Shahid Khan (Urdu: شاهد خان; born 1 January 1985) known by his stage name Naughty Boy, is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, musician and rapper. In 2012, Shahid Khan signed a three–year publishing deal with Sony ATV, as well as a recording contract to release one album under Virgin EMI Records. Shahid Khan launched himself as a record producer under the moniker "Naughty Boy" and runs his own production company called Naughty Boy Recordings.
In March 2015, it was confirmed that Naughty Boy had worked with, then-One Direction member, Zayn for one of the tracks of his second album. Malik exited the band shortly after this announcement, which led to many One Direction fans blaming Naughty Boy for Malik's departure.
Early Life[]
Shahid Khan was born in Watford, Hertfordshire. His parents being originally from Pakistan. Shahid Khan is of Pakistani descent. Initially, Shahid Khan was studying Business and Marketing at London Guildhall University, but during his first semester, he decided to drop out and did various part-time jobs in Dominos Pizza and Watford General hospital.
He "decided to follow his ambition to write and produce his own music, under the name Naughty Boy Recordings." In the background, Shahid Khan was recording songs in his parents' garden shed in Charlock Way in Watford, Hertfordshire. The finances allowed Shahid Khan to upscale production from the garden shed to a studio in Ealing, West London. Eventually, he got a three-year contract with Sony ATV, and a one-album record deal with Virgin Records (EMI Records).
Career[]
2009 – 2012: Early Beginnings[]
The producer burst on to the music scene in 2009, by co-writing and producing Chipmunk's hit single "Diamond Rings", featuring Emeli Sandé. Shahid Khan would once again work with Sandé, this time on Wiley's "Never Be Your Woman" (2010), a cover of White Town's "Your Woman" (1997). Sandé later earned a record deal with Virgin Records, with Shahid Khan co-writing and producing her debut album, Our Version of Events. Naughty Boy was formally introduced and credited as an artist on Sandé's second single "Daddy".
Shahid Khan has also worked with Alesha Dixon, JLS, Lily Allen, Alexandra Burke and Jennifer Hudson. He also produced records for Professor Green, Cheryl Cole and Tinie Tempah. Shahid Khan worked with Sandé to produce and co-write Leona Lewis' 2012 comeback single "Trouble" which features Childish Gambino. Shahid Khan also wrote and produced "When It Hurts" and "Mountains" for Lewis' album Glassheart. He also worked on records for Rihanna including "Half of Me", "Side Effects of You" for Fantasia Barrino and co-produced "Craziest Things" with will.i.am for Cheryl Cole.
2012 – 14: Hotel Cabana[]
Shahid Khan also spent time working on his own debut album titled Hotel Cabana. The album's first single "Wonder" features frequent collaborator Sandé on the lead vocals. It was released on September 30, 2012 and also was the leading single from the re-release of Sandé's debut album, Our Version of Events.
British singer Gabrielle also worked with Naughty Boy for Hotel Cabana on a song called "Hollywood", which was initially tipped to be the album's second single, with the album following in February 2013. Gabrielle also revealed that fellow British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and British rapper Tinie Tempah will also feature on Hotel Cabana. Both Tempah and Sheeran have worked with Naughty Boy on previous records. A trailer for Hotel Cabana was premiered on Naughty Boy's Vevo account on September 20, 2012. It states Hotel Cabana is "directed by Naughty Boy, starring Emeli Sandé, Tinie Tempah, Professor Green, Gabrielle and George the Poet". Shahid Khan's opinion of it was "It has a concept to it, so it's more like a film in some respects", claiming "I'm not just a producer – I'm a director too". However, it did not happen until May 2013, that the second single "La La La" featuring Sam Smith was released. The album was released on August 26, 2013.
After completing work on his own album, in 2013, Khan resumed production for other artists. He worked on pop records for American singer Britney Spears. British singer Lily Allen also asked Khan to produce records for her upcoming album. Additionally, he teamed up with Sandé and Katy Perry in New York for a song set to appear on Perry's upcoming album, Prism (2013).
