was trying to convince her why she should do so-and-so, and thinking, “Lean On” is bigger than any of her songs around the world right now. And she was like, ‘This sounds like a reggae song at an airport.’ I was like, ‘I’m gonna go kill myself‘”.
Diplo, what else has Rihanna told you?
For Diplo, Rihanna is the one that got away-musically, anyway. One would think that if Diplo had been working so dang hard to get Rihanna to bless one of his tracks with her presence, he would’ve listened to her work and then selected something from his back catalogue of music that at least lives in the same neighborhood as her shit? It’s rude, but it’s also true.
And what about the show with Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek playing him?