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

Early life and career

Khari Cain was born on April 19, 1978 in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...

. He began to DJ while an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...

and

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

. He majored in the graduate music business program at New York University and originally intended to pursue a career in artist and repertoire (A&R). After attaining an internship with Bad Boy Records, he was inspired to begin a career in record production. With the help of A&R Folayan Knight, Needlz associated with Black Entertainment Television (BET) and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and created theme songs for ''

Rap City ''Rap City'' is a music video television program block that originally aired on the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network from August 11, 1989, to November 8, 2008. The program was an exclusive showcase for hip hop music videos, and featu ...

'' and ''Suckafree Sundays'', respectively. Fellow record producer

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the ag ...

assisted Needlz to "exposure" by collaborating in album production, including Cassidy's '' I'm a Hustla'' and Swizz Beatz ''

One Man Band Man ''One Man Band Man'' is the debut studio album by American hip hop recording artist and record producer Swizz Beatz, released on August 21, 2007, through Full Surface and Universal Motown Records. The album features guest appearances from Drag-O ...

''.

Production style

Needlz chiefly produces songs in the hip hop genre. He describes his style as "an

oxymoron An oxymoron (usual plural oxymorons, more rarely oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction. An oxymoron can be used as a rhetorical devi ...

: clean and dirty at the same time". He uses Akai MPC2000XL and

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

to produce

beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

s and utilizes Kurzweil K2661 and the

Roland MKS-80 The Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter is a rack mount sound module version of the Roland Jupiter-6 and the Roland Jupiter-8 synthesizers. It is an 8-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Roland between 1984 and 1987. It is the ...

for

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

s. He has endorsed the

Native Instruments Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are lo ...

Maschine Maschine is a hardware/software digital audio workstation developed by Native Instruments. Maschine consists of a controller that connects to the included sequencing software, which can be installed on any compatible computer or laptop. Hardware ...

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