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Skrillex Praises ‘Virtuoso’ Justin Bieber: ‘He’ll School You At Everything’

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 21:38 PST, Jul 19, 2015

Skrillex recently said some refreshingly nice things about Justin Bieber to Billboard.

Otherwise known as Sonny Moore, he and Jack Ü partner, Diplo, collaborated with Bieber on “Where Are U Now.” Their single has just gone platinum in the U.S., and is now No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. In short, the track is the biggest U.S. hit for both EDM titans to date.

As a result, Skrillex and Diplo are now working with the Canadian on his upcoming new album. Billboard asked Skrillex to dish on what the world “doesn’t know” about the much-talked about superstar.

“Justin is a f*****g virtuoso,” Sonny revealed, adding, “He’ll school you at everything: Ping-Pong, basketball, freestyle rapping. The kid is so competitive.”

He went on, “Whatever he does he’s super good at, so you don’t stand a chance. It’s not even fair.”

Skrillex’s praise of Bieber didn’t stop there. He went on to include the singer, Diplo, and all the artists who featured at his headlining show at Miami’s Ultra Music Festival in March as one of his proudest moments of 2015, largely because they had fun and were “embraced” by the festival crowd despite their nerves beforehand.

He added, “I was on the highest platform with the opportunity to do whatever I wanted — but when you decide to just have fun and wing it, it almost always yields the best stuff.”

After Ultra, Diplo and Skrillex have since hit up studios with Bieber as the trio continue to work with the 21-year-old on his new album, which Kanye West and Rubin are producing.

Following a June studio date between Skrillex and Justin, they posted friendly messages and pics on Instagram.

“Love this guy,” the Biebs wrote alongside his black-and-white pic of the pair.

https://instagram.com/p/4X_jkLgvhD/

Meanwhile, Skrillex captioned his shot,”ü ri now.”

https://instagram.com/p/4YGE3pyaBR/?taken-by=skrillex

Fast forward to July, it sounds as if the creative juices are still flowing. While speaking to Martha Stewart for a cover story with Interview magazine, Bieber revealed that studio life is coming along nicely.

“The new album’s going really well,” Justin enthused. “I’m working a lot with Skrillex and Diplo and this guy named Poo Bear, who’s an incredible writer. We’ve just been getting our groove.”

He added, “You kind of go through a period where you’re in there and nothing comes and nothing comes, and then, finally, it’s like bang-bang-bang—you get them all in a row. I’m at a place where I’m really happy and I’m ready to share my music.”

Asked by Stewart whether his new album will be romantic, Bieber said it’s “very personal.” He went on, “Skrillex is on a really new wave and has found a way to take my vocals and mix them, and play with them, and pitch it up to make it higher with these cool effects that sound really futuristic. We have a really good chemistry.”

Justin later retweeted an Entertainment Tonight report about Skrillex’s shout-out, then sent a message to the producer-DJ and ET, writing, “@etnow love that guy @Skrillex.”

Skrillex’s praise of Bieber comes just days after Diplo clarified a remark he made in an interview in which he — at first — seemed to call the singer a “jerk.”

MTV later reported, “Diplo, for instance, went semi-jerk mode on Justin Bieber in a recent Rolling Stone interview by calling the Biebs a ‘rich kid’ who by occupational expectations ‘[has] to be a jerk.’ ”

Diplo subsequently directed two angry tweets to the Twitter account of the J14 magazine website (over its report headlined “Yikes: Dipo Calls Justin Bieber A ‘Jerk'”) accusing the site of “cheap journalism” and “clickbait.” The Major Lazer head also shared an Instagram post to Bieber, in which he said the singer is “a homie and i respect him immensely…”

For his part, the Biebs replied like any homie, then ended his tweets on the topic with a reference to the new platinum U.S. status of “Where Are U Now,” which is a near-perfect way to send a message of solidarity.

Is that yet another example of what Skrillex means by “He’ll school you at everything?”

Justin Bieber And Jack U's 'Where Are U Now " Goes To Radio On April 21

[Images via Getty Images]

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