Dillon Francis

Dillon Francis, the Los Angeles DJ and producer, brings speaker-shredding electro to club floors while injecting them with irreverent wit. His 2011 EP Westside! helped introduce and spread moombahton, the hybrid style fusing Dutch house with reggaeton, and he drove the sound toward heavier territory through moombahcore on projects such as the 2012 release Something, Something, Awesome. The guest-packed 2014 album Money Sucks, Friends Rule, which reached number two on the Billboard dance chart, led him across multiple genres, after which he devoted himself to Latin influences on the Spanish-language Wut Wut in 2018; that effort brought consecutive nominations for a Latin American Music Award and a Latin Grammy for the track “Sexo” featuring Residente and iLe. Happy Machine, issued in 2021, delivered bright, vocal-centric house tracks, while the 2022 Cake and Cognac EP paired him with rapper Yung Gravy. After the darker 2023 project Anti Everything under the DJ Hanzel moniker, he resumed blending house and trap elements on This Mixtape Is Fire Too. Fresh singles arrived in 2024 alongside Good Times Ahead, Netsky, and Galantis.

Born in 1987, Francis was raised in Los Angeles as the child of an alternative-medicines practitioner. During his teenage years he absorbed both punk and electronic sounds, yet his early ambitions centered on visual media such as photography, printmaking, and graphic design. He entered art school after graduation and there began learning music production, studying Ableton under Atlanta-based producer Cory Nitta, also known as Cory Enemy. He soon left school to pursue music full time. Francis first appeared as a DJ in 2010, embracing an unapologetically playful approach from the outset via his partnership with rapper Dirty Nasty and their version of “Sandwiches” by the Detroit Grand Pubahs. He issued the solo EP Swashbuckler on the Play Me label before signing to Diplo’s Mad Decent imprint with Westside!. The single “Que Que,” recorded with Diplo and Maluca, became a major success within moombahton circles. Capitalizing on the style’s popularity, he developed a more aggressive offshoot called moombahcore on cuts such as the single “I.D.G.A.F.O.S.,” which later lent its name to his own label, and the 2012 EP Something, Something, Awesome. His 2012 single “Masta Blasta (The Rebirth)” also found him exploring trap’s stuttering rhythms.

Teaming with A-Trak and DJ Snake, Francis broadened into EDM and mainstream styles on the 2014 album Money Sucks, Friends Rule. The debut LP showcased numerous guest artists, nearly every resulting track becoming a dance hit: “Get Low” with DJ Snake, which also charted on the Billboard Hot 100; “When We Were Young” with the Chain Gang of 1974; “We Make It Bounce” with Major Lazer; “Set Me Free” with Martin Garrix; and “Love in the Middle of a Firefight” featuring Brendon Urie. The seven-track mixtape This Mixtape Is Fire followed in 2015 and included appearances by Skrillex, Calvin Harris, and Chromeo. A string of joint singles emerged in 2016, among them “Need You” featuring NGHTMRE, “Candy” featuring Snappy Jit, and “Anywhere” featuring Will Heard.

Alongside 2017 singles “Say Less” and “Hello There,” Francis made his acting debut in the comedy series What Would Diplo Do?. Beginning with the funky track “Ven,” a wave of releases preceded his 2018 sophomore album Wut Wut. Drawing contributions from Lao Ra, Residente, De La Ghetto, Fuego, Arcángel, and others, the project reached number 22 on the Billboard Latin Albums chart and earned Francis Latin American Music Award and Latin Grammy nominations for “Sexo.” He stayed active in 2019 with “LFGD” alongside Chris Melberger, “Lost My Mind” with tourmate Alison Wonderland, “Change Your Mind” with lovelytheband, and “Catchy Song,” a collaboration with T-Pain and That Girl Lay Lay for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part soundtrack. His November 2019 mixtape Magic Is Real featured joint tracks with Nitti Gritti, Vera Hotsauce, Bunji Garlin, TV Noise, and Big Freedia.

The EP Festival Bangers for When Festivals Start Again Because There Are No Festivals, recorded with TV Noise, surfaced at the close of 2020. Both the 2021 EP Very Important Music and the full-length Happy Machine emphasized exuberant dance-pop material. In 2022 Francis joined Minnesota rapper and longtime friend Yung Gravy for the Cake and Cognac EP, worked with VINNE, Valentino Khan, and Illenium, and issued the solo single “Goodies.” Anti Everything, the debut album under his DJ Hanzel alias, appeared in 2023; later that year This Mixtape Is Fire Too arrived, boasting guests such as IDK, Eptic, Clementine Douglas, and Alesso.

Pero Like, an EP with Miami duo Good Times Ahead, surfaced in 2024, joined by “Nobody Likes the Records That I Play” with drum’n’bass producer Netsky and “Bad Cop” with VINNE. The broad remix collection These Remixes Are Fire Too followed, along with further singles including “Whole Lotta Drugs” with Ship Wrek, “Waterfall” with Drove, and “Pretty Low” with Galantis.