Dee Nasty

Dee Nasty is a French hip-hop disc jockey, musician and producer. He is recognized as one of the major pioneers of hip-hop in France.

His real name is Daniel Bigeault, he comes from the town of Pierre-Plate, in Bagneux, in Hauts-de-Seine, in the southern suburbs of Paris. In 1978, during a stay in San Francisco, in the United States, Dee Nasty discovered the beginnings of hip-hop, with graffiti, breakdancing and funk chants like that of Sugarhill Gang. He is one of the first to have imported this style to France. He became known in 1982 for having worked on the pirate radio Ark En Ciel with the show Funkabilly, on Radio FG, Radio Carbone 14 and Radio Diffusion Handicapé. In 1984, Dee Nasty released her first album Paname City Rappin’, on the Funkzilla Records and Cabana Music labels. Pressed in 1,000 copies, the album is the first of the self-produced hip-hop genre in France. While he was selling it in the street during the Fête de la Musique, he met the rapper Lionel D.

Dee Nasty abandoned MCing in 1984 after his first album, he then devoted himself exclusively to DJing. He is one of the very first French DJs to master the art of scratching. In 1986, he organized “free jams” in the vacant lot of La Chapelle, inserting handmade flyers into the covers of US funk and hip-hop records. Member of the Universal Zulu Nation, he opened for Afrika Bambaataa’s French tour. Winner of the French DMC DJ championship in 1986, 1987 and 1988, he hosted the first hip-hop evenings in Paris such as those of “Chez Roger Boite Funk” at Globo organized by Actuel magazine and Radio Nova. He was on the airwaves of Radio Nova from 1988 to 1989, he hosted Deenastyle, accompanied by the rapper Lionel D: these were the live debuts of NTM, MC Solaar, Assassin, Ministère A.M.E.R and many others who performed there. shoot their debut on tape. Before the end of the 1980s, artists called on his gifts as a mixer, arranger and scratcher such as Cheb Khaled, Rita Mitsouko, Beastie Boys, Arthur H, and Rufus Thomas.

In the early 1990s, he participated in Discomobiles alongside funk groups Malka Family and Human Spirit. His personal discography includes a double album in 1991 and Le Deenastyle in 1993. He opens for Parisian concerts for Public Enemy, The Last Poets, Trouble Funk, Ice-T, Spoonie G., Cash Money, George Clinton , Maceo Parker… With the latter Dee Nasty inaugurates a series of collaborations on stage, which he continues with another saxophonist, the Japanese Yasuaki Shimizu. He toured for two years all over the world with Cachaito Lopez, double bassist of the Buena Vista Social Club, alongside Cuban percussionist Anga Díaz. An eclectic musician, he collaborates with Elephant System and composes with Manu le Malin, among others.

Eight years after the release of Nastyness on the Alki label in 2001, his sixth album System Dee was published on June 8, 2009 by Tradvibe12, at the same time as the compilation En mode funk on Wagram Music, with DJ Bronco, which followed En mode soul funk in 20103. His last album “Classique” was released in 2015 on the Celluloid label.