About DJ Snake
William Sami Étienne Grigahcine , known by his stage name DJ Snake, is a French DJ and record producer, first achieving international recognition in 2013 by releasing an instrumentation-oriented single called "Turn Down for What" .
He made his international debut with the singles "Bird Machine" and "Turn Down for What" in 2013. "Bird Machine" is a collaboration with fellow French musician Alesia. The single was picked up by Mad Decent, a Los Angeles–based record label run by Diplo.
DJ Snake was announced to be working on a collaboration with Diplo, originally slated to debut in 2014; it released in 2015 as the single "Lean On" in collaboration with MØ and Diplo's Major Lazer. In 2014, DJ Snake was labelled as an "Artist to Watch" by FoxWeekly. He and Dillon Francis were announced as alternating supporting artists for the summer Mothership Tour 2014 with Skrillex. In March 2018, Billboard named DJ Snake as number nine on their 2018 ranking of dance musicians titled Billboard Dance 100.
Grigahcine was born in Paris to Algerian parents and grew up in Ermont, a banlieue district outside Paris, which he describes as a ghetto, though Ermont is not an economically-deprived suburb featuring low-income housing projects. He cites a scene with Cut Killer in the French film La Haine as well as hip-hop artists KRS-One and Cypress Hill as early influences. In his youth, Grigahcine produced graffiti art, earning him the moniker "Snake" because he was able to consistently evade the police. Of his name, Grigahcine says "When I started DJing, everyone called me 'Snake' in my city first, I was like 'DJ Snake, OK let's go for it.' The name sucks, but it's too late now." He started DJing at age 14, and later producing at 19. In his early career, Grigahcine performed at clubs including Les Bains Douches in Paris. In 2005, he met his manager Steve Goncalves, who encouraged Grigahcine to begin creating his own music.
In 2011, DJ Snake produced for Lady Gaga's album Born This Way. This earned him a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in February 2012. DJ Snake was co-producer for the song "Government Hooker", which was voted best song by Lady Gaga fans after the release of the album. This song was supposed to be released as a single before Interscope Records decided to stop the marketing of the album after its release. He remixed Kanye West's "New Slaves", AlunaGeorge's "You Know You Like It", Duck Sauce's "It's You", Major Lazer's "Bubble Butt" and Junior Senior's "Move Your Feet". In 2013, DJ Snake produced three songs with Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair on Lady Gaga's album Artpop including "Applause", "Sexxx Dreams", and "Do What U Want".
DJ Snake and Dillon Francis were alternating supporting artists on the Mothership Tour 2014 with Skrillex. He performed at the 2015 Coachella Music Festival with guest appearances by AlunaGeorge and MØ, who did vocals on "Lean On" with Major Lazer. "Lean On" and DJ Snake's remix of AlunaGeorge's "You Know You Like It" were both top 10 Shazamed songs from Coachella 2015.
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