Paul Roger Elstak (known professionally as DJ Paul Elstak; born 14 January 1966 in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

) is a Dutch hardcore/gabber and

happy hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990s ...

DJ and record producer of Surinamese descent. He used to use his full name to create happy hardcore and DJ Paul for hardcore gabber, but when he started Offensive Records in 2001, he started using both names for gabber.

Biography

During World War II Elstak's grandfather went from

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

to the Dutch East Indies to fight for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (Dutch: Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger – KNIL), against Japan. His father was born in Jakarta. After independence, his family moved to the Netherlands, to The Hague. In 1987 his career as a DJ started when he was hired as a DJ at

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Discothèque Bluetiek-Inn. Here he played with the Dutch

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

pioneer

Peter Slaghuis Peter Slaghuis (; 21 August 1961 – 5 September 1991) was a Dutch DJ, record producer and remixer, whose work was mostly released under the name Hithouse (a literal translation of his last name — ''slag'', a hit, a beat; and ''huis'', house). ...

. During this time, he collaborated with Rob Fabrie and Richard van Naamen to form Holy Noise, with whom he released a string of releases on the Hithouse record label (owned by Slaghuis). In 1991, Holy Noise had their biggest success with their release "James Brown Is Still Alive". This release was a reply to the song "

James Brown Is Dead "James Brown Is Dead" is a song by Dutch electronic dance music duo L.A. Style, produced by Wessel van Diepen and Denzil Slemming. It was released in August 1991 as the lead single from their debut album, '' L.A. Style'' (1993). The song was a ...

" by L.A. Style. In 1992, Elstak created his own record label,

Rotterdam Records Rotterdam Records was a Dutch record label founded by Paul Elstak in 1992. It released hardcore and gabber music. It stopped in 2012 and restarted again in 2018 with MP3 releases. History The label was set up by Paul Elstak who around 2000 qu ...

(under the flag of Mid-Town Records) to release

hardcore techno Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos (160 to 200 BPM or more) and a distorted sawtooth ...

, mostly

gabber Gabber ( ; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of Hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as hardcore, and is characterised by fast beats ...

and

. The first release on this label was a Holy Noise release under the guise of De Euromasters, releasing ''Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan?'' ("''Amsterdam, Where Is That?''"). This record was an implicit complaint about the Dutch media paying most attention to Amsterdam and not to Rotterdam. In 1995, he released the first DJ Paul Elstak single, "Life Is Like a Dance". After this record, a few commercial releases followed. " Rainbow in the Sky" was the most successful of these, selling 50,000 copies in 1995. Several of his singles reached the

Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 () is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore radio, offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" ...

in the mid-1990s. After two years, Elstak decided to leave the commercial dance scene and devote his time releasing

. In 2001, he left Mid-Town and Rotterdam Records to start a new record label at Rige Entertainment, called Offensive Records. To this day, Elstak still releases hardcore on this imprint in his own typical style. Elstak co-wrote and co-produced the song " Europapa" by Dutch musician

Joost Klein Joost Klein (; born 10 November 1997), also known mononymously as Joost, is a Dutch musician, rapper, singer, and former YouTuber. Mainly a hip hop artist, his songs and performances often include influences of electronic music, such as drum a ...

, which was released on 29 February 2024 and represented the Netherlands in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2024 The Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Tattoo (Loreen song), Tattoo" by Loreen. Organised by the European Br ...

References

External links

Discogs page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elstak, Dj Paul 1966 births Living people Dutch electronic dance music DJs Happy hardcore musicians Musicians from The Hague Hardcore techno musicians