--- title: Rihanna Told Diplo His Music Belonged in an Airport description: The Major Lazer producer opened up about his attempts to get Rihanna to feature on one of his tracks — so far, to no avail. canonical: https://time.com/4891732/rihanna-diplo-music/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-08T18:57:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:14.143Z og:title: Rihanna Had Hilariously Harsh Feedback for Diplo og:description: Quite a burn from the "Wild Thoughts" queen to the "Lean On" DJ og:url: https://time.com/4891732/rihanna-diplo-music/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e343c2c2fb33c89/6988d8ddbc6cfca34a3e2926/rihanna-valerian.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets" European Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rihanna Had Hilariously Harsh Feedback for Diplo twitter:description: Quite a burn from the "Wild Thoughts" queen to the "Lean On" DJ twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e343c2c2fb33c89/6988d8ddbc6cfca34a3e2926/rihanna-valerian.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rihanna Had a Hilariously Unfiltered Opinion About Where Diplo's Music Belonged  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 8, 2017 6:57 PM UTC  LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 24: Rihanna attends the "Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets" European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on July 24, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage) LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 24: Rihanna attends the "Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets" European Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on July 24, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)Karwai Tang—WireImage  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 8, 2017 6:57 PM UTC [World famous DJ Diplo](http://time.com/4800177/major-lazer-diplo-know-no-better/) — you’ve definitely heard his hits with his Major Lazer team like [“Lean On”](http://time.com/4108974/spotify-major-lazer-dj-snake-lean-on/) with MØ or “Cold Water” with Justin Bieber — still has one artist he’d very much like to get to feature on one of his songs: [Rihanna](http://time.com/4884160/rihanna-malawi-bikes/), of course. But in an extensive new [interview with _GQ_](http://www.gq.com/story/diplo-africa-tour-interview), the idiosyncratic producer admitted that it’s been challenging to get the “Wild Thoughts” singer to work with him. “She’s like the one artist that we can’t ever get,” he said. That’s not to say he hasn’t been in a studio with Rihanna trying to make something happen. But the queen of [costumes](http://time.com/4862468/rihanna-dess-valerian-red-carpet/) and [living her best life](http://time.com/4816227/rihanna-nba-finals-memes/) was apparently less than impressed with what Diplo brought to the session. “She was like, ‘This sounds like a reggae song at an airport,'” he told GQ about her response after he played her a tune. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna go kill myself.'” Harsh, RiRi, harsh. This wasn’t his first attempt at getting Rihanna to bring in the vocals, either. He’d also shared “Lean On” with her, the song that would go on to become Spotify’s [most-streamed](http://time.com/4108974/spotify-major-lazer-dj-snake-lean-on/) track in 2015\. Her response to that one? “She was like, ‘I don’t do house music,'” according to Diplo. (That said, Rihanna did seem fine working with producer [Calvin Harris](http://time.com/4559308/calvin-harris-thanks-taylor-swift-rihanna/) on”This Is What You Came For” and her 2011 hit “We Found Love,” both massive tracks that most would indeed classify as “house music,” or at least as EDM-adjacent.) In the meantime, Diplo’s been eschewing more mainstream events to travel the world and play in unusual destinations for U.S. DJs like Lagos, Kathmandu, and Kampala. With luck, his tour of the globe will inspire him to bring something new to Rihanna for next time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4891732/rihanna-diplo-music/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4891732/rihanna-diplo-music/"},"headline":"Rihanna Had a Hilariously Unfiltered Opinion About Where Diplo's Music Belonged","datePublished":"2017-08-08T18:57:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:14.143Z","description":"The Major Lazer producer opened up about his attempts to get Rihanna to feature on one of his tracks — so far, to no avail.","url":"https://time.com/4891732/rihanna-diplo-music/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","Rihanna"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e343c2c2fb33c89/6988d8ddbc6cfca34a3e2926/rihanna-valerian.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e343c2c2fb33c89/6988d8ddbc6cfca34a3e2926/rihanna-valerian.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets\" European Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals","caption":"\"Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets\" European Premiere - Red Carpet Arrivals","creditText":"Karwai Tang—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4891732/rihanna-diplo-music/","name":"Rihanna Had a Hilariously Unfiltered Opinion About Where Diplo's Music Belonged"}}]}] ```