Island Def Jam signed talent Khalil drops off his new record “Quality” that will appear on his upcoming EP Misunderstood. The project will also feature Fki (2 Chainz “Watch Out”) and Rex Kudo (Post Malone “White Iverson”) and Cashio. In addition Khalil is planning the release of his video for “Quality” that will be released in the coming weeks.
Khalil has a storybook tale of getting signed to a major label, as Khalil caught the attention of Def Jam as a young aspiring R&B artist in trying to be heard on YouTube. Khalil covered the oldies and from there learned about songwriting and making music.
“I’m used to sing Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway as a kid. Growing up when I was singing on the YouTube I was singing Frankie Lyman, Stacy Lattisaw, Tevin Campbell and a bunch of old school stuff. It’s definitely inspired my writing process,” Khalil said of his love of old school music.
While signed to Def Jam, Khalil would become good friends with soon-to-be international pop icon Justin Bieber, and the two began collaborating frequently and hanging out.
“Me and Justin met through a mutual friend and we also knew about each other with Def Jam. It was our first time meeting in Miami and we kind of vibed out and we ended up making music,” Khalil said.
Last year the guys released “Playtime,” their first official collaboration together, and it’s since garnered millions of views acrossYouTube and other platforms.
Now in 2016 a refocused Khalil has returned with a new dedication to writing his own material as he gears up for his first EP.
“I’ve been working on a whole new EP which features ‘Simple’ and ‘Quality.’ They are both singles that will be available on iTunes. I’ve just been working on the new EP and just finding myself musically, but most of the music on the new project I wrote myself, and I’m just trying to make better music,” Khalil said of his EP.
“When I first started posting music on Soundcloud I was doing a lot of stuff that people were writing for me, and other songs that people were giving me. I was always interested in writing but I never really sat down and took over the whole experience of the writing process. Rex Kudo and FKi, they have a producer camp and they kind of brought out a new sound for me and we just worked on the writing process.”
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