Dip It Lo

Mention the name Diplo and most people would probably respond with a blank stare. But Wesley Pentz, the man behind the digital-chic moniker, has had more influence on dance-floor music than your average DJ/producer. After creating tracks for cutting-edge artists such as M.I.A. and Santogold, he scored his first multiple Grammy nominations and win this year for producing “Paper Planes” and for its subsequent sample use in T.I. and Jay-Z’s “Swagga Like Us.” Diplo is also the man responsible for introducing the words baile funk — a genre of dance music from Rio de Janeiro — into the American vernacular, after releasing 2004’s Piracy Funds Terrorism Vol. 1 with M.I.A., which featured the Sri Lankan musician’s tracks mashed up with favela beats. Let’s hope Diplo is still on a Grammy high when he, along with electrofunk duo Chromeo, takes over the decks at LIV’s newest Wednesday-night party, Dirty Hairy.
Wed., March 4, 10 p.m., 2009