Diplo brushes off style critics

DJ/producer Diplo has dismissed critics who accuse him of borrowing musical styles from subcultures around the world, insisting there is no such thing as authenticity in pop.

The Grammy-nominated star is adamant the best artists have always mixed genres, and he cites a trip to Jamaica, where reggae is not always the most dominant music, for convincing him to keep following his own path.

He tells Q magazine, "I'm not really sure to this day what music I'm supposed to make. David Bowie did everything. Young Americans is like a soul record. Or The Clash: having white English guys doing reggae in the early '80s was awesome. The music fused. Now you can't do it any more without getting flak. I don't really care, I'm really thick-skinned...

"For us there's never really a feeling of authenticity because there's no authenticity (in Jamaica). When I was first going there the biggest record in Jamaica was Owl Cities' Fireflies! Miley Cyrus's Party In The USA shut down Jamaica! So I thought, 'Who... cares about what people in England or America think about me going to Jamaica?'"