Danja (record producer)

Floyd Nathaniel Hills (born February 22, 1982), professionally known as Danja /ˈdɑːndʒə/, is an American record producer. He hails from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He has produced songs for several acts and artists such as Britney Spears, Usher, Keri Hilson, T.I., Nelly Furtado, Kevin Cossom, Ciara, Timbaland, Madonna, J. Cole, Kanye West, Whitney Houston, Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, JoJo, Joe Jonas, Simple Plan, The Clutch, Pink, T-Pain, Diddy, Björk and Duran Duran.

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 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]

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.^[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 five other songs for Britney Spears' album Circus, but only three songs appeared on the album.

His works in recent years include, Madonna, "4 Minutes", he also produced with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake other tracks from her 2008 album Hard Candy, 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. Danja had worked with Joe Jonas on his solo project which was 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 has also produced "Sexy to Me" by singer/songwriter Joanna Levesque, which is also featured on the singer's commercial for Clearasil.

Production equipment

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 an Access Virus TI. He also uses Apple Inc's audio sequencer Logic Pro.

Danja charges around $50,000-100,000 a track.^[6]

Production discography

References

External links

• Danja (record producer) on Myspace
• Danja (record producer) on Twitter
• Danja (record producer) on Tumblr