Diplo was a tiny fleck in the Maryland sky, getting bigger and bigger.
When the skydiving DJ finally parachuted into the infield of Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course for a performance ahead of the 144th Preakness Stakes last month, he landed in a metaphor. Here was a musical tourist who had stacked cold millions by parachuting into other genres — a guy who once confess-bragged that Rihanna told him his production work sounded like “a reggae song at an airport.”
But he had a magnificent new song in his pocket. It was called “So Long,” and it featured Cam, a recent Nashville expat who sings with heart-atomizing precision. Together, the pair had created the most impeccable twangy-boom-boom since the KLF persuaded Tammy Wynette to sing “Justified and Ancient” in 1991.
Just a few weeks earlier, Diplo had gone country, delivering a grand-finale DJ set at Stagecoach, California’s starriest country music festival. Joining Lil Nas X and Bruce Springsteen in the great cowboy cosplay craze of 2019, he wore a fuchsia Nudie suit spangled in dinosaurs and UFOs.
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For at least a quarter century, the union between club music and country music had felt particularly unholy. The late Swedish EDM wunderkind Avicii tried to bridge the divide between honky-tonk populism and rave-culture communion in 2013 with “Hey Brother” and “Wake Me Up” — songs that exuded an old-timey futurism that ultimately rendered them corny and inert. Since then, most collaborations between EDM producers and country acts have been garish (“Sun Turns Cold” by Gazzo and Chase Rice), bland (“One Right Thing” by Marshmello and Kane Brown), or garishly bland (“Something Better” by Audien and Lady Antebellum).
Share this articleShareThe reason “So Long” works so well is simple: Diplo stays out of the way. “I know you’re fine doing life on your own,” Cam sings to a stubborn flame. “But that doesn’t mean you should spend it alone.” An electronic kick drum thumps politely beneath her boots. Synthetic fiddles weave in and out. Every phantom instrument in the mix supports the narrator’s pleading voice. Instead of overloading the track with detonative bass and synthesizer filigree, Diplo seems to understand that a country song is a story — and he lets Cam tell it.
By respecting her voice, the tourist does right by Cam after Nashville has failed her. Back in 2015, she had the most paralyzing country ballad of the decade with “Burning House.” But due to the systemic misogyny that governs country radio, the song peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s country airplay chart. (For a woman in Nashville, being anything less than No. 1 just isn’t worth the industry’s investment.) In 2018, Cam was shuffled from Sony Music Nashville to RCA New York. She hasn’t released an album in three years.
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That makes “So Long” a heartbreaker in more ways than one. Listen to its lyrics and you’ll hear a woman trying to convince a man of her worth entirely on his terms. Listen to Cam’s wounded voice float over that club-happy pulse and you’ll hear a singer broadening the boundaries of country music entirely on hers.
Will anyone even notice? This is a song that could change things. As of right now, it’s poised to go down in history as a stamp on some sky diver’s passport.
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