DJ Khaled

The title track of the latter carried the same name as the album and earned three nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.

Outside of music, Khaled has gained success as a writer, with his book The Keys featuring on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Khaled Mohammed Khaled (Arabic: خالد محمد خالد; born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American disc jockey, record producer, and record executive.

Originally a Miami-based radio hype man, Khaled has become known for his extensive curation of high-profile music industry artists and producers to record singles or albums.

His distinctions are his booming voice presence, "motivational" abstractions, and numerous catchphrases.

While his musical contribution is often questioned, Khaled's role has been described as "organization, direction, [and] promotion".

Khaled was born in New Orleans to Palestinian immigrant parents.

Khaled Mohammed Khaled was born on November 26, 1975, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Palestinian parents who immigrated to the United States; his father was from Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, and his mother from Ramallah.

His brother Alec Ledd (Alaa Khaled) is an actor.

His musician parents played Arabic music; Khaled started developing an interest in rap and soul music at a young age, and his parents supported his interest.

He worked in a local Merry-Go-Round record store which helped to lay foundations for his music career.

During his early career, Khaled became acquainted with several young artists and helped them before their breakthrough; these include Birdman, Lil Wayne, and Mavado.

He first gained recognition as a radio host in the 1990s for the radio station 99 Jamz, and translated his popularity by working with Fat Joe's hip hop collective Terror Squad as a DJ for their live performances.

One of his first jobs was at the New Orleans record store Odyssey where he met both Birdman and Lil Wayne in 1993.

After leaving Odyssey, he began DJing in reggae soundclashes, mixing dancehall and hip-hop.

His first radio gig was on a pirate station.

In 1998, he moved to Miami and co-hosted The Luke Show on WEDR "99 Jamz" with 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell.

In 2003, he started hosting a weeknight radio show on 99 Jamz called The Takeover.

During his career, Khaled has used many monikers including "Arab Attack", "Big Dog Pitbull", "Terror Squadian" (used during his time with the hip hop group Terror Squad), Beat Novacane (a moniker under which he produces beats), The Don Dada, Mr. Miami etc. Khaled has stated that he used The Moniker "Arab Attack" for music as in saying "attack with music", but it was soon discontinued by him after the September 11 attacks since he felt that using it would seem disrespectful and offensive towards those who suffered due to the attacks.

After gaining production credits on the group's material, Khaled independently released his debut album, Listennn... the Album in 2006.

On June 6, 2006, his debut album Listennn... the Album was released by Koch Records; it premiered on the US Billboard 200 chart at number 12.

His second album, We the Best (2007) spawned the hit single "I'm So Hood" (featuring T-Pain, Trick Daddy, Rick Ross and Plies).

We the Best (2007) is his second album with singles "I'm So Hood" with T-Pain, Trick Daddy, Plies, and Rick Ross and "We Takin' Over" with Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Lil Wayne.

"We Takin' Over" peaked at number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the US Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 20, 2007.

Khaled made a guest appearance on Birdman's 2007 album 5 * Stunna on the single "100 Million"; which also features Rick Ross, Dre, Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne.

That year, Khaled won two Ozone Awards: one for Best Video ("We Takin' Over") and another for Best Radio DJ.

His two subsequent releases — We Global (2008) and Victory (2010) — charted within the top ten of the Billboard 200, with the latter containing the triple platinum-certified single "All I Do Is Win" (featuring T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross).

His record label, We the Best Music Group has released his projects since its formation in 2008, while Khaled signed other artists to the imprint including Ace Hood, Kent Jones, Mavado, Flipp Dinero, and Vado, among others.

In 2008, Khaled's third album We Global came out with singles "Out Here Grindin" with Akon, Rick Ross, Lil' Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, and Plies, followed by "Go Hard" featuring Kanye West and T-Pain.

RIAA certified the single "I'm So Hood" Platinum on June 4, 2008.

That year, Khaled won DJ of the Year awards from the BET Hip Hop Awards and Ozone Awards.

He was appointed the president of Def Jam South in February 2009.

His fifth studio album, We the Best Forever (2011) saw continued commercial success, and helped bring Khaled to mainstream prominence as it contained the single "I'm on One" (featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne), which became his first Billboard Hot 100 top ten hit.

His following three albums—Kiss the Ring (2012), Suffering from Success (2013), and I Changed a Lot (2015)—were released to moderate critical and commercial reception.

In 2015 and 2016, Khaled gained wider recognition as a media personality and Internet meme due to his activity on social media.

This foresaw the release of his ninth studio album Major Key (2016), which was met with further critical and commercial success as it debuted atop the Billboard 200 and yielded his first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album.

His tenth album, Grateful (2017) became his second consecutive number-one album and was preceded by his most successful singles to date: "I'm The One" (featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne) and "Wild Thoughts" (featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller), which peaked at numbers one and two respectively on the Billboard Hot 100.

His eleventh album, Father of Asahd (2019) contained the song "Higher" (featuring Nipsey Hussle and John Legend), which won Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards; Khaled's first Grammy Award win.

He released his eponymous twelfth album in 2021, which also peaked the Billboard 200, likewise with his thirteenth album, God Did, the following year.

He has also performed as an actor for the films Spies in Disguise (2019) and Bad Boys for Life (2020).