20 Musicians For 2012 - Artist #20 - Diplo

Last year I did this on Tumblr and I did this on the last like 20 days of 2012...I didn't like that!! It was way too rushed :p So as of today there are 21 weeks left in 2012. Can you believe that??? I thought I'd tell you all once a week about a favorite album I've downloaded this year and fallen in love with. Some of these may surprise you all, some of them may offend you all, some of them may make you cry (hopefully because you love them, but what I hope is that there's something here that you can all find to like. Now there are still a few albums left to come out in 2012 that I'm really looking forward to! In fact, I have Amanda Palmer, Yeasayer, The XX, and Mumford & Son's new albums all preordered already :p And I'm sure I'll fall in love with all of those too, so I don't know how I'll fit all of these exactly into the rest of the year, but I'll find a way ;)

So what I've done is ranked these albums from my 20th favorite to my absolute favorite of each year :p Keep in mind that ALL of these are albums that I've really grown to love. Number 20 is an album that I really do love. Other wise I wouldn't present it to you. I have a feeling when y'all here this though you're going to say REALLY? So I think I'm going to do these posts on Tuesdays. Not every album will have necessarily have been released in 2012 though most of them are. One of them has been released in the 70's though. We'll get to that one later though...in about five weeks :p

This week, the artist of the week is Diplo! For those who know who Diplo is, you're probably saying "really? Chris listens to Diplo????" For those who don't, you may be asking that after you listen to him. But let me tell you while I listen to Diplo and why I love him so much. I'm a fan of electronic music. Especially recent electronic music that has pushed the boundaries of what we thought was possible. I am NOT a fan of mind numbing, talentless noisy techno...but people who skillfully put electronic music together that just gets inside of you when you listen to it...god, it really does it for me :) I can't help but dance in my car when I listen to Diplo...and stop of course when other cars pass by. His new EP, Express Yourself is just a great album from beginning to end. As Tilda Swinton said on twitter: "@diplo Your music is the rhythm of fierce animalia. You understand the importance of attacking the human within yourself. Burn bright."

This video is probably NSFW for most people :p Just warning you in advance. I am NOT a fan of using women as sex objects in videos, and I think that I may take some flack for this, but I actually really like this video. It's filmed in New Orleans. There's a culture down here called "bounce" and it's a form of dance portrayed in here and it's actually quite amazing to watch people move their bodies the way they do. In New Orleans, we don't do anything that "sounds" politically correct, but we actually embrace each other. Bounce has evolved a subgenre called "sissy bounce" and while the term sounds offensive, the concept is actually amazing. There's a subgroup of lgbt rap singers who are widely accepted and actually coined the term themselves. I can't think of many other places where it's acceptable in the rap community and openly welcomed to be openly gay, though I see that changing more now with people like Frank Ocean recently coming out. Anyway, without further ado (and with a warning not to watch this at work :p) I give you Diplo's Express Yourself. Enjoy and try not to dance ;)