Khayree

Vallejo musician

Khayree D. Shaheed was born in 1960 and is based in Vallejo, California. Active since 1976, he is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist who also plays guitar and keyboards, and he has worked as a songwriter, producer and film composer, including score work for Marlon Riggs' documentary “Tongues Untied.” Among his early production credits were two tracks, “Hooked” and “It's a Party,” on Vanilla Ice's 1990 album “To the Extreme.”

Strictly Business and Mac Dre

Khayree produced Mac Dre's early releases from 1989 onward. That partnership culminated in Mac Dre's debut album, “Young Black Brotha,” released November 29, 1993, on Strictly Business Records. It reached number 93 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and marked the final collaboration between the two.

Young Black Brotha Records

His next label, Young Black Brotha Records, released Mac Mall's debut, “Illegal Business?,” on July 13, 1993, with Khayree producing the entire album, including the single “Ghetto Theme.” He produced most of Young Lay's “Black 'N Dangerous,” whose “All About My Fetti” was featured on the “New Jersey Drive” soundtrack, and Ray Luv's “Forever Hustlin',” a 1995 Young Black Brotha release through Interscope Records that peaked at number 21 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. He also contributed production to Mac Mall's 1996 Relativity album “Untouchable.”

Sound and later work

His productions drew on the G-funk style common in mid-1990s West Coast rap but were usually made without samples, relying on his own playing. He released his own album, “The Blackalation (The World Is Yours),” in 1997, and holds songwriting credits with En Vogue and Tupac Shakur. Around 2010 he reunited with Mac Mall to work on new material.