Hands Solo is part of the rare class of artists whose influence outlasts their presence.

A Luxembourg-born DJ raised in Zürich, he became a defining figure in Switzerland’s hip-hop and open-format era, not through marketing or noise, but through discipline, craft and an early understanding of culture at source level.

He entered the scene as a writer, not a DJ.

As a teenager he sat across from the people who built the underground — Slum Village, Dilated Peoples, Jedi Mind Tricks.

Those interviews became his foundation: a direct education in the values, ethic and attitude of a culture he would later contribute to himself.

From there he moved into the record business, running one of Switzerland’s first online hip-hop vinyl stores and importing rare records from Japan. The store became his workshop; the mixtapes became his signature. They travelled fast, hand to hand, blog to blog, in a country that barely recognized hip-hop at the time. His name spread quietly, organically, without any machinery behind it.

Small residencies followed, including a formative run at Zürich’s underground hub UG. He built his own nights, filled rooms consistently and developed a reputation for clean execution, sharp taste and sets that didn’t rely on shortcuts.

By the late 2000s he was touring internationally.

Shanghai, Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Dubai - the tapes usually arrived before he did.

He played everything from basements to velvet-rope clubs, from festivals to industry rooms.

He shared booths with Grandmaster Flash, DJ Premier, Jazzy Jeff, Mark Ronson, Kid Capri and Tony Touch, and opened for Bryan Adams and Enrique Iglesias, a range that mirrored the breadth of his career.

In 2011 he received the Swiss Nightlife Award for Best Blackmusic/Open-Format DJ.

Inside the scene, the recognition arrived years earlier.

His productions and remixes reached MF Grimm, Oxmo Puccino, Maylay Sparks and others.

Kiss 100 London featured him repeatedly; Universal Music commissioned official compilations.

The résumé expanded; the approach stayed unchanged: work clean, say little.

A second chapter followed.

With producer Freedo he formed Handsome Habibi, a project that surpassed expectations: ten-plus million plays, a major UK record deal, remixes for Stromae, a collaboration with Too Short, and a debut single that became BBC Radio 1’s Future Anthem Of The Week — backed by Mistajam, Chris Mills, Diplo, Annie Nightingale, Benny Benassi and more.

Hands Solo never chased stardom.

He earned something quieter and more durable: respect — from peers, from idols, from scenes that rarely acknowledge outsiders.

1997–2021.

A complete arc.