This Is Our Jam: Diplo (Featuring Jahan Lennon), “About That Life”

When Diplo released his last solo LP, Florida, way back in 2004, M.I.A. had barely dropped her first mixtape, George W. Bush was president, and Major Lazer was just a gleam in its daddies' eyes. Since then, Wesley Pentz has starred in Blackberry ads, produced Lil Wayne tracks, and documented his globetrotting shenanigans for thousands on Twitter (he even has a coffee table book available at Urban Outfitters.) And now, all these years later, Diplo has announced a new album under his solo moniker, but his latest single “About That Life” is not what you’d think.

Or, maybe it is: Diplo is perhaps the most mercurial of all producers working today, attacking genres like baile funk, dance hall, or moombahton, with equal respect and skill. “About That Life,” though, isn’t dance music at all. Rather, it’s a languid piece of psychedelic pop — Diplo describes it as "Psychedelic Southern Gospel" — sung by Jahan Lennon of kaput Philly punk band PO PO.

All slow-mo with the occasional pan-pipe flourish (!!), the song has nary a beat drop in sight. Still, if you can come at it without preconceptions, it maintains, if nothing else, Diplo’s ear for hooks and deft curatorial skill. Maybe after all these years on the road, Diplo just needed to chill out a bit. And if that means more tracks like “About That Life,” we don’t mind it at all.

"About That Life"