One of the most prolific, hard-working and humble producers in the game is without a doubt William Grigahcine, aka France’s DJ Snake. He recently lifted the veil on his impressive album ‘Carte Blanche’, a true homage to his French upbringing. Now he gets up close and personal in a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, discussing his childhood, tough early days as an artist and the toll of tour life. You’ll also find out how he turned down a song with Rihanna to keep it for his album and avoiding drugs, through to his struggles to music where he used up stolen credit cards to pay for flights to LA and sleep on couches.
DJ Snake‘s roots started in hip-hop, he had early success in pop (with lady Gaga), and found stardom in electronic music. Looking at his smash writing streak it seems he’s now found a perfect sweet spot in the middle of all three, and ‘Carte Blanche’ illustrates that perfectly. In the interview, he explains he owes a lot of this to his upbringing in the outskirts of Paris, where he built the roots of his sound. “I grew up outside of Paris, like in pretty bad area, and we grew up all together. Every type of people every colors, every religion. We grew up together and you can tell like on my album there was reggae, there was Indian music. You have music from Brazil. From everywhere. My mom’s Arab. My Dad is French. So me, I’m a mix. and this is just like the City of Paris. It’s a big mashup, you know what I’m saying? “.
From his local neighbourhood in Ermont to LA, Grigahcine also talks about how his day one crew of friends are still with him today and revealing that “there’s no boss” among them, everyone’s equal. He also reveals that he’s never drank alcohol, although that doesn’t mean his crew don’t enjoy the party life of the road.
DJ Snake also recalls his early days in the music industry and how he found himself meeting the greatest French producers while hustling at a record shop selling their records, this is how the likes of David Guetta, Bob Sinclair, Busy P and Daft Punk first encountered him. Now his name is cemented amongst them if not because of his new album, the fact he performed atop the countries Arc de Triomphe. DJ Snake’s story that proves hard work and humility pays off if you’re willing to give it all up for the game.
If you’ve not heard Carte Blanche, it features Majid Jordan, J Balvin, ZHU, Selena Gomez, GASHI, Offset amongst many more across 17 epic tracks.