Tonight in Lawrence, Diplo and the Mad Decent army will be stopping through at the Grenada on Mass. Street. This will be my third time seeing Diplo. The last time was in Lawrence at the Grenada, to a much smaller crowd than what should have showed up. However, I predict that tonight will probably sell out. And that’s because of his extensive line of work that has only grown since ’05. So I could understand if you were sleeping on this event in ’06, but not today. The first time I saw him was in Cincinatti in 2005 for the Scribble Jam opening night warehouse party. Little did I know that it would be the best DJ set I’ve ever seen, still to this day. At the time, I was still in my indie-hip hop phase, but I was ape shit for Diplo’s Florida album, which was largely instrumental stuff. I was also dabbling in baile funk, which Diplo helped bring to the American dance floors. I remember at that party a lot of the Kansas City people left early because they thought he was going to play true-school hip hop stuff, but he didn’t. Needless to say, I stuck around and witnessed the best DJ set of my entire life. I got back from Cincy and I told Ben Fuller about the show and he said that from what he’d heard indicated that it was a “legendary show.” Then they told me about the hollerboard, which was supposed to be a secret back then. This party revolutionized my tastes in music. There’s no other way around it.
I hope to see some of those KC heads faces tonight in Lawrence. Because after all…it is bigger than hip hop.
Here’s a picture that I took at that party in Cincy:
Chris Mills
Editor-in-Chief at Demencha Magazine LLC and Demencha.com. Send music and event submissions to chris@demencha.com.
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