Chapter 1: Snake Oil is the second studio album by American DJ and musician Diplo, released under his country music alias Thomas Wesley. The album was released through Mad Decent and Columbia Records on May 29, 2020. It features collaborations by Orville Peck, Cam, Morgan Wallen, the Jonas Brothers, Thomas Rhett, Young Thug, Blanco Brown, Noah Cyrus, Julia Michaels, Clever, Zac Brown, Danielle Bradbery, Ben Burgess, Lil Nas X, and Billy Ray Cyrus. The album also serves as Diplo's first solo studio album in 16 years.
Background Diplo (born Thomas Wesley Pentz) grew up in Florida listening to both country music and hip-hop in equal measure. He has described watching Rap City on BET and CMT back-to-back after school and being “as obsessed with Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson as I was with Wu-Tang [Clan] and Dr. Dre.” The project under his real name was conceived as a way to explore country music from an outsider’s perspective while retaining his electronic production style.
In a later interview, Diplo admitted he “didn’t really know what [he] was doing” with the project at the time, but felt country was a genre that “could really do without my help.” He had been writing songs that leaned toward country while working in dance and pop, and the Thomas Wesley alias became a vehicle to release them. The album’s title references the historical “snake oil” salesmen of the American West, reflecting a self-aware approach to genre experimentation.
The project’s public origins trace back to Diplo’s 2019 Stagecoach Festival appearance, where he performed a Late Night dance set and debuted his remix of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Old Town Road.” That remix and the surrounding cultural moment around “yeehaw” aesthetics helped open the door for the full album.
Release and promotion Diplo announced the album and its full track listing on April 20, 2020, via social media, with the caption “my kind of country will unite us all.” The project was positioned as the first chapter in a series under the Thomas Wesley name.
The album was released on May 29, 2020. To celebrate the release, Diplo hosted a special livestream edition of his variety show “The Thomas Wesley Show,” featuring guest appearances from collaborators including Cam, Julia Michaels, the Jonas Brothers, Orville Peck, Thomas Rhett, and Zac Brown. The event was sponsored by Tequila Don Julio and Wrangler, with Chipotle hosting an afterparty that distributed free burrito codes.
Singles The lead single, “So Long” (with Cam), was released on April 24, 2019. “Lonely” (with the Jonas Brothers) followed on September 27, 2019. “Heartless” (featuring Morgan Wallen) was released on January 31, 2020; an alternate version with Julia Michaels was also issued and later included on the album. Diplo’s remix of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Old Town Road” also appears on the project and had been performed live at Stagecoach and the 2020 Grammy Awards.
Critical reception
Chapter 1: Snake Oil was met with generally mixed to unfavorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the release received an average score of 46, based on 9 reviews.
Track listing
Notes indicates a miscellaneous producer. Personnel Musicians
Diplo – drums , programming , remixer King Henry – bass , drums , guitar , programming Thomas Lea – violin Charlie Handsome – guitar Diablo – programming Jr Blender – drums and programming Ryan Tedder – drums and programming Maximilian Jaeger – drum machine , drums , programming , guitar , keyboards Philip von Boch Scully – drums and programming William John Wilde – harmonica MØ – vocals Orville Peck – bass, guitar, and piano Tommy Brenneck – piano Matt Zara – guitar Great Dane – drums and programming Jocelyn "Jozzy" Donald – background vocals
Technical
Eric Lagg – mastering Joe LaPorta – mastering Chris Gehringer – mastering Maximilian Jaeger – mixing , recording Sean Moffitt – mixing Serban Ghenea – mixing A Bainz – mixing Zaq Reynolds – recording Analog in the Digital – recording King Henry – recording Cinco – recording Ernesto Olvera-LaPier – engineering Joey Moi – engineering John Hanes – engineering Rich Rich – engineering Joe Grasso – engineering Lindsay Marias – vocal production Ryan Tedder – vocal production Hauf – vocal production Benjamin Rice – vocal production Andrew "VoxGod" Bolooki – vocal production Jocelyn "Jozzy" Donald – vocal production Jesse Brock – engineering assistance
Charts
Weekly charts +Chart performance for Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil Chart (2020) Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) 83
Year-end charts +2020 year-end chart performance for Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil Chart (2020) Position Australian Top Country Albums (ARIA) 16 US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 37 +2021 year-end chart performance for Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil Chart (2021) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 60 +2023 year-end chart performance for Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil Chart (2023) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 57 +2024 year-end chart performance for Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil Chart (2024) Position US Top Country Albums (Billboard) 64 +2024 year-end chart performance for Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 2: Swamp Savant Chart (2024) Position Australian Country Albums (ARIA) 96
Certifications
References