HNTR Follows Up Viral Remix with Collaboration Featuring Oscar Winner, Juicy J
Categoria: Musica
One year after his award-winning remix went viral, HNTR makes his mark on the EDM scene with his signature blend of dance and hip hop
Por Billboard | 05/06/2026
The Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas brings together the top DJs in the dance world every year for an estimated 500,000 attendees to enjoy over 3 days. For many EDM artists, playing the festival is a marker for truly “making it.” This year, Toronto-native, HNTR made his EDC debut. Although he didn’t have a set on the lineup in 2025, his presence was definitely felt. His remix of Cloonee and InntRaw’s “Stephanie” which samples Young M.A’s “OOOUUU” could be heard at practically every stage. Fast forward one year and HNTR’s dropped his new track “Holla At A Player” featuring Academy Award Winner, Juicy J. We caught up with the DJ and producer to find out how the song came together, see what his life looks like after the success of a viral remix and get to know the man behind the stagename. At last year’s EDC, I asked a bunch of DJs what the most played track of the festival would be and Tiësto, Alison Wonderland, Alok, Morten, and Tape B all said your remix of Cloonee’s “Stephanie” would be the most played song of the year. A year later, what was it like watching that song blow up? It was honestly unreal. When I made that remix, there was no strategy behind it. It was just something I made that purely for fun cuz I thought it would be cool to put my spin on it. To see it go from a bootleg in my sets to a record being played by pretty much everyone was crazy. It changed my career, but more than anything it gave me confidence that there was a real audience for the sound I was building. Gotta shout out Dom Dolla. That one video changed everything From having the most played song last year, to making your EDC debut this year, was playing Stereo Bloom everything you expected? What were you thinking going into that set? EDC has always been a bucket list festival for me, so just being on the lineup was a huge moment. I have probably never put more effort into a set, I had my laptop in the trailer working on music till the last few minutes before I went on stage. I wanted to play as much of my own (new) music as possible. Once I stepped on stage and saw the crowd I had a bit of a moment to myself. It was one of those times where you realize where all the hard work has taken you. For fans who just discovered you from that track, who is HNTR? Can you tell us about your background, your influences, and what it’s taken to reach this point in your career? I’m a producer and DJ from Toronto. It’s a city with a huge hip hop culture and a really deep dance music scene, so those influences naturally came together in the music I was making. A lot of people told me that blending hip hop and dance music the way I wanted to wouldn’t work. But I always believed there could be an audience for it. People discovered me through Stephanie, but before that there were years of learning, experimenting, putting music out, playing clubs, throwing parties, and figuring out what HNTR actually sounded like. I