Ep. 234: Diplo | Branding Decides Who Wins
And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan
And The Writer Is
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
And The Writer Is... Diplo!
This episode isn’t about hits. It’s about how culture actually gets made.
Taste, burnout, and building culture without permission.
From growing up in Florida crate-digging scenes no one cared about, to turning underground instincts into global movements, Diplo breaks down the uncomfortable truth behind longevity in music: following your taste when everyone else wants safety.
We get into:
The real physical and mental toll of nonstop touring in a world that never shuts off
The power of branding and how he did it (and why you have to, to)
Breaking scenes before they’re acceptable
Burning out, disappearing, and rebuilding without chasing relevance
Why instinct beats public approval every single time
And the reality of turning risk into influence and underground energy into global impact This episode is for anyone building anything.
Thank you for listening
A special thank you to our sponsors…
Our lead Sponsor, NMPA— the National Music Publishing Association.
Your support means the world to us.
And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.
Chapters
00:00 – Diplo Is Here
01:02 – Episode Intro
01:45 – AI, Sora, and the Future
03:18 – How Diplo Uses AI in Music
06:15 – Using Prompts to Produce
07:44 – How Diplo Got Into Music
10:32 – How Ross and Diplo Met
14:05 – Life as a World-Touring DJ
16:04 – Dr. Luke Signed Me to Steal My Drums
16:36 – Diplo’s Origin Story
17:13 – Riff Raff, Culture, and Being Hated
18:43 – Making “Where Are Ü Now”
20:04 – Creating Jack Ü with Skrillex
21:37 – Orlando DJ Gigs to Philadelphia
24:33 – First Session with Vybz Kartel
27:23 – Branding, the Internet, and Selling Mixtapes
35:01 – The Story of “Paper Planes” (M.I.A.)
36:44 – How to Find Success in Music
37:57 – NMPA + Splice (Sponsors)
39:25 – “Climax” and Finding His Strengths
43:54 – Why He Started Mad Decent
46:41 – Learning Music and the Birth of Major Lazer
49:30 – The Story of “Lean On”
53:04 – Diplo’s Cheat Code for Creating Fearlessly
54:06 – Country Music
55:28 – “Heartless” and Morgan Wallen
56:19 – Collaborator Rapid Fire
1:00:28 – Diplo’s Branding Advice
1:03:32 – Charli XCX
1:05:00 – How He Doesn’t Lose Himself on Tour
1:06:59 – Nothing Is Perfect. Everything Gets Better.
1:07:19 – Diplo’s Run Club
1:08:00 – Diplo’s Final Advice
Hosted by Ross Golan
Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad
Post Production by Pratik Karki
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I have to go straight to the audience. |
| 0:01.3 | Like I don't trust radio, labels, anything. |
| 0:03.5 | It's really guerrilla marketing. |
| 0:04.8 | You have to go and be crazy with your music and make sure it's heard. The establishment always has sort of like, this year guidelines. You're fighting with like the biggest perfect pop stars of all time. That we have to go another way. I've always been like, well, fuck you. Let's just do what we like, what we love, what gives us goosebumps. |
| 0:21.4 | Let's get a fan base. |
| 0:39.9 | Getting a deal, like, trying to fight for, like, radio plays. Let's just fucking give music to people. This is how you get an audience. What's advice you'd give to an artist and writer who's coming up now about branding? It's the most important thing you're going to do. You probably know so many songwriters that could be artists, but they just don't have that thing in them. |
| 0:39.3 | And their demos are like... branding. It's the most important thing you're going to do. You probably know so many songwriters that could be artists, but they just don't have that thing in them. |
| 0:40.3 | And their demos are like insane and they're shelved. |
| 0:42.3 | Like 99% of all the music in the world never heard. |
| 0:45.3 | And that's because you don't have a vehicle to show to people and that vehicle is your brand. |
| 0:53.3 | This season is presented by NMPA, the National Music Publishers Association, champions of songwriters and publishers everywhere. |
| 1:02.1 | Welcome to And The Writer is. I'm your host, Ross Golan. |
| 1:06.0 | Today's superstar disc jockey is a puppeteer of festival crowds and a maestro of beats. |
| 1:12.8 | A super producer, hit songwriter, master label exec, health guru, cultural connector. |
| 1:19.1 | You could call him a true Jack, you of all trades. |
| 1:22.5 | Oh my God, that's embarrassing. |
| 1:24.2 | I'm so sorry for that. |
| 1:26.3 | Anyway, this mastermind is behind some of the most influential projects of the past two decades. |
| 1:32.0 | Not just an electronic dance music, but across all the genres. |
| 1:36.3 | All the way from all over the world, this man is entertaining in the booth on social media. |
| 1:41.8 | And right here. |
| 1:42.7 | And the writer is Diplo. |
... |
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