walking upstream…
DJ Snake
photo: anitiopy · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗DJ Snake
William Sami Étienne Grigahcine grew up in the Paris suburb of Ermont, where a scene of turntablist Cut Killer in the 1995 film La Haine and a diet of American hip-hop pulled him out of graffiti tagging (the source of his 'Snake' nickname) and into DJing at fourteen. After cutting his teeth in Paris clubs and co-producing tracks on Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way' and 'Artpop,' he broke through globally with the 2013 rap-EDM detonation 'Turn Down for What' and the 2015 Major Lazer collaboration 'Lean On,' becoming one of the defining crossover producers of the 2010s. His sound welds French electronic dance music to hip-hop, trap, and moombahton, building festival-scaled drops around guest vocalists and rappers.
the sound in question
2015
Lean OnDJ Snake
walk the tributaries ↓
Daft Punk1990s–2000s · House / French house / Electronic / Disco
DJ Snake has repeatedly credited Daft Punk as the model who proved a kid from France could conquer the music world, describing the duo as the originators of the French Touch that every French producer works in the shadow of. You hear that lineage in his polished, filter-swept electronic drops and his instinct for turning a single synth phrase into an anthem.
listen: upstream & here
2000
One More TimeDaft Punk
2016
Let Me Love YouDJ Snake
listen forPlay Daft Punk's 'One More Time' and then the drop of 'Let Me Love You' — both take a warm, filtered four-on-the-floor pulse and one euphoric melodic phrase and stretch it into a hands-in-the-air release built for a stadium.
Cypress Hill1990s · Hip-hop / West Coast hip-hop / Gangsta rap
Wikipedia's account of his early life names Cypress Hill among the hip-hop acts that shaped him as a teenager, and the group's blunted, bass-heavy boom-bap and squealing hooks map onto the rap DNA underneath his EDM. His productions keep the swing and low-end weight of 90s hip-hop even when the tempo goes full festival.
listen: upstream & here
1993
Insane in the BrainCypress Hill
2013
Turn Down for WhatDJ Snake
listen forCue Cypress Hill's 'Insane in the Brain' against 'Turn Down for What' — both ride a nagging, distorted vocal hook over a heavy, head-nodding low end that dares you to keep still, swapping the rap verse for a build-and-drop while keeping the same menace.
Tupac Shakur1990s · West Coast hip-hop / Conscious hip-hop
DJ Snake has said Tupac's 'All Eyez on Me' was the first album he ever bought and the one record he would keep for life, and that early love of West Coast rap grounds his habit of building tracks as vehicles for a commanding MC. Where many of his dance peers chase pure euphoria, he keeps carving out room for a rapper to take center stage.
listen: upstream & here
1995
California LoveTupac Shakur
2018
Taki TakiDJ Snake
listen forSet the swaggering, talk-box-hooked 'California Love' next to 'Taki Taki' and listen for the same move — the production clears out and hands the song's biggest moment to a rapper's verse (Cardi B here), treating the MC as the star the beat was built to frame.