Anyone convinced they lucked out with the cool teacher in school never had a class with Professor Pentz.
Thomas Wesley Pentz, aka Diplo, spent time shaping the minds of America’s youth before turning his attention to their musical tastes. Based in Philadelphia, Diplo enjoyed a steep rise to fame partially due to collaborations with artists like MIA, who is generally credited with exposing him to the world. A huge fan of dinosaurs as a kid, Diplo derived his name from Diplodocus, a long-necked dino with a huge, sweeping tail.
Diplo continued his career as the founder and manager of the record label Mad Decent, as well as an associated non-profit Heaps Decent. After hooking up with Jamaican artist Switch, the two formed the popular dancehall project Major Lazer. He also started the Jeffrees imprint in order to release interesting and experimental tracks that may not be worthy of a full Mad Decent release but still deserve a listen.
Since then, Diplo has worked producing records for big-name artists like Usher, No Doubt and Beyonce.
His record label Mad Decent is becoming more of a force by the day, boasting big-name DJs like Rusko, Oliver Twizt, Flosstradamus, and Zeds Dead. His team of diverse artists are generally credited with introducing the industry to new forms of EDM like moombahton and Brazilian baile funk.
