There are hits that make you superstitious, and DJ Bens’s is one of them. “Knock on wood!” he repeats every time he conjures up one of his many hits. Over the last five years, the one whom nightclubs are conquering all over France has written impressive lines on his resume: collaborations with French rap stars, a Zénith in his name, an opening act for Jay-Z and Beyoncé , some notoriety on social media… all underwater, without the media exposure. Paris was the last city to turn its back on him: with an Olympia scheduled for next November, the Montpellier resident is preparing to take revenge on the capital’s snobbery.
The particularity of DJ Bens (his real name is kept secret, his manager whispered to us) is to mix electronic music and hip-hop. When he performs in clubs in Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal or even Dubai, it is to implant his synthetic rhythms flowing of rappers Today, he tours “240 dates a year”, and his summer calendar features a show almost every night, everywhere in France. According to him, it is precisely his passion for the urban, at a time when this genre is more popular than ever, which explains his success:
“Urban music has become a bit like French pop today,” he analyzes for BFMTV.com. “It helped me a lot. When I started, 10 years ago, I already did these hip-hop nights, but they were much less perceived than now.”
A past that seems far away when we see the thousands of revelers at Amnesia, the club in Cap d’Agde where he performs every Sunday, ecstatic with the opening bars of Jul’s hit. organized gang.
The friend of the stars (of rap)
This popularity not only interests the partygoers, but also the artists. For years, DJ Bens has maintained a close relationship with some of the biggest names in the new scene, often collaborating with him: he has mixed in clubs alongside Orelsan, Bigflo & Oli (for whom he has secured some premiere parties) or Fiano.
The latter, when he hosted DJ Bens on his web show. enter the circle, presented him as an ‘influencer’: “For a few years there has been a lot of rap in the clubs. And there are guys who set the trend and the temperature. This guy is one of them, and I think that’s the main thing,” he said. In fact, DJ Bens seems to have earned the trust of the major players in the industry:
“Artists, managers or labels send me songs that are going to be released or have just been released so that I can test them in the club and give them my opinion (…) We are really in the field, we can test a track five to seven times a week. They can’t have that vision.”
“It doesn’t look like it, but it’s a very small environment,” he says. “If I manage to get close to the artists, it’s simply because the feeling is going well.” These tests on their turntables and joint shows still seem like a best-practice exchange: rappers can target broadcast and radio, but they have no control over the clubs. It has the door open to clubs from all regions of France, but little (or no) media coverage. “I think urban artists and labels are starting to take clubbing a lot more seriously: there’s obviously a financial aspect, because having some club-friendly tracks will allow them to do a headlining tour, but also because when I play a song on a snare out of 4,000 people, there are potentially plenty of people who will hear it on repeat when they leave.
The boost of social media
Especially since DJ Bens’ performances are almost systematically exported to the Web. Without press support, he turned to social media. For years, he documented his movements on YouTube. Thanks to the lockdown, he started mixing on Twitch. Around the same time, he launched the TikTok app. Bingo: On the video sharing platform, where he promotes himself or broadcasts excerpts of his performances in a funny way, he has managed to attract no less than 1.2 million subscribers.
“TikTok gave my career a huge boost. I was already doing a lot of dates before, but I hit certain clubs hoping it would be packed. For three years, all my dates are sold out. It’s thanks to social media.”
Opening acts for Beyoncé and Jay-Z
In recent years, other events have allowed him to stand out from the swarm of DJs that roam the clubs of France. Especially in 2018, when Beyoncé and Jay-Z are looking for a first part for the Nice date of their joint tour, “On The Run II”. The management asks Cut Killer -legend of urban electro and mentor of Bens- who would be the reference DJ in the south of France. He whispers the name of DJ Bens to them, and the next day, the two DJs face the 45,000 spectators at the Allianz Stadium.
Another masterstroke, last April, when DJ Bens moved one night to mix on stage at the Zénith de Montpellier. The poster promised a show with DJ Bens “and friends”. The 5,500 seats found buyers, and it was before a packed room that they turned their plates, accompanied on stage by Bigflo & Oli, MHD, Leto, Soso Maness, L’Algerino…
“I hadn’t announced any because I didn’t want anyone to blame me for having filled a Zénith thanks to the arrival of other artists. It was incredible. People paid around thirty euros and saw 10 artists perform”.
The Revenge of the “Little Country DJ”
Will there be so many, on November 11, on the stage of the Olimpia? Because it is in this prestigious room that DJ Bens will take his first steps in the capital, after ten years in the business touring France. The fault lies with a certain reluctance on the part of the City of Light, as he explains in a YouTube video -not without a hint of bitterness-: “I understood that for Parisian clubs I am still the little provincial DJ who mixes in boots and who reaches the clubs”. on a tractor,” he jokes. “I loved them so much.”
“I have done all the cities of France, except Paris”, develops for BFMTV.com. “I’ve been criticized a lot by Parisian DJs because for them I’m the little provincial DJ. Apart from my ‘DJ dads’, like Cut Killer, Goldfingers or Daddy K, they didn’t take me seriously.” Of course, he has already received requests from Parisian clubs. But there were always “problems of conditions”:
“They thought it was good that I came to play with them, so they invited me to mix for free. I always refused: why does a provincial club pay 500 or 5000 euros to bring me and a Parisian club doesn’t pay me? I didn’t understand, It was annoying.”
Never mind: DJ Bens established his career by carefully avoiding going over the ring road. Even when his Zénith de Montpellier, full, “woke up” the organizers in Paris, he told them “too late”: “We should have thought about it a year or two ago! Today we are independent, we have the structures to have our own parties. Do Olympia is a way of saying: you didn’t want us to play at your house, so we’re going to rent the most legendary venue in Paris.”
Glass roof
“I’m not anti-Parisian!” he laughs. No hard feelings. But he claims his provincial origins: “Bigflo & Oli are known as the two Toulousains, Orelsan is very attached to his Caen origins. We grew up in these provinces, we fully embrace it, and I will never denigrate it. These are the club provinces that make me live and to work”.
If you prefer to silence the surprises that the evening has in store for you, it is almost certain that the spectators will hear it In the city, his first original song. DJ Bens covered the melody of The Dana Tribe, Manau’s 1998 hit, and invited rappers Dadinho, Kofs, and RK to drop their verses. The DJ puts on his producer’s hat here, without a doubt the next big step in his career: “I’ve reached a level with the clubs, a glass ceiling that I can’t break without productions and without tracks. The goal today is to play my own songs. It’s the next required step.”
Source: BFM TV
