Khari Cain (born April 19, 1978), professionally known as Needlz, is an American record producer and songwriter.

Early life and career

Cain was born on April 19, 1978, in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, Michigan, Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County, Michigan, Eaton County and nort ...

. He began to DJ while an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

in Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. He majored in the graduate music business program at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Steinhardt School and originally intended to pursue a career in artist and repertoire (A&R). After attaining an internship with

Bad Boy Records Bad Boy Entertainment, doing business as Bad Boy Records, is an American independent record label. The label was founded in 1993 by rapper and record producer Sean Combs. During the mid-1990s, the label signed hip-hop and contemporary R&B, R&B a ...

, he was inspired to begin a career in record production. With the help of A&R Folayan Knight, Needlz associated with

Black Entertainment Television Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

(BET) and MTV and created theme songs for '' Rap City'' and ''Suckafree Sundays'', respectively. Fellow record producer Swizz Beatz assisted Needlz to "exposure" by collaborating in album production, including Cassidy's '' I'm a Hustla'' and Swizz Beatz '' One Man Band Man''.

Production style

Needlz chiefly produces songs in the

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

genre. He describes his style as "an

oxymoron An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that Juxtaposition, juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction (disambiguation), self-contradiction. As a rhetorical de ...

: clean and dirty at the same time". He uses Akai MPC2000XL and Pro Tools to produce beats and utilizes Kurzweil K2661 and the Roland MKS-80 for

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s. He has endorsed the Native Instruments Maschine.

Production discography

References

External links

Official website
Living people American hip-hop record producers Florida A&M University alumni Florida State University alumni Midwest hip-hop musicians Musicians from Lansing, Michigan Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni Businesspeople from Lansing, Michigan 1978 births {{record-producer-stub