SPOTLIGHT

SO HOT RIGHT NOW: DJ KHALED

Hitmaker, producer, record label exec, author . . . Is there anything DJ Khaled can’t do? Here we give the lowdown on his 10th album, Grateful, which has spawned the No 1 single I’m The One. 1 Fans of DJ Khaled (41) know his eightmonth-old son, Asahd, is his pride and joy. He loves to share pics of the little guy on social media, and Asahd’s even credited as the executive producer on his dad’s newest album! He also appears on the covers of some of Khaled’s recent singles and is featured in the video for I’m The One, the album’s second single, featuring Justin Bieber, Lil Wayne, Chance the Rapper and Quavo. 2 The album is a star-studded affair with collabs with the likes of Rihanna, Drake and Big Sean. Little Asahd threw up on his dad in the studio while he was mixing Shining, his hit collab with Beyoncé and Jay-Z! “Believe it or not, the poops and the throw-ups are super blessings,” Khaled says. 3 Artists love to work with him. His rapper pal Rick Ross has featured on all his albums. “These artists work with me because I make good music, but also because I have good energy, a good heart and I’m grateful – the special things that God’s blessing me with, now the world can see them.” 4 His real name is Khaled Mohamed Khaled. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Palestinian immigrants. As a youngster he helped his parents sell clothes at a local flea market from their van. They later built apparel stores but it took a nosedive after a tax audit. Khaled, then a teen, had to hustle to keep the family afloat. 5 One of his first jobs was at a record store in New Orleans. There he met collaborator Lil Wayne when he was just 12. He also worked as a presenter on an urban music radio station in Miami and was a DJ for the US hip-hop collaborative Terror Squad, which included Fat Joe and Big Pun. 6 Khaled has used various stage names, among them Big Dog Pitbull, Terror Squadian and Arab Attack – which he changed after the 9/11 attacks not to seem insensitive. 7 He now lives in a $10 million (R130 million) mansion in Beverly Hills that he bought from singer Robbie Williams. He’s terrified of flying and travels in a tour bus. He doesn’t have a celeb crush. “I got a queen at home,” he says of his partner of 14 years, Nicole Tuck. 10 He wishes he could have met Bob Marley. “I met the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. My dream record would be with all of them.”