Ranked #184 in the Soul Strut 200

Diplo is perhaps the most infamous of the Soul Strut alumni (screen name OLDEN_STYLE_HATS).  Before he was churning out EDM hits for Bieber and gracing the TMZ home page, he was a struggling Philadelphia-based crate digger / DJ / producer actively plugging his finds and activities on Soul Strut (mostly from 2002-2004).  Diplo and I would rub elbows at record conventions looking for that elusive International record with that nobody has sampled.  Here is a bizarre yet hilarious comic he posted on Soul Strut regarding one encounter where he put a record on hold and I ended up buying it when he walked away.

Diplo's Philly-based Hollertronix parties in the mid 00s were legendary, featuring clever mashups of 80s dance records with modern day rap acapellas (before Serato!)  His collaboration with fellow Soul Strutter Tony Larson (tripledouble) yielded a series of popular psychedelic break tapes entitled AEIOU.  He eventually graduated into making beats which were along the lines of DJ Shadow / RJD2 instrumental hip hop drawing.  He distinguished himself by drawing influence from his native Florida Miami bass and electro.  Ninja Tune subsidiary Big Dada liked what they heard and released his debut Florida.  The album did not make much noise, but he was able to transcend into the mainstream by tirelessly promoting his off the wall block parties and underground EDM releases on his Mad decent label.  The rest is shall we say "history".

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