There are some artists who explode on the music scene with a fierceness that they overshadow everyone else. William Grigahcine, better known as DJ Snake, is a French DJ, rapper and producer, who’s songs pretty much dominated the festival scene during 2015. With his knack of getting the crowd to groove to his tunes, many EDM artists apart from himself have picked up his songs and used them in their sets.
Yay Area 🍄
Hip Hop’s strong influence on his music philosophy is apparent in the way his beats and lyrics keep showing up in his productions. The influence of hip hop in his music is deep rooted since childhood – he lived in Paris in a self-described ‘ghetto’, was influenced by artists like KRS-One and Cypress Hill and was heavily into graffiti art.
Before getting into creating original music, DJ Snake produced Lady Gaga’s album Born This Way and ended up getting nominated for a Grammy for Album Of The Year. He was still relatively unknown on the music scene when he received this nomination and came to prominence with his original track – “Bird Machine”.
In 2013, when he released this bird-happy song with an unusual drop and even more unusual sound, it caught the attention of Diplo’s label Mad Decent and they decided to release it. Done in collaboration with fellow French act Alesia, the single garnered a positive response amongst the fans of trap and hip-hop. He followed it with the explosive sound of ‘Together’. Both the songs with their unique drops ensured that DJ Snake was not ignored by the industry.
Apart from his originals in 2013, he also remixed songs by quite a few artists – Kanye West, Duck Sauce, Major Lazer amongst others – and added his newly discovered sound to the tracks. Diplo also invited him in June 2013, to play on his radio show – Diplo & Friends.
While Bird Machine was definitely appreciated, DJ Snake burst into the HipHop, Electro House scene with his tracks ‘Turn Down For What’ with Lil Jon & ‘Get Low’ with Dillon Francis. Both the tracks fit perfectly for the 7th movie in the Fast and Furious franchise and went on to become representative songs for Punk’s encroachment into EDM. While both songs made it to Billboard Top 100, ‘Turn Down For What’ was declared platinum in March 2014. By now, DJ Snake’s signature sound was almost established and people had started appreciating it.
With his hip-hop sound established and recognized, he and Dillon Francis became the alternating supporting artists for Skrillex on his Mothership Tour 2014 where DJ Snake performed live sets and added to his fame. He also performed at EDC, Las Vegas in 2014. His live sets are full of energy, improvised mixes and might we say, quite unexpected. He knows how to read the crowd and what to play to get them moving. He dropped Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ at the end of his Ultra Miami 2014 set – and people loved it.
Following his claim to fame with the hip hop tracks and his live performances, DJ Snake proved that he’s as good with mixing female vocals as he is with strong hip hop performances. His songs “You Know You Like It” with AlunaGeorge and “Lean On” with Major Lazer and MØ were massive hits with the latter receiving Platinum status. Lean On has since gone on to become the festival anthem for all major EDM festivals in 2015. These days it is unheard of an artist who doesn’t play Lean On in his live set.
DJ Snake’s latest song in ‘Middle’, with Bipolar Sunshine’s soulful vocals and the pop cross-over feeling, was released last month. The song has been catching fire lately with full potential to become the next major festival anthem – especially because of its lyrics and chilled out drop. If it does, we’re sure to dub DJ Snake the next “Festival Anthem Specialist”.
Catch DJ Snake as he tours India in November with R3hab, Chuckie, Matisse & Sadko and more for Sunburn’s ‘On The Road to Goa’ city festivals in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Leave a Reply