William Sami Étienne Grigahcine (French: [wiljam sami etjɛn ɡʁiɡasin]; born 13 June 1986), known professionally as DJ Snake, is a French DJ and record producer from Paris. He was born to Algerian parents in Paris and grew up in Ermont, a district outside Paris, which he describes as a ghetto. He started DJ-ing at age 14, and later producing at 19 years old. In his early career, DJ Snake performed at clubs. In 2005, he met his manager Steve Goncalves, who encouraged DJ Snake to begin creating his own music.
In 2011, DJ Snake produced for Lady Gaga’s album Born This Way. 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” and many ,more in succeeding years.DJ Snake debuted finally into the international scene with singles “Bird Machine” and “Turn Down for What” in 2013. “Bird Machine” is a collaboration with fellow French musician Alesia. In February 2014, DJ Snake and Dillon Francis released “Get Low”as the lead single from Francis’s debut studio album Money Sucks, Friends Rule. Both “Get Low” and “Turn Down for What” were featured on the Furious 7 motion picture soundtrack.The inclusion of “Get Low” on the soundtrack helped the song re-enter the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic chart while DJ Snake re-entered the Billboard Artist 100.
No 4: “You Know You Like It” Remix ( a fusion of European dance music and hip hop beats)
DJ Snake was announced to be working on a collaboration with Diplo, originally slated to debut in 2014; it eventually released in 2015 as the single “Lean On” in collaboration with MØ and Diplo’s Major Lazer. On 30 April 2014, DJ Snake was labeled as an “Artist to Watch” by FoxWeekly. In December 2014, DJ Snake’s remix of the AlunaGeorge song “You Know You Like It” was released on Island Records peaking at #1 on Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay and Rhythmic Songs charts, at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2015.
In November 2015, the song received RIAA double-platinum certification. For the remix, DJ Snake used a fusion of European dance music and hip hop beats. In summary, he did a lot of collaborations between 2013 and 2015 before releasing his
next single “Middle” on 16 October 2015. The song features the vocals from English singer Bipolar Sunshine with music video premiered on in March 2016 on DJ Snake’s YouTube account on Vevo. In June 2016, the single “Talk” was released -the same month he announced the that his debut studio album, titled Encore would released early 1st week August. “Middle” and “Talk” are singles from the album.
No 3: “Let Me Love You”, featuring Canadian singer Justin Bieber (third single off the album Encore) won Billboard Music Awards Best Music Video in 2017
No 2: “Taki Taki” featuring Selena Gomez, Cardi B and Ozuna.
On 2nd January 2017, DJ Snake started promoting the album’s fourth single “The Half”, featuring Jeremih, Young Thug and Swizz Beatz. In March 2018, Billboard named DJ Snake as number nine on their 2018 ranking of dance musicians titled Billboard Dance 100.His single Magenta Riddim was released in summer of 2018 while announcing via his social media platforms that he’ll be releasing a new song later that year. The track was later released on 28 September 2018 titled “Taki Taki” featuring Selena Gomez, Cardi B and Ozuna.
No 1: Turn Down for What” (with Lil Jon)
nominated at the 2015 Grammy Awards under Best Music Video in 2015
Won Billboard Music Awards in the category Top Dance/Electronic Song the same category “You Know You Like It” (with AlunaGeorge) was Nominated
FACTS
In his youth, DJ Snake produced graffiti art, earning him the moniker “Snake” because he was able to consistently evade the police. Of his name, DJ Snake 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. And a co-producer for the song “Government Hooker” off the album. This earned him a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in February 2012
