David Guetta

With 2009’s multi-platinum One Love, two-time-Grammy-winning artist/producer/DJ David Guetta cemented his status as a genre-busting hitmaker whose in-your-face fusion of electro and hip-hop beautifully warps the pop landscape. Now, with his fifth studio album Nothing But The Beat, Guetta builds on that breakthrough momentum and takes his decades-spanning career to a frenetic new level marked by bigger hooks and more brain-bending beats.

One of the most wildly anticipated albums of the year, Nothing But The Beat comes hot on the heels of the rush release of its first smash single, “Where Them Girls At” (featuring Flo Rida & Nicki Minaj). Already his fasting selling single to reach gold status in the USA, the dizzying and deadly catchy “Where Them Girls At” marks a one-time return to the straight-up club-anthem sensibility of Guetta’s “Sexy Bitch” (the 2009 monster hit that moved 5 million units worldwide).
“When I listen to the radio in the U.S., every song sounds like ‘Sexy Bitch,’” says Guetta.
“The urban dance thing has become huge. Now I have to push it because my sound has become so popular. It’s a challenge, but I like that.” Ever experimental, Guetta transports his collaborators to previously unexplored sonic spaces all throughout Nothing But The Beat.
On “Sweat,” for instance, Guetta remixes one of his most prized DJ records as a stark, synth-heavy electro-hop track that spotlights Snoop Dogg’s strikingly sleek vocals.

Elsewhere on the album, guest artists match Guetta’s ingenuity with their own brand of beamed-in-from-another-dimension whimsy and weirdness. Just as “I Can Only Imagine” alternates shimmering, buoyant beats with wildly skidding synth, the track continually trades off Chris Brown’s warm melodies with the lyrical mischief- making of Lil Wayne (whom Guetta dubs “a big genius”). And on “I Just Wanna F,” Timbaland and Dev play a deliciously dirty version of the alphabet game while Guetta lays down a densely textured groove that makes this futuristic fever dream one of the album’s most irresistible moments.

That sizable success isn’t nearly limited to Guetta’s work as a recording artist and DJ. In addition to selling more than 5 million albums worldwide since his 2001 debut, Guetta acted as producer on the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” (the highest-selling digital release in music history). Along with his two Grammys (one for his remix of Madonna’s “Revolver” in 2011, the other for his remix of One Love’s “When Love Takes Over), Guetta took home the Best DJ, Best Producer, and Best-Selling French Artist prizes at the 2010 World Music Awards.