Producer Khao, The Busiest Man in Show Biz

The Zorro of the hood, better known as Khao, a name that sounds silky smooth on all his trademark beats with a sexy jingle involving a girl in a low breathy voice saying, "Khaaooooooo." Listen to "Why You Wanna" by T.I. and you'll hear it. You'll also hear why this song is so important to Khao's career.

Khao's discography mimics that of a veteran yet continues to expand. He's responsible for spawning joints for artist such as Lil Kim, Paul Wall, Trick Daddy and Young Jeezy; still, Khao explains why T.I was the artist that helped catapult his career. Once the single, "Why You Wanna" hit the airwaves, Khao says the tables were turned. No longer was Khao shopping beats around, instead people were coming to him asking for a hit. No longer is Khao just the man behind the music. Sooner than later, Khao is debuting as a full-out artist with his own album that he produced and stars in as the main rapper as well.

That hit brought several awards for Khao, including the prestigious Billboard award and the Ascap Award for the number one song of 2006.

Khao's story embodies the truth behind the infamous phrase that everyone repeats to themselves when things aren't going their way. "Everything happens for a reason"; a phrase I'm sure many of us hear a lot, but never think too much about. For Khao, this couldn't be truer. Rewind back to 2004: T.I. just dropped Urban Legend, Khao produced two tracks on the album and his career was about to skyrocket. Universal Records was asking Khao for tracks, so accordingly, Khao asked for all his material to be packed onto a car to be driven over to Universal. In the process, the car was stolen, along with the producer's material including the two tracks for Universal.

In retrospect, the producer agrees that the experience was a blessing in disguise. "I was complacent before the carjacking," says Khao. As to not letting the crime knock him off his feet, Khao went back into the studio and began working on what would later become his trademark sound. Lacking all his equipment, Khao had to get creative. "I went back into the studio and made beats with my voice. That's why you hear vocal sounds in my music."
Today, Khao is working diligently on keeping his name relevant in the game.

Aside from his solo project, Khao is working with DJ Drama on Gangsta Grillz, a notorious mixtape series. It's no surprise that the two would team up. Both Khao and DJ Drama are Grand Hustle representatives. Khao, a self-proclaimed team player for Grand Hustle, gives me some insight on what went down when DJ Drama was raided by the RIAA for making music. "Just shocked!" says Khao about the arrest. "What? Drama ain't selling drugs," was Khao's first thought. Still, Drama's drama with the RIAA only fueled the Grand Hustle crew. "It just gave Drama a story. It fueled him."

Try catching up with Khao. His most recent work is featured on some of this year's most highly anticipated albums, such as R.Kelly's next single, Double Up, a track on Usher's upcoming highly anticipated album, the next single coming out of T.I.'s new album T.I. Versus T.I.P. titled "Watch What You Say' and the next single for Chris Brown's album.