Diplo Working on New Madonna Track Called “Bitch, I’m Madonna”


Temple alum and Mad Decent Block Party creator Diplo gets the cover story treatment in the latest issue of Billboard magazine. The article is a quick retrospective of his career thus far, touching on his time in Philly at the helm of the Hooked on Hollertronix parties. He also talks about what’s in store for his career, including working on a few new tracks with the Queen of Pop:

Diplo and [frequent collaborator Ariel] Rechtshaid have been in the studio with Madonna for three sessions in New York so far, and are clearly psyched about how the tracks are coming along. “I think three are just like amazing, smashes,” says Diplo. “One is super weird. Late one night in the studio we got a little bit drunk and she improvised a little hook and we made a song out of it. I think it’s going to be a breakthrough if she can manage to get everything together and get it out properly.” (So what does Madonna drink in the studio? “Rosé. It was nice. I don’t think she really drinks, either.”)

The pair linked up earlier this year, when Madonna invited Diplo to her Oscar party. He couldn’t go, but they began texting, and Diplo eventually sent her some music to check out, not really expecting her to take it seriously. “She wrote me back like a 20-page text, notes about all these songs,” says Diplo, still sounding surprised. She gravitated to the hook of a track that Diplo crafted with MNEK, a London songwriter who worked on the Disclosure album. When it became a Madonna song, Rechtshaid and MNEK went back into the studio to work out the verses. “That’s what I was talking to Ariel about,” says Diplo. “I need those verses. I want to wrap that up. That song is on like version 20. It went from a piano ballad to a ‘Turn Down for What’-style song, which I didn’t like. Now it’s somewhere in the middle, which is a more pop record.”

According to Pink is the New Blog, one of the tracks in question is called “Bitch, I’m Madonna,” which pretty much confirms Madge is sticking with her sigh-worthy teeny-bop pop formula.

Check out a video of Diplo’s photoshoot with Billboard, and read the rest of the interview here.