Nathaniel "Danjahandz" Hills

Virginia Beach native Nathaniel Hills, a producer better known as Danjahandz or just Danja, began his musical foray at age six when his father purchased his first keyboard. He later picked up the drums, playing both in his father's church. In his teens, Hills was already composing music, experimenting with multi-track machines and other types of recording equipment. Before he graduated from high school in 1999, he found himself briefly working with R&B producer Teddy Riley. As fortuitous as that opportunity was, he came into contact with another superproducer, Timbaland, at a Virginia music symposium in 2001. Although it took a couple more encounters over the next two years, Timbaland finally invited Danjahandz to Miami to work more closely with his artist John Doe (aka D.O.E.). From then onward, Danjahandz became an integral part of Timbaland's work as shown by his co-producing credits for several artists across the board, including Fantasia, 50 Cent, Katharine McPhee, and Björk. In the years 2006 and 2007, with his Mosley Music imprint, Timbaland was on a hot streak in large part due to Danjahandz's assistance in producing several chart-ruling singles and albums. He co-produced Nelly Furtado's number one "Promiscuous" and Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback" and "My Love," not to mention the majority of their respective albums, Loose and FutureSex/LoveSounds. In fact, from the latter effort, Danjahandz walked away with two Grammys (out of four nominations). Despite being Timbaland's sideman, his efforts did not go unnoticed. Responsible for six number one singles in 2006, he was honored at a private dinner hosted by top industry executives in May 2007. ~ Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide