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Major Lazer is an international electronic project created by American DJ and producer Diplo and British producer Switch. Formed in 2008 and making its debut a year later, Major Lazer built its sound around a combination of dancehall, reggae, electronic dance music, hip-hop, soca, reggaeton, Afrobeats, Brazilian funk and amapiano. The lineup changed several times over the years: after Switch left, Walshy Fire and Jillionaire joined Diplo; in 2019, Jillionaire was replaced by Ape Drums; and in 2025, British-Jamaican singer America Foster became a permanent member.
Major Lazer’s best-known tracks include Pon De Floor, Get Free, Watch Out for This (Bumaye), Lean On, Powerful, Light It Up, Cold Water, Run Up, Know No Better, Sua Cara, Particula, Que Calor and Rave de Favela. The project achieved its greatest worldwide success in the mid-2010s with Lean On featuring DJ Snake and MØ and Cold Water featuring Justin Bieber and MØ, but its story began much earlier — within the Jamaican dancehall scene.
The Creation of Major Lazer and the Jamaica Sessions
Before Major Lazer, Diplo and Switch had already worked with M.I.A. and contributed to material from the period surrounding her album Kala. Several musical ideas remained unused after those sessions. Their shared interest in contemporary Jamaican music eventually brought the producers to Kingston, where the concept for a new project began to take shape.
The debut album was recorded over approximately three weeks at the legendary Tuff Gong Studios, closely associated with Bob Marley and his family. Diplo and Switch worked directly with artists from the Jamaican scene, including Vybz Kartel, Mr. Lexx, Mr. Vegas, T.O.K., Ms. Thing and Turbulence. The producers combined characteristic dancehall rhythms with electronic music, house, reggae and more experimental studio processing.
At the same time, Major Lazer’s visual identity was created. Artist Ferry Gouw designed a fictional Jamaican commando who lost an arm during an imaginary war against zombies in 1984 and received a laser weapon in its place. The character became the central figure of album covers, music videos and, later, a dedicated animated series.
Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do
On June 16, 2009, Major Lazer released its debut album Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do. Its 13 tracks combined dancehall, reggae, dub and electronic club music. Guests included Santigold, Mr. Lexx, Vybz Kartel, Nina Sky, Amanda Blank, T.O.K., Mr. Vegas and other artists. The album reached No. 7 on Billboard Top Electronic Albums.
One of its central tracks was Pon De Floor featuring Vybz Kartel, with additional production associated with Afrojack. The track spread widely through clubs and had an impact far beyond Major Lazer’s own catalogue: its musical foundation was later used by Beyoncé in Run the World (Girls).
Major Lazer’s early shows differed noticeably from conventional electronic producer performances. Jamaican dancer and MC Skerrit Bwoy played an important role, while the shows themselves were built around constant interaction with the audience, dancing and Caribbean party aesthetics. Gradually, what had begun as a studio collaboration between Diplo and Switch evolved into a fully fledged touring group.
A New Lineup: Walshy Fire and Jillionaire
In 2011, Switch left Major Lazer’s permanent lineup. Diplo was joined by Walshy Fire and Trinidadian DJ Jillionaire. The new configuration strengthened the project’s Caribbean side: Walshy Fire had deep ties to Jamaican sound-system culture, while Jillionaire brought in influences from Trinidadian music, especially soca.
One of the first major songs from the new Major Lazer lineup was Get Free, featuring vocals from Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors. Released in 2012, the track differed sharply from the aggressive Pon De Floor: its relaxed reggae rhythm and melancholic vocal revealed a more melodic, song-oriented side of the project.
Free the Universe
On April 15, 2013, Major Lazer released its second studio album Free the Universe. The standard version contained 14 tracks and featured collaborations with Santigold, Vybz Kartel, Danielle Haim, Wyclef Jean, Bruno Mars, Tyga, Shaggy, Busy Signal, Amber Coffman and other musicians.
The key tracks included Get Free and Watch Out for This (Bumaye) with Busy Signal, The Flexican and FS Green. The latter became one of Major Lazer’s most recognisable live tracks and significantly expanded the group’s audience on the European festival circuit. The album also featured Bubble Butt with Bruno Mars, Tyga and Mystic, and Jessica with Ezra Koenig.
In February 2014, the EP Apocalypse Soon was released. Its five tracks featured Pharrell Williams, Sean Paul, RDX, Moska and Machel Montano. The short project acted as a bridge between the more experimental Free the Universe and the period that followed, when Major Lazer moved into the global pop market.
Lean On and the Global Breakthrough
The major commercial turning point came in 2015. Together with French producer DJ Snake and Danish singer MØ, Major Lazer recorded Lean On. The song appeared on the third album, Peace Is the Mission, released on June 1, 2015.
Lean On was built around sparse percussion, an unusual synthesizer motif and MØ’s memorable vocal performance. In the United States, the track reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 48 weeks on the chart. By the end of 2015, it had become the most-streamed song in Spotify history at that time and the service’s most popular track of the entire year.
