DJ Khaled
Khaled Mohammed Khaled, known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ and record producer. Originally a Miami-based radio personality, Khaled has since become known for enlisting high-profile music industry artists to perform on singles and albums, for which he often serves as producer and hype man. Known as the "Anthem King", his distinctions are his booming voice presence, "motivational" abstractions, maximalist production style and numerous catchphrases.
Khaled was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Palestinian immigrant parents. He first gained recognition as a radio host in the 1990s for the radio station 99 Jamz, and translated his popularity by working with Fat Joe's hip hop collective, Terror Squad, as a DJ for their live performances and as a producer for the group. Following his production credits on the group's material, Khaled enlisted several hip hop artists associated with the group and his native Miami to perform on his debut studio album, Listennn... the Album. His second album, We the Best, spawned the hit single "I'm So Hood". His two subsequent releases—We Global and Victory —both peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200; the latter was supported by the single "All I Do Is Win", which received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.
His fifth studio album and major label debut, We the Best Forever, saw continued commercial success and brought Khaled to mainstream prominence by spawning his first Billboard Hot 100-top ten single, "I'm on One". His following three albums—Kiss the Ring, Suffering from Success, and I Changed a Lot —were released to moderate critical and commercial reception. Throughout 2015 and 2016, Khaled gained wider recognition as a public figure due to his social media activity. This, along with several Internet memes, foresaw the release of his ninth studio album, Major Key, which was met with further critical and commercial success as it debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
His tenth album, Grateful, became his second consecutive number-one album and was preceded by the singles "I'm the One" and "Wild Thoughts", which peaked at numbers one and two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. His eleventh album, Father of Asahd, contained the song "Higher", which won Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards—Khaled's first Grammy Award win. His eponymous twelfth album and thirteenth album, God Did, both debuted atop the Billboard 200. The latter's title track earned three nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. Khaled is scheduled to release his fourteenth studio album, Aalam of God, in 2025.
Outside of music, Khaled has gained success as a writer, with his book The Keys featuring on the New York Times Best Seller list. He has also performed as an actor for the films Bad Boys for Life and its sequel Bad Boys: Ride or Die, and had a voice role in the animated film Spies in Disguise. His record label, We the Best Music Group has distributed his releases since its formation in 2008, though Khaled signed other artists to the imprint including Ace Hood, Kent Jones, Mavado, Flipp Dinero, and Vado, among others.
Early life
Khaled Mohammed Khaled was born on November 26, 1975, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Palestinian parents who immigrated to the United States; his father was from Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya and his mother was from Ramallah. His brother Alec Ledd is an actor.His musician parents played Arabic music; Khaled started developing an interest in rap and soul music at a young age, and his parents supported his interest. He worked in a local Merry-Go-Round record store.
Career
During his early career, Khaled became acquainted with several young artists and helped them before their breakthrough; these include Birdman, Lil Wayne, and Mavado. One of his first jobs was at the New Orleans record store Odyssey where he met both Birdman and Lil Wayne in 1993. After leaving Odyssey, he began DJing in reggae sound clashes, mixing dancehall and hip-hop. His first radio gig was on a pirate station. In 1998, he moved to Miami and co-hosted The Luke Show on WEDR "99 Jamz" with 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell. In 2003, he started hosting a weeknight radio show on 99 Jamz called The Takeover.During his career, Khaled has used many monikers, including "Arab Attack", "Big Dog Pitbull", "Terror Squadian", Beat Novacane, The Don Dada, Mr. Miami etc. Khaled explained that "Arab Attack" meant "attack with music"; he stopped using it after the September 11 attacks to avoid appearing insensitive.
2006–2008: ''Listennn... the Album'', ''We the Best'', and ''We Global''
On June 6, 2006, his debut album, Listennn... the Album, was released by Koch Records; it premiered on the US Billboard 200 chart at number 12. We the Best is his second album, with singles "I'm So Hood" and "We Takin' Over". "We Takin' Over" peaked at number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the US Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 20, 2007. Khaled made a guest appearance on Birdman's 2007 album 5 * Stunna on the single "100 Million", which also features Rick Ross, Dre, Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. That year, Khaled won two Ozone Awards: one for Best Video and another for Best Radio DJ.In 2008, Khaled's third album We Global came out with singles "Out Here Grindin" followed by "Go Hard". RIAA certified the single "I'm So Hood" Platinum on June 4, 2008. That year, Khaled won DJ of the Year awards from the BET Hip Hop Awards and Ozone Awards. He was appointed the president of Def Jam South in February 2009. That same month, 50 Cent released a video titled "A Psychic Told Me" in which he spoke of harming Khaled's mother and showed alleged footage of Khaled's mother's workplace and his mother herself. Following this, Khaled refused to comment, not wanting to give 50 Cent the publicity, simply stating: "I'm not gonna let him bait me".
