Not gonna lie, I would’ve never thought this in a million years…
But Diplo, arguably one of the most famous DJ on the planet right now, is a big country music guy?
Of course, he’s had collaborations with Morgan Wallen for “Heartless,” and featured up-and-coming country artist Ben Burgess on “Heartbreak,” and he even has a song with Koe Wetzel and Kodak Black coming out soon, but little did I know that he’s a big fan of playing up-tempo country songs for his sets at concerts.
He closes out each night of Stagecoach Music Festival, and even released a collaborative album with a number of mainstream country music stars.
Shania Twain shared a video of Diplo explaining how certain country songs work perfect for his sets, like Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee,” Twain’s “Don’t Impress Me Much,” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Boot Scootin’ Boogie.”
He talks about how he takes the chorus of those songs, and transitions into songs that go 128 to 130 BPM to match the high energy of the song, and he began to flirt with the idea of integrating country music into his sets at Stagecoach two years ago.
I’ll admit, I’m not a huge fan of DJs featuring country artists on songs, but at festivals and clubs?
Mixing in country songs that everybody knows in between artist performances at festivals is a concept I can get behind right there.
Who doesn’t want to hear an up-tempo “Chattahoochee” while being 12 beers deep and waiting for your country artist to hit the stage?
Check it out:
Koe Wetzel Confirms Diplo And Kodak Black Collab Is Coming Soon
What a group.
Back in June, EDM/pop producer Diplo posted an Instagram story where he tagged Texas rockstar Koe Wetzel and rapper Kodak Black, saying:
“We got something big cooking.”
Of course, everybody freaked out at just the prospect of these three collaborating on something, myself included. Since then, we really haven’t heard too much about it, though.
But last week, Koe stopped by the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast and confirmed that a collab with the three of them IS coming.
And while they kinda seem like a sort of unlikely trio, I’m super pumped to finally get to hear the song they’ve been working on. Of course, they come from three totally different genres, but it will certainly be neat to hear what they cooked up together.
Koe even told the guys the story of how it came to be:
“Diplo hit me up, a song he was… he was just wanting to work together. And then he kinda hit me up, and he had a couple different artists he was sending me and sent me this Kodak track.
And I just kinda told him, you know, none of this is really going kinda the way that I’m wanting to throw the music out there.”
So Koe had planned on pretty much saying thanks, but no thanks, and keeping the idea in mind for something else down the road…
“And I was just gonna tell him, like legit, me and Dre are on the plane coming back, and I’m listening through everything, and he was kinda waiting on an answer.
And I was like, ‘Man, I think I’m just gonna you know, do my own thing. And we’ll work together, let’s cook something up one day.’
That night he sent me a track from Kodak, and was like, ‘What do you think about this? This is more your style.’”
With some added bass drum and guitar, the new song seemed way more in line with Koe’s musical style, and he ended up loving it:
“He threw some drums in it, a little guitar and bass drum. I was like, ‘Oh hell yeah.’ So we gave it to Kimball, we kinda worked it up, and then we went to New York and do some stuff with it.
It’s actually finished now, it sounds really fucking cool man. We’re excited about it, hopefully drop it here in the next month or so. Y’all are the first people to hear that.”
He also teased that they’re gonna switch it up a little bit on vocals:
“I’m rapping, and Kodak is singing country.”
Honestly, I think that’d be really damn cool and could probably actually work, but Koe said it turned out to be a rock and roll song that he’s excited for all the fans to finally get to hear:
“It’s a rock and roll song, honestly man. I’m excited about it. Everybody we’ve showed it to has been really excited about. Ready to get it out there.”
I seriously cannot wait to listen to this song.
The collab promises to be huge for each artist, and of course, will expose all of them to three totally new fan bases, which is pretty cool too.
It also appears as though the trio has been down on the water in Miami filming a wild music video for the song, as Koe and Diplo both shared some fun stuff from the shoot over on Instagram stories.
Kodak’s manager Dyryk also shared a sneak peak of the monitor with Koe, and I have a feeling the final product will be quite the video and I can’t wait to see it.
If you haven’t checked out the full podcast episode yet, what the heck are you doing? It’s a great conversation with some wild tales straight from Koe, so make sure you give it a listen.
