RiGHT-HAND MAN Timbland protégé, Danjahandz, is coming of age.

STORY BEN DETRICK

Maybe there’s something in the saltwater, but producers just sprout from the sand of Virginia Beach. Nate “Danjahandz” Hills, who took up drums and piano in his early teens, first linked up with local legends Teddy Riley and The Neptunes, but it was a 2003 audition with fellow Virginian Timbaland that put the 25-year-old on the fast track. “I went on the tour bus, he put the CD in and listened to the first three seconds of every track—the real beat didn’t even come in,” recalls Danja who makes the ascendance to platinum hitmaker sound breathtakingly simple. “A little time passed and I ended up in Miami [with Timbaland].”

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