Peace Is the Mission consisted of nine songs. Alongside Lean On, it included Powerful with Ellie Goulding and Tarrus Riley, Be Together with Wild Belle, Blaze Up the Fire with Chronixx and other tracks. A later expanded edition delivered another major hit, Light It Up with Nyla and Fuse ODG.
Major Lazer as an Animated Project
In April 2015, the animated series Major Lazer premiered on FXX, expanding the story of the project’s fictional hero. The action took place in a fantastical future, with Major Lazer acting as a protector of the inhabitants of a dystopian Jamaica. Ferry Gouw continued to shape the visual world of the series. Voice actors included Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, J.K. Simmons, John Boyega, Aziz Ansari and Charli XCX.
The Havana Concert
In March 2016, Major Lazer played a free concert in Havana that attracted an estimated 400,000 people, according to organisers and media reports. The performance took place during the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States and became one of the largest events in the group’s history.
The preparation for the concert and the performance itself became the basis of the documentary film Give Me Future, which explored not only Major Lazer’s live show but also the group’s interaction with Cuba’s musical environment.
Cold Water
In July 2016, Major Lazer released Cold Water featuring Justin Bieber and MØ. The track was released as a standalone single and performed even better than Lean On on the US chart, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the United Kingdom, Cold Water reached No. 1.
Lean On and Cold Water established Major Lazer among the biggest international electronic projects of its era. At the same time, the group continued to maintain its connection with Caribbean music and avoided fully shifting into standardised pop production.
Know No Better and New Musical Directions
In January 2017, Major Lazer released Run Up with PARTYNEXTDOOR and Nicki Minaj, followed in the summer by the EP Know No Better. The title track brought together Travis Scott, Camila Cabello and Quavo. The project also featured Sua Cara with Anitta and Pabllo Vittar and Particula with DJ Maphorisa, Nasty C, Ice Prince, Patoranking and Jidenna.
Collaborations with Brazilian and African artists continued the principle Major Lazer had established in Jamaica: the project did not build its music around a single genre, but around rhythmic traditions from different countries. In the following years, releases included Let Me Live with Rudimental, Anne-Marie and Mr Eazi, Blow That Smoke with Tove Lo and Loyal with Kizz Daniel and Kranium.
Ape Drums and Another Lineup Change
In 2019, after eight years as a member of Major Lazer, Jillionaire left the group. He was replaced by American producer Ape Drums, who had already been working at the intersection of dancehall and contemporary electronic music. The new lineup — Diplo, Walshy Fire and Ape Drums — continued work on the fourth studio album.
During the same period, Major Lazer appeared on Already, a collaboration between Beyoncé and Ghanaian artist Shatta Wale from the project The Lion King: The Gift. Another major standalone single was Que Calor with J Balvin and El Alfa, released in September 2019 and combining reggaeton with Dominican dembow.
Music Is the Weapon
On October 23, 2020, Major Lazer released its fourth studio album Music Is the Weapon, the group’s first full-length project with Ape Drums. Contributors included Alessia Cara, Busy Signal, Joeboy, French Montana, BEAM, Shenseea, Mr Eazi, Nicki Minaj, Khalid, Marcus Mumford, Skip Marley, Anitta, MC Lan, Paloma Mami, Nucleya, Rashmeet Kaur, J Balvin and El Alfa.
Key tracks from the album included Hell and High Water, Lay Your Head on Me, Can't Take It From Me, Rave de Favela, QueLoQue, Jadi Buti and Que Calor. In terms of featured artists and languages, Music Is the Weapon became the group’s most geographically wide-ranging album up to that point.
The expanded edition Music Is the Weapon (Reloaded) brought Major Lazer its first Grammy nomination: at the 2022 ceremony, the project was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album. It did not win; the Recording Academy’s official statistics for Major Lazer stand at one nomination and no Grammy wins.
Piano Republik
In 2023, Major Lazer joined forces with South African duo Major League DJz for the album Piano Republik. The project was built around amapiano, the South African style characterised by deep bass, keyboard lines and distinctive rhythmic patterns. Contributors included Ty Dolla $ign, Channel Tres, Tyla, Joeboy, Tiwa Savage, DJ Maphorisa and other artists.
Piano Republik continued Major Lazer’s international approach, but it was created through full-scale collaboration with musicians directly connected to the South African scene rather than as an outside imitation of an established sound.
Returning to the Debut Era and a New Lineup
In 2024, Major Lazer marked the 15th anniversary of its debut album with an expanded edition of Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do. Diplo worked on the project again with Switch, who handled new mastering of archival material. The edition included previously unreleased tracks Pon De Streets, Nobody Move with Vybz Kartel and Where's the Daddy? with M.I.A.
The next lineup change came in 2025. British-Jamaican singer America Foster joined Diplo, Walshy Fire and Ape Drums. She became the first permanent vocalist in Major Lazer’s history.
