Now Diplo is reaching even higher and wider. In the last few years, his DJ sets have become blowout bacchanals of celebrity cameos, strobe lights, and confetti in the biggest clubs in the world. And in just the past few months, he released an album with Skrillex as the superduo Jack Ü; he produced songs off Madonna’s latest album, Rebel Heart; and wrapped a third Major Lazer album to be released this spring, (to be accompanied by a cartoon). He also has a stream on SoundCloud and a show on BBC Radio 1 that he hosts, and of course he’s as active as ever in the club circuit (including a residency at the Wynn in Vegas). It’s just as he said with the title of a 2014 compilation: Random White Dude Be Everywhere.

As Diplo tells the producer Zen master Rick Rubin, he can imagine quieter paths ahead—a home in Malibu, a place in the Florida swamps—but right now, his globe-trotting life is just too fun, and too fulfilling, to slow down.

DIPLO: I remember being here with you at your house, like, five years ago maybe. If I walk outside my studio is in Burbank, it’s just like a bunch of kung-fu studios and gun shops; it’s not like the beach. You let me ride your scooter. I forget who I was with. Maybe it was Switch? I honestly don’t remember what we were meeting about then. Maybe we were meeting—

RICK RUBIN: Just to meet! I think Kevin [Kusatsu] hooked it up.

DIPLO: Yeah. That’s cool that you still seem to be part of Kevin’s life, too.

RUBIN: I love Kevin. How did you originally come in contact with him?

DIPLO: I had no manager. I was just a DJ starting to make music, and Kevin got wind of my shows in Philadelphia and other things I was doing …

RUBIN: So that far back—to Philly!

DIPLO: Yeah. Kevin worked as a manager for me for, like, a year without getting paid. Back then I didn’t pay taxes, and I bought a house just on the cash I made from doing DJ gigs. I was like, “What do I need a manager for?” And then Kevin showed me what he could do. We’ve been doing that for about ten years.

RUBIN: It’s cool that you found somebody that you trust early on.

DIPLO: I see so many people change managers all the time, and with Kevin, we’re partners in the brand of me.

RUBIN: So tell me what’s been going on?

DIPLO: Skrillex and I put out a song today with Missy, she jumped on the remix, and then next week we’re just going to flash drop the whole album that we’re doing. We don’t really feel it’s necessary to promote anymore—like the old days of marketing a record leading up to the release.