Biography
Mehdi was born of Tunisian background in Hauts-de-Seine, the northwestern suburbs of Paris. He was a former disc jockey of the groups Different Teep (ex-group of Manu Key & Lil Jahson), Ideal J and former member of the collective the Mafia K'1 Fry. He was also a long time the quasi-appointed producer of the group 113 and carried out the nearly all the production of the albums for Different Teep and Karlito. Amid his work, Mehdi had remixed various electronic acts and composition soundtracks for many French and international films.
After having been recognized for his efforts and budding into one of the French underground hip hop music scene’s premier producers, DJ Mehdi henceforth pushed boundaries by mixing hip hop and electronic music. He collaborated with such notable artists as Daft Punk, Cassius, MC Solaar, Futura 2000, Asian Dub Foundation and Chromeo among others. “Coming from a rap music background, it’s always nice to collaborate within other music genres…Paris is very inspiring because a lot of people are making great stuff, music and in other arts related fields also. My music and philosophies revolve around beats and blues, that’s how I would try to describe it.”
Signing to cross-genre label Ed Banger Records, Mehdi and Pedro Winter (aka Busy P) were working on various disco-hop sounds the two as far back as 1997. Together they hosted a very successful monthly night at former Paris nightspot Pulp. “I like to be the DJ, I love it so much. I love to try new things. You would never get into this business to be bored, or you would hope not.”
Mehdi released his first full-length LP in 2002 The Story of Espion, followed by his second album, Lucky Boy, in August 2006. With the popularity of cross genre hip hop into such areas as indie and electronic music, popularization by Timbaland and other labels from the United States in more recent years had assisted to bridge the gap between dance genres.
Mehdi's single "I Am Somebody" was used in a 2007 American commercial for XM radio. More recently, DJ Mehdi was part of a group of friends and DJ's collectively known as "Club 75" which includes Cassius, Busy P and Xavier de Rosnay (Justice). He launched a project together with Riton in 2010 that was titled "Carte Blanche".
Mehdi died on September 13, 2011, when the skylight of his Paris home collapsed while he was celebrating his close friend Riton's birthday with a group of friends on the roof. Mehdi was the only fatality, while three others were injured.
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