Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
A Long Island DJ’s fanmade remix gets Beyoncé’s stamp of approval
By
Precious Fondren
Published Feb 10, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Jeffrey Doomer and Alien Entourage
By
Precious Fondren
Published Feb 10, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
DJ Esentrik has a whole lot more people paying attention to him nowadays, and the inquiries are flooding his inbox. Esentrik, a Long Island producer whose real name is Jonathan Tuano, became a hot commodity after his fanmade mashup of the Beyoncé song “Cuff It” made the leap from viral online sensation to an official release, endorsed and circulated by the superstar artist herself.
“Soooo I’ve been hiding this for awhile and now I can finally say it!” Esentrik tweeted just a week ago. “CUFF IT WETTER REMIX IS OFFICIAL!”
The original version, a track from the 2022 Beyoncé album, “Renaissance,” earned praise from Grammy voters: “Cuff It” won Best R&B Song at this year’s awards last Sunday. But the mashup Esentrik created, which combined Beyoncé’s vocals with the song with Chicago rapper Twista’s 2009 “Wetter,” turned the upbeat dance song meant for summertime cookouts into a slow jam. His rendition went viral on Twitter and TikTok.
By the end of 2022, Esentrik’s mashup caught Beyoncé’s attention. She went back into the studio with her team to re-record her vocals, added a verse, and new background harmonies and arrangements on top of using the Twista song, the DJ recounted.
This version initially was only available for purchase via Beyoncé’s website. But it’s since been added to streaming services and the iTunes store, where the burst of new attention seems poised to propel “Cuff It” up the Billboard charts next week, according to Chart Data. Earlier this week, the superstar performer shared the new track herself on Instagram.
“I hope this inspires a lot of people especially in the DJ culture and the producer culture because not all of us are going to make it,” Esentrik, 39, told Gothamist in an interview. “But sometimes you get these little moments and it’s just inspiring people to say it’s possible.”
While it’s not uncommon for a song mashup to go viral online, it is pretty unusual for the artist to then take it upon themselves to elevate the blend with a new recording, says Isaac Campbell, who DJs under the stage name MoreSoupPlease.
Because Beyoncé has a large social media following, with almost 300 million followers on Instagram alone, Campbell says, “To go and re-record something that she already released, to not let it just be a mashup and to give credit and be able to give this type of feel to this type of beat of this song, that’s dope.”
Campbell predicts more doors will open for Esentrik in the coming weeks, if they haven’t already.
“People are paying attention to him now,” he said. “Not that they weren't before; I'm saying on a global scale. Beyoncé posted the remix on Instagram. It's on streaming. It's cleared. And when you got the streaming cleared, you're getting royalties off of that.”
It’s a big deal to Esentrik, a Queens-born, Long Island-raised artist who says music was always part of his life. He made it his full time pursuit a little over 10 years ago, after quitting his job in graphic design, and was making a little noise in the DJ scene through his work in the duo TWRK with a friend, DJ Benzi. TWRK stood out within electronic dance music circles by incorporating hip-hop music into its sets.
“I was working my 9-to-5, and I was requesting days off a lot, because the popularity started building,” Esentrik said. “I was seeing myself traveling every weekend, and it got pretty insane for me, scheduling wise. I had to take the leap and take a risk.”
When most DJs were recovering from the hit they took during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Esentrik says he consciously decided to be consistent about his creative output. Instead of releasing a pack of edited songs on his Soundcloud page every couple of months, he challenged himself to up the volume to one edit a month. This meant spending hours on his computer, scanning his music library daily to determine what songs might sound good together.
The Beyoncé “Cuff It” blend was originally part of “Still Got Time,” a collection of tracks Esentrik created last year. “I did seven or eight edits on that pack, and Beyoncé's ‘Cuff It’ was a filler,” he said. “I felt like I needed to add something, and I was like, this song sounds good with this. We all know that the original song is more uptempo. I like to flip songs. It was just really by accident. And I just put it out there.”
After “Still Got Time” began circulating in early fall, it wasn’t long before DJs started playing his mashup in their sets at parties. Most DJs properly acknowledged Esentrik, but there was one, JayBeatz, who tried to pass the mix off as his idea. Esentrik is grateful that Beyoncé’s team determined whose idea it was originally. An A&R rep reached out in December to begin conversations about making a real deal.
“They explained to me they had seen what was happening online, and they wanted to make it into reality,” Esentrik said. “I wasn’t really comprehending anything. I was in shock. But around the new year, it began to feel real.”
Beyoncé’s team told Esentrik that while they’d heard plenty of mashups over the years, his sounded “like a real song,” he said.
“I took that as a compliment,” he said. “Whatever I do with the edits, one thing I always take pride in is trying to make this alternative version sound like a real song.”
Now that the remix is official, Esenetrik said his direct messages have been flooded with inquiries about producing, collaborations and remixes. Whether any of them lead to anything remains to be seen. But he does have a piece of advice for anyone interested in DJing.
“The biggest takeaway here is that if you’re trying to get into DJ culture and you’re actively making stuff like this, don't stop, just keep putting stuff out,” he said. “You don’t know who’s listening or who’s watching.”
Tagged
new york city
Music
Precious Fondren
Precious is a former WNYC & Gothamist culture reporter.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Ever wish you could get paid to walk through a stranger’s house? ‘The Scout’ is for you.
A new film focuses on the strange career of a location scout in New York City.
By
Sonia Rao
Published Sep 26, 2026
There are 100s of places to visit during Open House New York. Here's 5 of our favorites.
See the entire lineup for the weekend when the city opens its doors.
By
Hannah Frishberg
Arts & Entertainment
There are 100s of places to visit during Open House New York. Here's 5 of our favorites.
See the entire lineup for the weekend when the city opens its doors.
By
Hannah Frishberg
A massive MTA archive ended up in a Virginia warehouse. A Brooklyn man brought it home.
By
Hannah Frishberg
How a Harry Styles pop-up in the East Village led to a nearby bookstore owner's arrest
By
Sonia Rao
NYC’s creative workers are increasingly self-employed, report says
By
Hannah Frishberg
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .