Mr. DJ, born David Sheats, is a
Grammy AwardThe Grammy Awards —or Grammys—are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry...
-winning
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hip-hop
record producerIn the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes...
and
DJA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
from
Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
.
Raised on the southside of
College Park, GeorgiaCollege Park is a city located partly in Fulton County, Georgia and partially in Clayton County, Georgia, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 20,382...
, Mr. DJ entered the music industry as a
DJA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
for Atlanta-based hip-hop group
OutKastOutKast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, a city south of Atlanta, Georgia. They were originally known as The OKB but later changed the group's name to OutKast. The group's original musical style was a mixture of Dirty South and G-Funk...
. According to Sheets,
After touring with the group for a year, he began to focus more on
productionIn the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes...
rather than deejaying. By sharpening his beat making skills, Mr. DJ got the opportunity to help produce OutKast's
1996
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January - At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the...
sophomore album
ATLiensATLiens is the second album by hip-hop duo OutKast. It was released on August 27, 1996. The title is a portmanteau of "ATL" and "aliens".-Overview:...
.
Mr. DJ, born David Sheats, is a
Grammy AwardThe Grammy Awards —or Grammys—are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry...
-winning
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hip-hop
record producerIn the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes...
and
DJA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
from
Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
.
Biography
Raised on the southside of
College Park, GeorgiaCollege Park is a city located partly in Fulton County, Georgia and partially in Clayton County, Georgia, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 20,382...
, Mr. DJ entered the music industry as a
DJA disc jockey is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, dis
k referred to phonograph records, while dis
c referred to the Compact Disc, and has become the more common spelling...
for Atlanta-based hip-hop group
OutKastOutKast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, a city south of Atlanta, Georgia. They were originally known as The OKB but later changed the group's name to OutKast. The group's original musical style was a mixture of Dirty South and G-Funk...
. According to Sheets,
After touring with the group for a year, he began to focus more on
productionIn the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes...
rather than deejaying. By sharpening his beat making skills, Mr. DJ got the opportunity to help produce OutKast's
1996
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January - At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the...
sophomore album
ATLiensATLiens is the second album by hip-hop duo OutKast. It was released on August 27, 1996. The title is a portmanteau of "ATL" and "aliens".-Overview:...
. Following his work on OutKast's “
Elevators (Me & You)"Elevators " is the song by the Hip-Hop group OutKast released as the first single from their album ATLiens. It peaked at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, being OutKast's biggest hit on the chart until the release of "Ms. Jackson" in 2000....
” and several songs from their album
AqueminiAquemini is the third studio album by hip hop duo OutKast, released September 29, 1998 on LaFace Records. The title is a portmanteau of the two performers' Zodiac signs: Aquarius and Gemini...
, Mr. DJ formed Earthtone III production group with
Andre 3000André Lauren Benjamin ,better known by his stage name André 3000 , is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actor, best known for his work in the group OutKast.-Early life:...
&
Big BoiAntwan André Patton , better known by his stage name Big Boi, is an American rapper, song-writer, record producer, actor, and one half of the alternative hip hop duo Outkast.-Outkast:...
. Collectively, they produced roughly 90% of all the
OutKastOutKast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, a city south of Atlanta, Georgia. They were originally known as The OKB but later changed the group's name to OutKast. The group's original musical style was a mixture of Dirty South and G-Funk...
albums, from
StankoniaStankonia is the fourth studio album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released October 31, 2000 on La Face Records. The album reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart , selling over 530,000 copies the first week of its release. Stankonia received universal acclaim from music critics, based on an...
on to their latest album,
IdlewildIdlewild is a soundtrack album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released August 22, 2006 on LaFace Records. It features songs from and inspired by OutKast's musical film Idlewild, released by Universal Pictures in August 2006, as well as OutKast recordings not directly related to the film...
. In addition, Mr. DJ continued to DJ on every OutKast album, except
Speakerboxxx/The Love BelowSpeakerboxxx/The Love Below is a double album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released September 23, 2003 on LaFace Records. Clocking at over two hours and a quarter, it includes a solo album from both of the group's members...
, which he mostly produced. To date, his most notable hits include "
Da Art of Storytellin'"Da Art of Storytellin' " is the second single released from the OutKast album Aquemini. It was released as a CD single in 1999, but failed to get any position on the Billboard Hot 100 .Only the single version of the song features Slick Rick, with his verse completely cut from the album version...
," "Bombs Over Baghdad," "
Ms. Jackson"Ms. Jackson" is a song by OutKast and the second single from their fourth album Stankonia. It topped the U.S. charts for the week of February 17, 2001, and won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. It also reached number one in Germany and number two in the United...
