The famous EDM DJ Diplo has learned from everybody, but maybe it’s identity pioneer Madonna and the late shape-shifting David Bowie who taught him the most. Diplo has lately been working under the mysterious moniker Thomas Wesley, and Wesley is — amazingly — a country star. EDM.com puts the transformation this way:
Diplo sent the EDM world into an uproar when he donned a cowboy hat for the promo videofor his Stagecoach: Late Night in Palomino appearance. Nobody could have expected that a full-blown foray into country music would follow. Diplo has revealed exactly that, a country music side project whose initial offering is a single titled “So Long” featuring Cam.
But what’s even better (and more Madonna-esque) is that Wesley went all meta on the Stagecoach 2019 stage by making way for another mysterious entity that steadfastly defies categorization: Lil Nas X & Billy Ray Cyrus and their country song “Old Town Road.”
There’s been a lot of argument about whether it’s really a country song, as though the genres are set in stone, but Diplo/Wesley makes certain the country crowd knows what “Old Town Road” is. “Let me tell you,” he screams, “it’s a country song.” (See video below.) But the country crowd doesn’t need to be told — they know all the words and they sing along. Change, it’s the new status quo — and it happens fast. And sometimes change cycles back: Diplo’s given name is Thomas Wesley Pentz Jr. Try to keep up.
