About
Known for his affiliation with fashionable French electro label Ed Banger Records, DJ Mehdi was a producer/remixer of hip-hop and electronic dance music yet is first and foremost remembered as a DJ. Born Mehdi Favéris-Essadi in 1977 in the French commune of Hauts-de-Seine (a northwest suburb of Paris) of Tunisian descent, he grew interested in hip-hop after discovering Public Enemy in the late '80s. DJ Mehdi established himself as a DJ/producer in the trailblazing French rap group Ideal J, whom he joined in 1992 and who released two albums: O'Riginal MC's Sur une Mission (1996) and La Combat Continue (1998), the latter featuring the hit single "Hardcore." Around this same time he began doing outside production work, most notably on the 1997 MC Solaar album Paradisiaque ("Wonderbra") and a couple 113 albums (Ni Barreaux, Ni Barrières, Ni Frontières, 1998; Les Princes de la Ville, 1999). In addition, he founded the short-lived Espionnage label in 1997 along with Manu Key, whom he had worked with in the rap groups Different Teep and Mafia K'1 Fry.
