Diplo Talks Grammy Nominations, Snubs in ‘New York Times’ Interview

On Monday, the nominees for the 58th Grammy Awards were announced, with big names like Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and The Weeknd receiving an admirable amount of nominations.

Producer and international superstar DJ Diplo received an impressive three nominations: Best Dance Recording for "Where Are Ü Now” with Skrillex and Justin Bieber, Best Dance/Electronic Album for Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü and, perhaps most importantly, Producer of the Year.

That same day, the New York Times conducted a phone interview with Diplo to hear his thoughts — not just on the Grammy nominations he did receive, but also on the ones he did not receive, as with Major Lazer's hit single, "Lean On."

After being asked his opinion on how nominees "seem to be representative of the year in pop," Diplo provided a small qualification, but ultimately agreed.

"There's nothing pop about what [Kendrick Lamar's] doing this year," he said, but admitted that The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face" is "very pop."

"You can't have a Grammys without [Taylor Swift] nominated a bunch of times. Even when she has no album they have to have her show up or no one's going to tune into the whole thing."

Taylor shade aside, he also used this question to express his disappointment about "Lean On" getting snubbed.

"It had the most streams of the whole year — of any song ever existing in the history of music. But whatever, maybe next year. Our song doesn’t exist in any genre. We’re just an act that doesn’t make any sense for record or song of the year. We couldn’t even be nominated for reggae, because we’re just too weird. It doesn’t fit anywhere else, so we kind of cursed ourselves with a massive song. But I’m happy to have ‘Where Are Ü Now’ nominated."

And as for the coveted Producer of the Year nomination, Diplo declared that he has high hopes of winning. "My dream is to win that award," he said. "As a producer, I’ve just been growing every year and I’ve been doing it on my own terms. I’ve never been an industry producer; I’m on the outside looking in."

Read the full interview over at the New York Times to find out Diplo's thoughts on this year's nominees and possible changes for the Grammy Awards.

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