The Prophet

The Prophet (Dov Elkabas of Amsterdam) is as close as hardstyle comes to a founding father. DJ, producer, label boss and mentor, his fingerprints are on three decades of hard dance history.

Present at two creations

Elkabas started in the late 1980s as a hip hop DJ, spinning local Amsterdam parties before the Dutch hardcore explosion pulled him in. He became a fixture of the 90s hardcore scene (around 1991 forming The Dreamteam, the celebrated four-DJ collective with DJ Dano, Buzz Fuzz and Gizmo), and then did something few manage: he was there for the birth of a second genre, helping shape the sound that Q-dance would christen hardstyle around the turn of the millennium. The scene’s nickname for him, the Godfather of Hardstyle, is not marketing; it is a job description.

The Scantraxx machine

His most lasting contribution may be institutional. In 2002 he founded Scantraxx, the label that became hardstyle’s defining talent factory, the house that signed a young Headhunterz in 2005, launched Wildstylez, and gave Brennan Heart his platform from 2006. For two decades, the Scantraxx sound has been a shorthand for melodic, high-craft hardstyle, and its alumni list reads like the genre’s hall of fame.

The long goodbye

The Prophet closed his 35-year career with a grand finale at Defqon.1 2023, and then, true to form, came back anyway, returning to the stage with an exclusive show concept. Legends of his standing do not really retire; they just choose their moments. His catalogue of nearly 350 tracked releases keeps circulating through the scene, and new material still appears.

Whatever The Prophet releases next lands on the Hardstyle Release Radar the day it drops. His full tracked catalogue is listed above.