Born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Kozalla first became known in the Hamburg music scene.[2] In the early 1990s, he started as a rapper and DJ for various hip-hop groups in Flensburg. In 1991, DJ Koze reached second place in the German DMC Championship (an offshoot of the Disco Mix Club). Two years later, he moved to Hamburg and founded together with Cosmic DJ, DJ Stachy and the "Schreckliche Sven" the hip hop formation Fischmob, which persisted for about five years.
In parallel, he also dealt with electronic music, increased his name recognition as a DJ and produced some remixes, sometimes under the pseudonym Adolf Noise. A collection of such remixes appeared in 2000 under the title Music Is Okay. With Max Goldt as spokesman he released 2001 as Adolf Noise the single "Deine Reime sind Schweine", a satire on battle rap tracks in German hip hop.
Together with Cosmic DJ and Erobique he founded the project International Pony, from 2002 the album We Love Music and 2006 the LP Mit Dir sind wir vier. Since 2003, Koze published several Techno-Maxis at the Cologne label Kompakt under the name Monaco Schranze (a corruption of Monaco Franze and Schranz). There also appeared in 2004 his second mix CD titled All People Is My Friends.
The productions under the name Adolf Noise are generally more experimental and eccentric. After Wunden, s. Beine Offen appeared in April 2005, the second Adolf Noise album Wo die Rammelwolle fliegt.
Since 2009 he runs the label Pampa Records. With his on Pampa Records released album 2013 Amygdala he entered for the first time the official German and Swiss charts. In addition, he was honored for the Echo Award 2014 with the Critics Award. On June 15, 2015, the 50th edition of the DJ Mix series DJ Kicks, was released on the Berlin label Studio !K7, which attracted a great deal of national and international attention. In 2017, he was nominated for two Electronic Music Awards for Record of the Year and Remix of the Year, both for his Extended Disco Version of Låpsley's "Operator".
In January 2018, DJ Koze announced his fourth studio album titled Knock Knock, which appeared on May 4, 2018, on his label Pampa Records. On July 12, 2018, his remix of the track Humility was released with the single The Now Now of the British band Gorillaz.
On October 19, 2018, he was awarded the Prize for Pop Culture in the category "Favorite Producer" at the Tempodrom Berlin.
DJ Koze performed at Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for the first time on 12 December 2019 and also debuted his new A/V show, Popup Jungle. [1][2]
Róisín Murphy has announced in March 2023 her signing to Ninja Tune with a new single, 'CooCool', which was produced by DJ Koze. Her latest album 'Hit Parade', produced by DJ Koze, was released on 8 September 2023 on Ninja Tune and reached #6 in the official German album charts and #5 in the official UK album charts in the week of release.
Kozalla himself pronounces his DJ name as (German pronunciation:[ˈkɔtsə]) which, in German, is identical to Kotze ("puke, vomit").[3] Internationally, his name is pronounced like cozy (/ˈkoʊzi/) in (American) English.
