Born in Paris to Algerian parents, he has lived most of his childhood in the French ghetto. Once a graffiti artist, he earned the nickname "Snake" due to his constant evasion from the police. He started DJing at age 14 under the name DJ Snake, and started producing music at the age of 19.
DJ Snake's music career started out as a behind-the-scenes producer for several hit artists, including Lady Gaga for her albums Born This Way and Artpop. In December 2013, he released his first single, "Turn Down For What", featuring Lil' Jon. The song became a success, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard's Dance Music charts, and even spawned some memes surrounding it. He made a collaboration with Dillon Francis on "Get Low", released in 2014, and collaborated with Major Lazer and MØ on "Lean On", released in 2015. "Lean On" became notable for entering the Top 10 in music charts around the world, and for a while became the most streamed song on Spotify.
DJ Snake released his first studio album in 2016 titled Encore, which featured the single "Let Me Love You" featuring Justin Bieber. Like several of his songs beforehand, it became a big success and charted in Top 10s in several countries. In 2018, he released the collaboration song "Taki Taki" with Ozuna, Cardi B and Selena Gomez. "Taki Taki" was featured in his second studio album, Carte Blanche, and even gained a sequel titled "SG", released in 2021 and features Megan Thee Stallion and BLACKPINK's Lisa in place of Cardi B and Gomez.
DJ Snake is a member of Pardon My French, a music group of four French artists including himself, Tchami, Mercher, and Malaa. He has his own record label, Premiere Classe Records, established in 2018.
Discography
- Encore (2016)
- Carte Blanche (2018)
Turn Down for These Tropes:
- Alternate Music Video: "Taki Taki" has an Animated Music Video as the alternative music video, where the four musicians are portrayed in a pixel art style.
- Artistic License – Gun Safety: "Turn Down For What" features a police officer at a rave pointing his gun casually at several peoples' faces in a "Whatever" kind of pose.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign:
- The title for "Taki Taki" doesn't mean anything at all, it is just created because DJ Snake wanted a title that sounded "exotic".
- "Magenta Riddim"'s lyrics are pure gibberish, although they are made to sound Middle Eastern.
- Boob-Based Gag: In the music video for "Turn Down For What", an older woman's gigantic endowments begin to dance on their own (and banging a counters for good measure), much to the woman's horror and later acceptance. A cop investigating a wild party even gets up close and personal with the dancing mamaries.
- Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: The video for "Turn Down for What" features this. The protagonist, having smashed his way into a woman's apartment through the roof, explodes her clothes off her by pelvic-thrusting in her direction. She then stumbles backwards into her indoor clothesline and emerges wearing another outfit. No, it doesn't make any more sense in context.
- Destructo-Nookie: The "Turn Down for What" music video is about using bodies and people's moving body parts, private parts included, to destroy an entire building while partying in it.
- Genre Mashup: Some of his songs blend trap music (in the EDM sense) with elements of world music, such as "Get Low", "Magenta Riddim", and "Taki Taki".
- Gratuitous Japanese: Ozuna's verse in "Taki Taki" rhymes the name of the motorcycle company Kawasaki with the city of Nagasaki, comparing the explosive force of the atomic bomb dropped on the city to the booty that is blowing up on the dance floor.
- Groin Attack: Hilariously inverted in "Turn Down for What"; not only is the Destructo-Nookie in full effect but the woman at the beginning of the video repeatedly tries this on the guy who literally crashed her apartment only to have it epically no-selled each time.
- Limited Lyrics Song: "Turn Down For What" contains a total of 12 unique words in the song's entire set of lyrics. "Get Low" has even less words, totaling 9 unique words.
- Mating Dance: The chorus of "Taki Taki" suggests that the singer wants a woman to teach him how to dance the rumba, whilst also kissing throughout. The rumba itself is considered one of the most sensual Latin dances due to hip movements and slow rhythms.
- Multilingual Song: Both "Taki Taki" and "SG" contain verses in both Spanish and English.
- "Get Low" and "Disco Maghreb" also contain Arabic lyrics, with both songs being a homage to Snake's Algerian roots.
- Multinational Team:
- "Taki Taki": Snake is French-Algerian, Ozuna is Puerto Rican, Cardi B is Dominican-American, and Selena Gomez is Mexican-American.
- "SG": Snake is French-Algerian, Ozuna is Puerto Rican, Megan Thee Stallion is American, and Lisa is Thai.
- Mystical India: Snake, the members of Major Lazer, and MØ in "Lean On" wear outfits that are inspired by Indian costumes and do a dance inspired by Filmi Music. For an added bonus, the music video is shot in India itself.
- The Power of Friendship: "Lean On" is about this.
- Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: "Taki Taki", where Ozuna keeps dropping the word "booty" in his verse.
- Sunglasses at Night: He is never seen without a pair of sunglasses, and they're often so dark they completely cover his eyes.