1. Humble origins
William Sami Étienne Grigahcine (his birth name) was born in 1986 in Paris to a French showman father – who left home when he was only two years old – and an Algerian mother – who had a series of odd jobs (nanny, cleaning lady) and brought up William and his younger brother on her own in a low-income housing estate in Ermont in the Val d’Oise.
He often talks about his background in interviews and says that the multicultural environment in which he grew up has influenced his musical universe.
“In my building, there were Haitians listening to Kompa, Antilleans listening to zouk, Arabs listening to raï…,” he said in an interview with Konbini.
2. Self-taught
He started mixing when he was in sixth grade, at the house of a friend who owned turntables. Not quite fitting into the French education system, William stopped his formal education in the 10th grade after being
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