Hands Solo belongs to the quiet class of artists whose influence travelled further than their noise.

A Luxembourg-born DJ who became a defining figure in Switzerland’s hip-hop and open-format era, he came up when craft mattered more than branding, and built a reputation without PR, algorithms or hype.

He didn’t start on turntables.

He started with a notebook.

As a teenager in Zürich he interviewed the artists who shaped the underground: Slum Village, Dilated Peoples, Jedi Mind Tricks, learning the culture directly from its source.

He then launched one of Switzerland’s first online hip-hop record stores, importing rare vinyl from Japan. The store became his lab. The mixtapes moved faster than the orders, traded from DJ to DJ, posted on early blogs, and his name started travelling city to city in a country that barely acknowledged hip-hop at all.

Small residencies followed. He opened regularly for his favourite artists at Zürich’s hip-hop basement temple, the UG. He began hosting his own nights, and the rooms kept filling. The name grew, not from marketing, but from consistency and craft.

By the late 2000s he was playing across the globe, known for clean technique, warm curation and sets that didn’t need gimmicks. Shanghai, Tokyo, New York, St. Moritz… the tapes usually arrived first.

He played everything: velvet-rope clubs, underground basements, major festivals.

His sets carried across worlds; from underground heads to athletes, film stars to billionaires.

He shared booths with Grandmaster Flash, Jazzy Jeff, DJ Premier, Mark Ronson — and opened for Dizzee Rascal, Bryan Adams and Enrique Iglesias.

In 2011 he received the Swiss Nightlife Award for Best Blackmusic/Open-Format DJ a formal acknowledgment of what the scene already knew.

His remixes and originals travelled internationally; his productions landed with MF Grimm, Oxmo Puccino and Maylay Sparks.

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

The résumé got longer; the ethos stayed simple: craft first, ego nowhere.

Then came Handsome Habibi, the side-project with Freedo: ten-plus million streams, a UK major deal, remixes for Stromae, a collab with Too Short, and a debut single that became Record of the Week on BBC Radio 1 — supported by Mistajam, Chris Mills, Annie Nightingale, Diplo, Benny Benassi and more.

Hands Solo never chased stardom. He earned something quieter: respect. From peers, from idols, from scenes that rarely notice anyone from where he is from.

1997–2021. A complete arc.