2010–2012: ''Victory'', ''We the Best Forever'', and ''Kiss the Ring''
His fourth studio album Victory was released on March 2, 2010. The album featured guest appearances from Drake, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Nelly, and more. The single "All I Do Is Win" featuring Ludacris, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, and T-Pain was certified as a double-platinum single. Other singles include: "Put Your Hands Up" featuring Ross, Young Jeezy, Plies, and Schife, and "Fed Up" featuring Usher, Drake, Ross, and Jeezy. The album had low sales and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200. DJ Khaled announced the title his next album, We the Best Forever, on Twitter. On August 19, Khaled signed to Cash Money Records along to Universal Motown, the album will be released under the label, also under E1 Entertainment, Terror Squad, Def Jam South, and Khaled's own label We the Best Music Group, with confirmed guests as Fat Joe, Chris Brown, Keyshia Cole, Cee Lo Green, Cool & Dre, Rick Ross, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas, Birdman, Lil Wayne, T.I., Akon, Drake, and Nicki MinajThe first single, "Welcome to My Hood", featuring Rick Ross, Plies, Lil Wayne and T-Pain was released on January 13, 2011; it was produced by the Renegades, and co-produced by DJ Khaled himself along with the Nasty Beatmakers. The song was his first release under Cash Money Records and Universal Motown Records, a music video was filmed in Miami, Florida, and directed by Gil Green, featuring cameos by Flo Rida, Bow Wow, Busta Rhymes, and other artists. The next single, "I'm on One", featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, was released on May 20, 2011. Khaled performed the song at BET Awards 2011, which aired on June 26, 2011. On December 10, 2011, DJ Khaled announced the title of his next album, Kiss the Ring in an online video, with the release date as "coming soon" in 2012. Guests on the album include T-Pain, French Montana, Future, Wiz Khalifa, Nas, Plies, Ace Hood, Kanye West, Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Jadakiss, Kirko Bangz, Mack Maine, Tyga, T.I., J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T., Mavado, and Wale. Khaled mentioned that he had a verse from someone "very special", which was later revealed as Scarface. The first single released was "Take It to the Head", featuring Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. The second single was "I Wish You Would", featuring Kanye West and Rick Ross. Kiss the Ring was released on August 21, 2012 and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200. The third single was "Bitches and Bottles" featuring T.I., Lil Wayne, and Future. In 2012, Khaled and other producers, including No I.D., worked with Kanye West on his sixth studio album Yeezus, although Khaled's contributions were ultimately omitted from the album.
2013–2015: ''Suffering from Success'' and ''I Changed a Lot''
In January 2013, Khaled announced that he began work on his seventh album, Suffering from Success. After attending a doctor due to a bald spot on his beard, Khaled was told that he was "suffering from success", which inspired the album's title. The first single from the album, "No New Friends", features Drake, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, and was produced by Canadian producers Boi-1da and Noah "40" Shebib. On April 14, 2013, Khaled released a promotional video for Suffering for Success, and the music video for the aforementioned single. The single was premiered the following day and released to iTunes of April 19, 2013. "No New Friends" has since debuted at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 10, 2013, it was announced that Suffering from Success would be released on September 24, 2013. On July 25, 2013, Khaled publicly "proposed" to fellow Cash Money artist Nicki Minaj via MTV. He supported his offer with a 10-karat diamond ring from Rafaello & Co., valued at about $500,000. Later, he reaffirmed his proposal in an interview with Power 106's DJ Felli Fel, stating: "I ain't a young boy no more. I'm on my thinking the future. I just had to be honest. I always liked her. She's my friend, of course. And I like her. It's more than a crush." On July 29, 2013, in an interview with Funkmaster Flex, Minaj denied Khaled's proposal, saying: "Khaled is my brother and Khaled was not serious with that damn proposal, ya'll. Please let it go. He was kidding." The same day, Flex premiered Khaled's new single, "I Wanna Be with You", which featured Minaj, as well as frequent collaborators Future and Rick Ross. This lead some to believe that his proposal was a publicity stunt to promote his new single.On April 28, 2014, DJ Khaled announced in an interview with MTV that Jay-Z would be featured on his new single. The interview was noted due to Khaled "cursing, gesturing, and tossing the microphone to the floor in an effort to convey the importance and impact of the music he has coming this summer." A few hours after that, he released the single called "They Don't Love You No More", also featuring frequent collaborators Rick Ross, Meek Mill and French Montana. The song will be on his eight studio album, I Changed A Lot, which was released in 2015. The following day, "They Don't Love You No More" was serviced to mainstream urban radio in the United States.
On July 1, 2014, Khaled announced that he has partnered with Danish audio company Bang & Olufsen to launch his own brand of headphones, titled "We the Best Sound". The brand is advertised in the video "They Don't Love You No More." On August 8, 2014, Khaled released the official artwork for the second single from I Changed A Lot entitled "Hold You Down" which features Chris Brown, August Alsina, Future and Jeremih, and is produced by Bkorn, Lee on the Beats and LDB. The single was released on August 11, 2014, along with a music video, directed by Gil Green. On November 3, 2014, Khaled released the remix to "Hold You Down" featuring Usher, Rick Ross, Fabolous, and Ace Hood. On May 11, 2015, DJ Khaled revealed that he had amicably parted ways with Cash Money Records. "I'm not signed to Cash Money at all. I've been off for a minute," Khaled revealed. "It's not that I'm here to promote that I've been off. That's family. But, nah, it's just We The Best. Nothing negative, everything's beautiful." On the same day, DJ Khaled released the third single off the album I Changed a Lot titled "How Many Times", featuring Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Big Sean produced Bkorn, Lee on the Beats and OZ. DJ Khaled revealed that his long-delayed album, I Changed A Lot, released on October 23, 2015, and also revealed the album's artwork.