Zedd, a producer and DJ who is partially responsible for that song “The Middle,” is also partially responsible for my favorite thing so far this week: a dude fight about who owns the soul of EDM, or something.
What I know about the insular and worrisome world of EDM is very little—there are beats and something called an Electric Daisy Carnival with body paint and shorts. What I know about Diplo is that he doesn’t like balding music critics and was the target of a sick burn by Rihanna. I know absolutely nothing about Max Vangeli, the Moldovan DJ in question, but now I know that he seems to have a lil chip on his shoulder about Diplo.
According to Billboard, Diplo had Vangeli open for him at a DJ set in Hong Kong and Diplo reportedly “blanked” on Vangeli—the EDM version of a thrown glove in a duel. Vangeli was mad!
Zedd, having nothing better to do, or perhaps feeling confident to inhabit his truth that Diplo does indeed suck, stepped in to endorse Vangeli’s assessment of Diplo’s “Herpy Dick” and to silently endorse his new nickname, “clown ass bitch.”
After parsing this sick burn for myself, I declared Zedd and Vangeli to be the winners of this round, only because “Herpy Dick” is a cutting insult, made more so by the misspelling of herpes and the rogue, unnecessary capitalization of the phrase.
Then I saw Diplo’s response.
Three points for execution, and two bonus points for relevance. When I opened my eyes this morning, I didn’t give a shit about Diplo, Zedd, EDM beef, or Max Vangeli, and now here I am, very invested.
Diplo’s second response intrigued me further.
It’s not the best, but hey, it’s not the worst. The following tweet falls in the same category.
Summer has not yet begun and already I was bored to tears. That ends now.