DJ Khalil

DJ Khalil was born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father, Walt Hazzard, who later changed his name to Mahdi Abdul-Rahman, was a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association. At age 13, at a party thrown by his parents, he met Dr. Dre, for whom he would later become a staff producer.^[2] Khalil played basketball at the high school and collegiate level, as a point guard at North Hollywood High School and Morehouse College.^[3]

Khalil began his career as a disc jockey (DJ), and graduated to producing music. He began creating tracks on the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler workstation, later working in Propellerhead Reason.^[4] He has produced for a large number of major artists in the hip-hop, R&B and pop genres, including Kanye West, Benny the Butcher, Nasty C, 50 Cent, Pink, the Game, ASAP Rocky, Drake, Eminem, G-Unit, Wale, Usher, Logic, and Guess Who, among many others.

He is the host of an eponymous radio station in the Sony PSP version of Rockstar Games title Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.^[5] He produced Bishop Lamont song "City Lights" which appeared in the racing game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and the Xzibit song "Klack" which appeared in the racing game Juiced. He produced exclusive tracks for EA Sports fighting game Fight Night Champion.