Danja
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| Danja | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Floyd Nathaniel Hills |
| Also known as | Danjahandz |
| Born | April 11, 1982 |
| Origin | Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | Record producer, Songwriter |
| Instrument(s) | percussion, synthesizer, keyboards, drums, sampler |
| Years active | 1998 – present |
| Label(s) | Danjahandz Muzik/CrownLife Ent., Mosley Music Group |
| Associated acts | Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, JoJo, Keri Hilson, Britney Spears, Ciara, Madonna, Nelly Furtado, Simple Plan, T.I., The Clutch, Pink (artist) |
Floyd Nathaniel Hills, better known as Danja (pronounced /ˈdɑːndʒə/), is an American Grammy winning record producer, composer and songwriter.
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[edit] History
Hills, born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, took up drums and piano in his early teens. He got his start by playing in his church when he was growing up.[1]
In 2001, a chance encounter with Timbaland turned into an opportunity to play some music for him. Two years later, Timbaland brought Danja to Miami to work in his studio.[1][2][3]
[edit] Career
With Timbaland, Hills produced a wide catalog of songs that helped return the famous producer to prominence in 2006 with an ongoing string of hits throughout the year until present, including "Put You On The Game" by rapper The Game, "Promiscuous" and "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado, "SexyBack", "What Goes Around...Comes Around" and "My Love" by Justin Timberlake among others, such as "Love Story" by Katharine McPhee, "Innocence" and "Earth Intruders" by Björk, and "Give It to Me" and "The Way I Are" off Timbaland's second solo album.[4]
In 2007, Danja produced "Amnesia" for Dima Bilan and "Gimme More" for Britney Spears, as well as "Break the Ice" and five other tracks for her Blackout album. The following year, he produced "Kill The Lights","Blur" & "Rock Boy" for her sixth studio album Circus.
Hills produced Trey Songz single "Wonder Woman" off his second album Trey Day. More recently, in 2008, Danja co-produced the single from Madonna, "4 Minutes". He also has co-produced the first single "When I'm Gone" of Simple Plan's eponymous album. He has worked with Mariah Carey on her song "Migrate" from E=MC². He has also created a few songs in Danity Kane's 2008 album, Welcome to the Dollhouse. Artists like Kelly Rowland and The Clipse are expected to work with Hills for both of their new albums. Danja has collaborated with The Clutch to produce Cassie's single Official Girl for her sophomore effort on Bad Boy Records.[citation needed] Also in 2008, Danja produced "Work", "Echo", and "Turntables" which featured Chris Brown, for Ciara's third studio album Fantasy Ride, which was released in May 2009. According to britishhitsongwriters.com he is the 86th most successful songwriter in U.K. singles chart history based on the weeks that his compositions have spent on the chart.[5]
[edit] Production equipment
Danja uses a laptop, an Edirol MIDI controller, an Akai MPC4000, an Alesis Andromeda A6 synthesizer, a Korg Triton and a Yamaha Motif. He also uses Steinberg's audio sequencer Cubase, as revealed in an interview with Remix Magazine.[6] Also, in another interview on Danja's contribution to Clipse's new album, it was noted that Danja charges around $50,000-100,000 a track.[7] Like many producers, he makes his work known by saying his name in the songs that he has produced and like his mentor Timbaland he sometimes provides backing vocals especially in a low voice and is heavily done on some of Britney Spears' songs especially from the album Blackout.
[edit] Production discography
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b Janeé Bolden (2006-10-09). "Timbaland's Right Hand Man, Danja". SOHH.com. http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/9941.
- ^ Malcom Venable (2007-02-10). "Danja: Hitting the right note". HamptonRoads. http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=119133&ran=226934.
- ^ Jayson Rodriguez (2007-05-01). "Timbaland Protege Danja Makes His Own Noise With DJ Khaled, Trey Songz". MTV News. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1558394/20070430/danja.jhtml.
- ^ Hillary Crosley (2007-05-10). "Epic's Walk Honors Nate ‘DanjaHandz’ Hills". Billboard. http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i2291852ff4bdc3dd5f33f20bb97d3a8f.
- ^ http://britishhitsongwriters.com/
- ^ Anthony Roberts (2007-02-01). "Timbaland protégé Danja on producing tracks - Hip-hop Producer Danja". Remix Magazine. http://remixmag.com/artists/hiphop_R&B/remix_danja.
- ^ "Exclusive: Clipse Q&A" (Online news article). [1]. http://blog.rhapsody.com/2007/11/clipse-q-and-a.html. Retrieved on November 17 2007.
