Artist Profile: Big Dope P

Before becoming a global force for the hardest edges of club music, Big Dope P was Thomas Bouznadi Lemer, a kid from the Paris suburbs. His DNA was shaped in Ivry-sur-Seine through a diet of funk, R&B, and local rap. That "banlieue life" gave him his first real lessons in rhythm, long before he started linking dancefloors in Paris, London and Chicago. He describes encountering Dance Mania as a moment of recognition, in which, in Chicago ghetto house, he heard a rhythmic force that felt understood on contact.

He was only sixteen when he co-founded Moveltraxx. Over time, it became one of Europe’s essential homes for footwork, juke, ghetto house, and Jersey club. Through hundreds of releases, Moveltraxx was undoubtedly a place where US originators and European mutations could meet. By 2010, Moveltraxx had already released music by DJ Rashad and DJ Tameil, helping bring foundational US figures into the European circuit. Later releases came from Paul Johnson, DJ Earl, and TT The Artist. The long-running, 31-edition-and-counting Street Bangers Factory compilations also documented this fledgling scene in forward motion.

Across releases for Moveltraxx, Fool’s Gold, Ed Banger, LuckyMe, Nervous, Ninja Tune, OWSLA, and Local Action, Big Dope P developed a sound that treated the exchange between French production and Chicago frameworks as natural. Early material, such as 2015's Hit Da Blokk, was fast and compressed, hard-edged and playful.

2021’s album, Mehlish, felt like a family reunion, bringing together heavy hitters like DJ Jayhood, TT The Artist, and DJ Slugo. 2024's Toto La Castagne took that spirit further. With everyone from Littlez and Katie Got Bandz to Traxman and NaylahDMP checking in, the record felt like a massive, rowdy block party happening in three time zones at once.

He didn’t take his foot off the gas in 2025. Castagne Club reworks dropped in January, featuring a lineup from Bastiengoat to Spooky Bizzle, followed quickly by the tour-inspired Boogie Bass Traxx in June. After dropping the FREEDOPE 2 exclusive for Bandcamp in October, he’s spent the start of 2026 channeling all that hype back into Moveltraxx. Fresh compilations and label releases continued, including Street Bangers Factory 32, MOVELT JUKE JAM 6, and MOVELTRAXX 19.

Now UK-based, he has become a central figure in London's underground bass scene and a resident at 160 Unity, the party series connected to SHERELLE, Heavee, and a wider circle committed to footwork’s afterlives in Britain and Europe. 160 Unity is a live social space where dancers, producers, heads, and newer listeners meet around a form that still carries local memory inside global circulation.

Recent mix and radio sessions highlights include the 2026 DJ Mag Recognise 099 mix, Mixmag The Lab London, Tsugi Radio, SceneNoise, a Rinse FM back-to-back-to-back with Feadz and Teddy Kitano, a BBC Radio Moveltraxx takeover, Planet Wax, Pound & Yam, and AAJA. Across those sessions is a clear sense of momentum. You hear a DJ who values speed, pressure, bounce, curve, and abrupt tonal shifts, while always keeping one ear on lineage and the other on the room.

The upcoming Control Club appearance on April 23 gives the Big Dope P story a local stage. aim+wall also welcomes Heavee, adding a strong historical charge to the lineup. One artist is tapped directly into the Chicago source, while the other is part of the network that brought that energy to Europe without watering it down.

For years, Big Dope P has been obsessed with one question: how does club music travel the world without losing its soul? To him, the answer is simple, the memory is in the rhythm, and the dancefloor takes care of the rest.