While on board the Stereosonic tour, we caught up with Parisian master DJ Snake. Sporting his signature sunglasses and Air Max 95s, we had a chat about hip-hop, the dab & his latest Australian tour before heading up to the windy rooftop for a few snaps. Turn down for what, indeed. See how it went down below, and keep both earholes open for DJ Snake’s album to drop in 2016:

You’re on the Stereosonic tour with Major Lazer, and your ‘Lean On’ collaboration is now the most streamed song on Spotify of all time. How did you celebrate the accolade?

I don’t really celebrate anything, I’m just on the next shit all the time. I mean, I celebrate when I make the record. I’m in the studio dancing and vibing – “Oh! We got one! This is amazing! Fuck, love this!” – then we put this out, see the reaction, and onto the next one. It’s amazing though, when you put out the record you never know what’s going to happen. This is the people who choose if the record will do well or not. It’s not about the radio bullshit or the label stuff, this is the streets. If they fuck with it, they’ll take it to the next level. It’s amazing, people have been showing love and I’m blessed.

You also recently toured India. How was that experience?

It was special. I was really nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. It was my first tour and I didn’t know if the people would fuck with me. They knew about DJ Snake, and that was beyond my expectations – because of ‘Lean On’ I think, that just took it to the next level. We shot the video in India and we showed love to the Indian culture… When I got there the love was insane.

Another one of your memorable shows was at Coachella. Tell us how you got DMX onstage?

That’s a long, long, long story.

Do you have a short version?

Yes. I’m a big Ruff Ryders and DMX fan. Coachella is special and people always want to bring artists and surprise guests – but everybody’s bringing out the same kind of artists, like the hottest new guy. For me, I got to bring something else, something fresh – not fresh, but something special. We haven’t heard about DMX for a little while, and he had so many classics! I was like “Yo, I need to get in touch with him.” It was hard because he doesn’t have a cell phone and he’s not really on social media, and I really wanted to do it, so it took about two or three months to set this up.

When I was onstage, I didn’t even know if he was going to show up – for real. I dropped the record and he stepped onto the stage and killed it, just like he never stopped. That was insane, my dream – I was really excited. I’ve done a lot of things with big superstars, but this was so special to me and I’m really proud of it. This is bringing culture, because the kids in the crowd know the songs but they don’t know DMX as an icon.

Do you remember the Asian rapper on Ruff Ryders?

Yeah, Jin!

Any plans to bring him onstage at a DJ Snake show?

Why not? I’m a big hip-hop fan, I think hip-hop is the biggest movement ever. The way you look is hip-hop, the way we talk. The graffiti in the streets, the way we’re living is hip-hop. Of course, this is what I grew up with and I’m always down to bring culture into my world.

We also heard that you met Guru when you were a teenager. Is that because of the MC Solaar collaboration that you became a fan?

Not even that, I was really young when their collaboration dropped. It was my older cousins, they were really big hip-hop heads – underground and stuff. I was like 7 or 8 in my cousins house, playing A Tribe Called Quest and Gangstarr. I met Guru and Premier when I was a kid, and the funny thing is Premier just dropped a remix of ‘You Know You Like It’ and that’s really special to me. I did a show in New York, and Premier was waiting for me backstage to take a picture with me. That was before the remix… I was like “What the fuck? This is DJ Premier here asking me for a picture!” That’s my hero, that’s crazy. I’m blessed.

You also had a stint at breakdancing and rapping. Why did you not pursue those avenues?

The breakdancing wasn’t for me, I realised that after two sessions. Rap wasn’t for me. The grafitti, that was my shit, that’s where I got my name from. I was killing the trains at 12 or 13 from my ghetto in Paris. Trains arrived in the station, people in it going to work – ‘SNAKE’ everywhere, so ugly. That was my thing. Still, if I’m in Paris in the streets I can still see my earlier graffiti, it’s funny. I respect grafitti artists so much, because it’s all about the passion and you don’t really make money. They keep going and it’s dangerous – you go to jail and shit. This is so real, that’s the realest art in hip-hop.

Southern rap, New Orleans Bounce and the ilk are influencing dance music a lot in 2015. What do you think is going to be the next big sound?

That’s a good question. Music is a cycle, just like fashion. What’s hot now is going to be wack soon, and what’s wack now is going to be hot again because the new kids are going to bring it back with a new vision, a new sound and a new format. I think everything goes so fast now, there are new styles and new vibes all the time. I like this, and I don’t even know what’s next but we got some new artists from France and Paris who are super dope… Everyday I find a new kid who’s just a monster.

Tell us about the dab?

I think it’s from Atlanta, it blew up around August… Migos did a big record called ‘Look At My Dab‘ and that shit is everywhere. There’s always like a new trend every three months and I like this, this is positive.

Was there a lot of dabbing at Stereosonic?

Oh my God. I did the best dab ever with Sebastian Ingrosso and Axwell, they didn’t know that shit… We took a picture and we were dying. This is what I’m trying to do, bring all the people together. These are some older DJs from another world – house, big room legends – and I was on the plane with the DJs and I gave them some Migos, Young Thug, some ghetto ass records. That’s what I like, bringing shit together. Having a picture of me and Swedish House Mafia dabbing is just perfect. That’s me 100%.

Speaking of Young Thug, is there anybody with a better wardrobe than him?

We might have something together soon… I think Young Thug is the Prince of hip-hop. Prince was the guy who wore all the craziest, wildest shit. He doesn’t care at all – He’s doing his thing and he doesn’t give a fuck.