," and "
The Whole World"The Whole World" is a single by OutKast released as a new track on the compilation Big Boi and Dre Present...Outkast. The song managed to peak at number 19 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart....
." He is also a part of the Atlanta-based
hip-hopHip hop music is a musical genre which developed alongside hip hop culture, and is commonly based on concepts of loop, rapping, freestyle, DJing, scratching, sampling and beatboxing. The music is used to express concerns of political, social, and personal issues...
/
R&BRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
/
soulSoul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
musical collective
The Dungeon FamilyThe Dungeon Family is a hip hop/R&B/soul musical collective, based in Atlanta, Georgia and specializing in Southern hip hop with heavy funk and soul influences. The group derives its name from "The Dungeon", the name given to record producer Rico Wade's basement studio where many of the early...
.
Mr. DJ has won two Grammy Awards, one in 2002 for
Best Rap Performance by a Duo or GroupThe Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group has been awarded since 1991, alongside the Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Previously a single award was presented for Best Rap Performance...
for "
Ms. Jackson"Ms. Jackson" is a song by OutKast and the second single from their fourth album Stankonia. It topped the U.S. charts for the week of February 17, 2001, and won a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. It also reached number one in Germany and number two in the United...
," and another in 2004 for
Rap Album of the YearThe Grammy Award for Best Rap Album has been awarded since 1996. Grammy Awards of one year are presented for works released between October 1 two years previously and September 30 of the preceding year.*2009 – Lil Wayne for Tha Carter III...
for his work on OutKast's
Speakerboxxx/The Love BelowSpeakerboxxx/The Love Below is a double album by American hip hop duo OutKast, released September 23, 2003 on LaFace Records. Clocking at over two hours and a quarter, it includes a solo album from both of the group's members...
. In 2008, he started his own
record labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Camp David Records, with several new artists including Jeff B., Chinkie Brown and
Shawty ReddShawty Redd is an Atlanta-based record producer, rapper, and songwriter. In November 2007, Atlanta-based producer Shawty Redd changed the face of Hip-Hop music when he crafted “Sensual Seduction,” the first single from multi-platinum rapper Snoop Dogg’s Ego Trip...
. Public Relations Associate Keith Kemp was quoted as saying:
Mr. DJ recently worked with
Mos DefDante Terrell Smith is an American actor and MC known by the stage name Mos Def. Mos Def started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, who released the album...
on his new album
The EcstaticThe Ecstatic is the fourth studio album by American hip hop artist Mos Def, released June 9, 2009 on Downtown Records in the United States. It features several diverse musical styles, including soul, Afrobeat, jazz, funk, and Latin music, and has been noted by music writers for its...
, and produced three tracks on Common's
2008-January:*29 January**Face to Face announce that they will reunite for select shows in the US and internationally.**Rage Against the Machine headline the Big Day Out festivals in Australia and New Zealand, their first shows outside the United States since reforming, and their first Australian shows...
album,
Universal Mind ControlUniversal Mind Control is the eighth studio album by rapper Common. Originally scheduled to be released on June 24, 2008 under the name Invincible Summer, the release date was pushed back to September 30, 2008 due to Common filming Wanted...
. In addition to
OutKastOutKast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, a city south of Atlanta, Georgia. They were originally known as The OKB but later changed the group's name to OutKast. The group's original musical style was a mixture of Dirty South and G-Funk...
, Mr. DJ has worked with
Lenny KravitzLeonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and arranger whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads....
,
Bubba SparxxxWarren Anderson Mathis , known by his stage name Bubba Sparxxx, is an American Southern rapper. His biggest hit is "Ms. New Booty" featuring The Ying Yang Twins which peaked at #7 in the United States. In addition to the commercial success of his "Ms...
,
Goodie MobGoodie Mob is a hip hop act based in Atlanta, Georgia. Members Cee-Lo , Khujo , T-Mo Goodie , and Big Gipp make up the group, which has been functioning since 1995....
,
Killer MikeMichael Render , better known by his stage name Mike Bigga , formerly Killer Mike, is an American rapper, signed to Grind Time Official through the SMC/Fontana Distribution...
,
Field MobField Mob is a US hip hop duo originally from Albany, Georgia composed of artists Shawn Timothy Johnson and Darion Crawford...
,
Rich BoyMaurice Richards , better known by his stage name Rich Boy, is an American rapper from Mobile, Alabama. He is best known for the hit single "Throw Some D's". His self-titled debut album was released in early 2007.-Background:...
and 8Ball & MJG.