GYALGEBRA
On November 21, 2025, Major Lazer released the nine-track GYALGEBRA. Because Music describes it as a mixtape and the group’s first major standalone project since Music Is the Weapon. America Foster performed vocals on several tracks, including PEPPA POT and BRUK DOWN. Musically, the release returned Major Lazer to a harder contemporary dancehall sound while retaining elements of soca and Brazilian club music.
On the new recordings, America Foster was no longer a guest voice but a permanent part of Major Lazer’s sound. This direction continued in later collaborations, including RoTATe with Foster, Skillibeng and BEAM, released in the summer of 2026.
Major Lazer’s Musical Style
Dancehall has been the foundation of Major Lazer since the beginning, but no period of the group has been limited to that style alone. On the debut album, dancehall and reggae existed alongside dub, house and electronic music; Free the Universe interacted more heavily with hip-hop and festival dance music; Peace Is the Mission moved closer to pop structures; and later releases incorporated reggaeton, African pop, Brazilian funk and amapiano.
Despite this stylistic breadth, Major Lazer tracks are usually built around a clearly defined rhythmic foundation and the distinctive voice of a featured artist. That is why Pon De Floor with Vybz Kartel, Lean On with MØ, Que Calor with J Balvin and El Alfa and the material from Piano Republik sound very different, yet all retain a shared focus on dance music.
Major Lazer Studio Albums
- Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do — 2009
- Free the Universe — 2013
- Peace Is the Mission — 2015
- Music Is the Weapon — 2020
These four releases make up Major Lazer’s core studio album discography.
Other Important Releases
- Lazers Never Die — 2010, EP
- Apocalypse Soon — 2014, EP
- Peace Is the Mission: Extended — 2015, expanded edition
- Know No Better — 2017, EP
- Music Is the Weapon (Reloaded) — 2021, expanded edition
- Piano Republik — 2023, collaborative album with Major League DJz
- Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do (15th Anniversary Edition) — 2024
- GYALGEBRA — 2025, mixtape
Piano Republik was released as a joint project by Major Lazer and Major League DJz, while GYALGEBRA is officially classified as a mixtape by the label Because Music.
Key Major Lazer Tracks
- Hold the Line — 2009, with Mr. Lexx and Santigold
- Pon De Floor — 2009, with Vybz Kartel
- Get Free — 2012, with Amber Coffman
- Watch Out for This (Bumaye) — 2013, with Busy Signal, The Flexican and FS Green
- Bubble Butt — 2013, with Bruno Mars, Tyga and Mystic
- Lean On — 2015, with DJ Snake and MØ
- Powerful — 2015, with Ellie Goulding and Tarrus Riley
- Light It Up — 2015, with Nyla; best-known version with Fuse ODG
- Cold Water — 2016, with Justin Bieber and MØ
- Run Up — 2017, with PARTYNEXTDOOR and Nicki Minaj
- Know No Better — 2017, with Travis Scott, Camila Cabello and Quavo
- Sua Cara — 2017, with Anitta and Pabllo Vittar
- Particula — 2017, with DJ Maphorisa, Nasty C, Ice Prince, Patoranking and Jidenna
- Blow That Smoke — 2018, with Tove Lo
- Already — 2019, with Beyoncé and Shatta Wale
- Que Calor — 2019, with J Balvin and El Alfa
- Rave de Favela — 2020, with MC Lan, Anitta and BEAM
- Koo Koo Fun — 2023, with Major League DJz, Tiwa Savage and DJ Maphorisa
- Where's the Daddy? — 2024, with M.I.A.
- BRUK DOWN — 2025, with Parris Goebel, America Foster and SadBoi
- RoTATe — 2026, with America Foster, Skillibeng and BEAM
Major Lazer’s Place in Modern Dance Music
Major Lazer emerged at a time when dancehall still rarely formed the foundation of international electronic hits. Diplo and Switch’s debut project was closely connected to Kingston and Jamaican artists, while Pon De Floor carried that aesthetic onto European and American dancefloors. Several years later, Lean On showed another side of the project: music built around Caribbean-influenced rhythms could become a global pop song and one of the defining hits of the streaming era.
Major Lazer’s later history developed the same principle across different musical environments. The group collaborated with artists from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, Ghana, India and South Africa, continually changing its sound together with its partners. Piano Republik moved the project into the world of amapiano, while the arrival of America Foster brought a permanent vocal presence directly into the lineup.
As a result, Major Lazer has established a distinctive position between the electronic club scene and global pop music. The project has changed both lineup and musical centre several times, yet it has retained a connection to the rhythmic cultures from which it grew. That ability to connect dancehall with new electronic music and find natural points of contact between artists from different countries has remained Major Lazer’s most consistent quality — from the first sessions at Tuff Gong to Lean On, Piano Republik and the new lineup with America Foster.
