Diplo and Skrillex Booed Off the Decks at Robot Heart [Updates]

Jack U got jacked. It seems the Burner ear is slightly more discerning than “Turn down for what”

PulseRadio breaks it down:

2014 robot heart sunrise...One [story] that has just come our way involves Seth Troxler, Skrillex and Diplo at the infamous Robot Heart Bus.

Seth Troxler was scheduled for a set on the Robot Heart decks on Wednesday night, though as a source in attendance informs us, the Detroit DJ refused to play after his entourage was denied access to join him behind the decks. Looking to fill Troxler’s slot, organisers quickly replaced him with dance music’s hottest duo Jack U, aka Skrillex and Diplo, who just happened to be present at the time (the pair were at the festival to play at Camp Question Mark the following evening).

Crisis averted it would seem, with Skrillex reported to have played “a pretty cool set”. However things took a turn for the worse when Skrilly tagged in his pal Diplo, who made the unfortunate decision to drop DJ Snake & Lil Jon’s ‘Turn Down for What’. The result? An unfortunate booing from the crowd which brought an abupt end to the set. The Robot Heart vibe was then swiftly restored by scorching sets from Tale Of Us and Thugfucker.

All’s well that ends well?

You can check out some of the amazing photos from Burning Man 2014 here.

2014 robot heart jacku

2014 skrillex robot heart

[Update 9/2/14 9:00am]

We have some eyewitness accounts from Burners

H(e)at(h)er:

This is such a bullshit article. This did not happen 

H(e)at(h)er (different last name):

This is so not true. This show rocked and nobody booed

Daniel:

It’s totally true, was there. Robot heart is deep house vibes not top 40 bullshit edm

Erin:

It’s all true, I was there. However, missed the boo’ing part because we left 3 songs into skrillex’s set due to awfulness….

Christopher:

They deserved it.. They were both a disgrace…. particularly Diplo’s dumb ass dropping that fucking power 106 hip hop drop noise that they always dub over horrible hip hop songs to try to spice them up (like DJ Khaled… just annoying as shit) CONSTANTLY during the burning of the embrace…. Fucking joke ass DJ trying to ruin the vibe for thousands people on purpose just because he’s loaded with millions and arrogant as shit and thinks its funny? yeah… go ahead and NEVER come back EVERR please and thankyou. The best music all weekend wasnt even on big stages… all the legit HEADS were pretty much mostly randoms you’ve never heard of that were DJing art cars and still BLOW AWAY anything Diplo or Skrillex could ever hope to do on a dancefloor. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of someone who likes them that doesn’t have to get turned up to lil jon levels of fucked up on drugs just to enjoy their tunes… so I guess the song was fitting.

Trevor:

article doesn’t mention that skrillex couldn’t mix any records and they also played toto africa. worst set i have ever seen. raped the robot

Chris:

Diplo is a d bag. I was there and he did that shit on purpose cause he doesn’t like underground. He deserved every bit of it, and who cares about that fool we were all there for tale of us anyway!

Dustin:

Good for Troxler for not putting up w robot heart’s elitism. I would have loved a set from him but they control who is on the bus (even when it’s not crowded). They have created an exclusive art car against the radical inclusion principle.

Michael:

Speaking as a person THAT WAS THERE, this article got it wrong. Diplo mixed Toto Africa into TD4W and the place went off. At the end of TD4W Diplo cut it off, “Turn down for……”. It totally worked as Thugfucker was up next to play much more down tempo sunrise set. I think it was a good set, Robot Heart was going off, and the people were into it and accepting of it. Not what you would expect to hear at Robot Heart, but very cool. From my perspective every one was cheering at the end, but if there was boing (complaining) it could have been because they thought the system died because he cut the song.

[Update 9/2/14 2:25pm]

Diplo has issued a public statement on Twitter about these events.

We’d love to see that video, if anyone has a link.

Note that he’s not disputing playing “Turn Down For What”, which he’s obviously very proud of. In fact, he’s proud of the whole incident:

From EDM.com:

EDM.com’s very own David Lee Crow (Ghastly) was with the Jack U crew at the Robot Heart stage and witnessed firsthand the lack of serious demeanor, as this was certainly something Diplo played for a chuckle and not for shock value. They were traveling from stage to stage playing randomly, and like many professionals have done in the past, Diplo played a small joke on the crowd.

This is definitely not unheard of as Deadmau5 was lauded for playing the Ol’ McDonald version of “Animals” at Ultra Music Festival this past March.

Perhaps Diplo got into the spirit of Burning Man, and was pranking the crowd.

"Diplo, next time just get your sherpa to press play"

“Diplo, next time just get your sherpa to press play”

[Update 9/2/14 8:53pm]

A few more comments. I made a joke about the sherpa, but Skrillex DID in fact have a sherpa, who came in to adjust the levels for him:

Zach:  The Robot Heart morning Skrillex was train wrecking the entire time – people kept coming up and adjusting his levels for him. He looked super fucked up

….I know for a fact that it happened because I was there booing… I usually like skrillex but he was train wrecking so hard that it was unlistenable. Like I said before, there were multiple people helping skrillex with his audio levels… Though watching Diplo’s face cringe every time skrillex f’ed up was hilarious… The only thing that I disagree with was the set time, they did play for about an hour…. Also, it’s not a matter of the 10 principals – just because your name is skrillex/diplo doesnt mean you can get away with what was unquestionably the sloppiest set that I have heard from two professionals – let alone two professionals that are considered all stars of the industry.

Darkwad Black:

I was there. And they really did suck.

Richard:

I saw Skrillex that night… They were at Root Society opening night after Bootie… Totally sucked! I saw soooo many people just walking away… First time ever… When he started complaining there were too many men and not enough women dancing on stage, that’s when I left… Embarrassing at best…

A DJ? Super fucked up at Burning Man? They’re doing it wrong! LOL


 

17 comments on “Diplo and Skrillex Booed Off the Decks at Robot Heart [Updates]

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  2. I was there, too. To be honest I liked some of Skrillex’s set – the guy before him almost put me to sleep (who was that? He seemed to play forever and seemed love his own set, but – IMO – it was really flat and repetitive and didn’t really go anywhere). I felt like Skrillex totally fired everyone up – he just jumped in and dropped bombs! But he also mangled a few of his mixes and at times it was rough to listen to – especially at the end where I think he lost the plot entirely. Overall it was a great experience and I was grateful for the riotous wake up party vibe at 4 am (was it 4am? something like that), but Skrillex wasn’t totally on form and his vibe – generally speaking – isn’t exactly synonymous with “classic RH”, anyway. But hey! That’s cool – every now and again we all need a rebel to come along and mess with our shit.

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  6. I saw skrillex do two sets at the burn and both were pretty bad. I was really disappointed as I am a big fan of scary monsters and nice sprites and was really looking forward to his sets. Lame!

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  10. I left during the Toto song and then heard Tale Of Us starting a few minutes later. I didn’t go back for it, the damage had already been done…

  11. lol…i needed additional medication when they came on at OT for the White Party…but it was all good, and i dont remember them being booed later that night at Robo Heart, i just remember having a great time dancing

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