| Danja | |
|---|---|
| Birth name |
Floyd Nathaniel Hills |
| Also known as | Nate Hills, Danjahandz |
| Born | February 22, 1982 |
| Origin | Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S. |
| Genres | Pop, hip-hop, R&B, electronic, urban pop |
| Occupations | Record producer, songwriter |
| Instruments | percussion, synthesizer, keyboards, drums, sampler |
| Years active | 1998 – present |
| Labels | Danjahandz Muzik, CrownLife, N.A.R.S |
| Associated acts | J. Cole, Kanye West, Britney Spears, Whitney Houston, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, Kevin Cossom, JoJo, Keri Hilson, Ciara, Madonna, Nelly Furtado, Simple Plan, T.I., The Clutch, P!nk, T-Pain, Diddy, Björk, Usher, Duran Duran |
Floyd Nathaniel Hills (born February 22, 1982), professionally known as Danja ( /ˈdɑːndʒə/) or Danjahandz, is an American record producer, composer and songwriter.
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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 2000, Hills worked with producer and singer Teddy Riley on Blackstreets' fourth album, Level II.[2] 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][3][4]
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.[5]
In 2007, Danja produced "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" and four other songs for Britney Spears' album Circus, but only three songs appeared on the album.
His works in recent years include, Madonna, "4 Minutes", Mariah Carey on her song "Migrate" from E=MC², Keri Hilson on her song "Knock You Down" from In a Perfect World..., P!nk on her song "Sober" from Funhouse.
Danja is reportedly working on upcoming albums from Ciara, Kelly Rowland, Kelly Clarkson, Brandy, Jennifer Lopez, Usher, and Travis Garland (former member of boy band NLT), all of which are set for release in 2010. It was recently revealed Danja had worked with Joe Jonas on his solo project which is set to be released in 2011.
Danja produced the song, Toy Soldier on the Keri Hilson album No Boys Allowed, "Freak" by Jamie Foxx, "The Writer" by Jesse McCartney, "Sleep When I'm Gone" by DJ Khaled for his upcoming album "We The Best Forever". Danja has also been in studio with rapper J. Cole working on his debut album Cole World.
Danja also produced 3 songs on Diddy - Dirty Money's Last Train To Paris. According to Danja's Twitter account, He was in studio with Mary J.Blige and Jay-Z. Danja is working with his artist Kevin Cossom for his debut, L.O.V.E.. He produced the first single, "Baby I Like It" which features Fabolous and Diddy. He produced the single "Believe", as well as two leaks "Don't Leave Me Rose" and "Killer" by Travis Garland. He recently produced the song "Everything On Me" on T.I's latest album "No Mercy".
Danja uses an iMac, an Apogee Duet Sound Card, an Akai MPC4000, a Roland V-Synth, an Alesis Andromeda A6 synthesizer, a Yamaha Motif, and a Access Virus TI. He also uses Apple Inc's audio sequencer Logic Pro.
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.[6]