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Major Lazer is an American electronic dance music trio, which includes record producer Diplo, and DJs Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. It was founded in 2008 by Diplo and Switch, with Switch leaving after three years in 2011. He was then replaced by both Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. Its music spans numerous genres, mixing reggae with dancehall, reggaeton, soca, house and moombahton.
Major Lazer has released three full-length albums: Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do in 2009, Free the Universe in 2013, and Peace is the Mission in 2015. They have also released two EPs: Apocalypse Soon in March 2014, which featured vocal contributions from Pharrell Williams and Sean Paul, and Know No Better in 2017, which featured appearances from Camila Cabello, Quavo, Travis Scott, and J Balvin, among others. Lazer has also notably produced Reincarnated, the debut Reggae album by Snoop Dogg under his "Snoop Lion" persona. In March 2018, Billboard named Major Lazer as number five on their 2018 ranking of dance musicians titled Billboard Dance 100.
Originally made up of DJs Diplo and Switch, the two were introduced while working with M.I.A.. The duo's first album Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do was released on 16 June 2009, on Downtown Records. It was recorded in Jamaica at Tuff Gong Studios. Vocalists such as Santigold, Vybz Kartel, Ward 21, Busy Signal, Nina Sky, Amanda Blank, Mr. Vegas, Turbulence, Mapei, T.O.K, Prince Zimboo, Leftside and others contribute guest vocals to the album, as well as additional production from Afrojack and Crookers. This is the first release to come out of the label partnership between Downtown Records and Diplo's label Mad Decent. Major Lazer ended a US tour summer of 2009.
The album's first single was "Hold the Line", the video for which, directed by Eric Wareheim, was nominated for a MTV Video Award in the Breakthrough Video category. "Hold the Line" was also featured in the video game FIFA 10. The track "Zumbie" has a music video that features comedian Andy Milonakis. Music videos for the songs "Pon de Floor", "Keep It Going Louder", and "Bubble Butt" were directed by Eric Wareheim. In June 2009, Major Lazer were featured for the first time on the cover of the publication The FADER, in its 62nd issue. Major Lazer performed at the Falls Music & Arts Festival (Lorne, Victoria, Australia) on 30 December 2009 and the Coachella Music Festival in April 2010. They also performed at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July 2010 and the Sasquatch Music Festival on Monday 30 May 2011. Live visuals were created by Pomp&Clout. Major Lazer performed at the 2011 Outside Lands festival in San Francisco.
A mixtape with La Roux entitled "Lazerproof" was made available for free download on 26 May. Diplo posted cover art on his Twitpic. It is the character Major Lazer in War Machine's silver suit, Elly Jackson of La Roux in the signature Iron Man suit, and Whiplash, the villain in the Iron Man 2 movie. On 20 June 2010, the group released an EP titled Lazers Never Die. It contained two new songs and three remixes, by Thom Yorke and others. Switch provided production for Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)", which sampled "Pon de Floor". Major Lazer also features in the track, "Look at Where We Are", from the extended version of Hot Chip's album In Our Heads, released June 2011.
Major Lazer's live shows previously included hype man Skerrit Bwoy, although he left the group in 2012 to pursue religion. In 2012, Major Lazer began working with Snoop Dogg to produce some tracks that were to be included on his new reggae project. Along with the project came his new alter ego persona known as "Snoop Lion". Switch left the collaborative effort due to "creative differences" as claimed by Diplo. He departed in late 2011 and was replaced with DJ/Producers Jillionaire and Walshy Fire. Also, Boaz van de Beatz, artist from Mad Decent (record label of Diplo), has collaborated with most of the group albums and is considered a member of the group. In September 2012, Major Lazer announced that its upcoming album, Free the Universe, would be released on 12 March 2013 on Mad Decent. They also announced Fall 2012 tour dates.
On February 8, 2015, during the Grammy Award ceremony, Diplo revealed details of the third Major Lazer album. He confirmed that the album would incorporate artists such as Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding and Pusha T, and would be titled Peace is the Mission.
The first single, "Lean On", was a collaboration with French producer DJ Snake and featured vocals from Danish recording artist MØ. It was released on March 2, 2015. The song was first offered to Rihanna and then Nicki Minaj, who both turned it down; however Major Lazer later expressed that no one could have done a better job than MØ in the recording. The song reached number 4 on the US Billboard's Hot 100 chart and number 2 in the UK charts. It also became Spotify's most streamed song of all time, receiving universally positive reviews while reaching over 2 billion views on YouTube, making it the twelfth most viewed video on the site.
Four promotional singles were released; "Roll the Bass" on March 23, 2015, "Night Riders", a collaboration with Travi$ Scott, 2 Chainz, Pusha T and Mad Cobra, released on April 20, 2015, and "Too Original", a collaboration with Elliphant and Jovi Rockwell, released on May 11, 2015. On June 2, 2015, a lyric video was released for "Be Together", a collaboration with Wild Belle, making it the fourth promotional single.
The second single from the album, titled "Powerful", featured English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding and Jamaican singer Tarrus Riley. It was released simultaneously with the album, and was added to BBC Radio 1's playlist on June 21, 2015. It reached the Top 10 in Australia and Poland.
On July 22, 2016, a new track titled "Cold Water", featuring vocals from MØ and Justin Bieber, was released by Major Lazer. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 1 in several other countries including on the UK Official Charts, making it their most popular single yet. On September 30, 2016, "Believer", a collaboration with Dutch production duo Showtek, was released as the second single from Major Lazer's upcoming fourth album. The album's title, Music is the Weapon, had been announced in May 2015, and was set to have "a few more club songs, a few more festival songs" than Peace is the Mission, but to be "in the same spectrum."
On December 6, 2016, Major Lazer released a promotional single for Music Is the Weapon, titled "My Number". The song is a collaboration with Bad Royale that samples "54-46 That's My Number", which Pitchfork describes as "a genre-defining classic from legendary ska/reggae group Toots and the Maytals." The song contains newly recorded vocals from frontman Toots Hibbert specifically designed for Major Lazer, changing the original lyrics to incorporate the group into the song while keeping the original melody.
On June 1, 2017, Major Lazer released a six-song extended play titled "Know No Better" along with the title track as a single which features Camila Cabello, Travis Scott & Quavo. The EP's second single, "Sua Cara", was later announced. It features Brazilian musicians Anitta and Pabllo Vittar. Several remixes of the EP's title track have since been released.