2015 – present: Bungee Jumping, Naughty Town & Rak-Su[]
In March 2015, it was confirmed that Naughty Boy had worked with then-One Direction member Zayn for one of the tracks of his second album. Malik exited the band shortly after this announcement, which led to many One Direction fans blaming Naughty Boy for Malik's departure.
On September 16, 2015, Naughty Boy announced that he would release a song titled "Runnin' (Lose It All)" featuring Beyoncé and Arrow Benjamin. On the same date, he shared the artwork for the single, its lyrics, a 15-second sound snippet along with a video through his Instagram account and began a countdown until its online release. The following day, on September 17, 2015, "Runnin' (Lose It All)" premiered online. It was available for digital download on the iTunes Store on September 18, 2015. "Should've Been Me", featuring vocals from Kyla and Popcaan was released as the second single on November 18, 2016. "One Chance to Dance", featuring vocals from Joe Jonas was released as the third single on October 20, 2017.
On September 13, 2017, Naughty Boy released the reworked edition of the Jackson 5's song "Dancing Machine" featuring the vocals of Laura Mvula under the name of "Naughty Town" will be released in his Motown covers album.
In December 2017, Naughty Boy along with Wyclef Jean appeared on the final of the fourteenth series of The X Factor, guest performing "Dimelo" with contestants Rak-Su, his fellow Watford natives. Rak-Su won and the performance was released as the winner's single.
On January 1, 2018, Naughty Boy announced his second album "Bungee Jumping" which is slated for a Spring release. This album will feature collaborations with Dua Lipa, Mike Posner, MNEK, Ray BLK, Joe Jonas and Julia Michaels.
Feud with Zayn[]
Zayn had a brief working relationship with Khan from early 2014 to mid 2015. While Naughty Boy was signed with Virgin EMI, he had ties to Syco Music and was friends with Simon Cowell. Tension was reported to have risen between One Direction and Naughty Boy after they did not feature any of his songs on their album, Four, after he worked with them throughout 2014.
Zayn appeared close with Naughty Boy, purchasing custom made 'Zaughty' tracksuits with him in 2014. In March 2015, after Zayn exited One Direction, Naughty Boy posted a series of antagonizing tweets, making fun of One Direction's fans and claiming "Zaughty" had "won". Louis Tomlinson called him out, tweeting "Wow @NaughtyBoyMusic you're so inconsiderate pal , seriously how fucking old are you? Grow up! #masterofallwisdom".[1] Naughty Boy responded by leaking a demo of an unfinished solo Zayn song titled "I Won't Mind".
In May 2015, another Twitter fight between Louis and Naughty Boy erupted, after Naughty Boy interpreted a humorous Instagram post by Liam, stating he had found a replacement fifth member, as a diss against Zayn. Naughty posted a photo titled "Replace this" onto Twitter, which Louis promptly insulted.[2][3] Naughty Boy responded by saying Louis couldn't sing and used autotune.[4] The fight concluded when Zayn addressed Louis, tweeting "Remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine?".[5] These events were the catalyst for the fan-led campaign to make "No Control" an unofficial single. In July 2015, after Naughty Boy leaked Zayn's cover of Rae Sremmurd's song "No Type", along with a music video he secretly filmed in January 2015, Zayn cut all ties with Naughty Boy, tweeting "@NaughtyBoyMusic you fat joke stop pretending we're friends no one knows you."[6] Naughty Boy has since gone on to work with Beyonce on the hit single "Runnin'" and has twice taken shots at Zayn again on Twitter, but Zayn did not respond.
Discography[]
Studio Album[]
- Hotel Cabana
- Bungee Jumping
Singles[]
As Lead Artist[]
- "Never Be Your Woman" (Wiley featuring Emeli Sandé)
- "Wonder" (featuring Emeli Sandé)
- "La La La" (featuring Sam Smith)
- "Lifted" (featuring Emeli Sandé)
- "Think About It" (featuring Wiz Khalifa and Ella Eyre)
- "Home" (featuring RØMANS)
- "Runnin' (Lose It All)" (featuring Beyoncé and Arrow Benjamin)
- "Should've Been Me" (featuring Kyla and Popcaan)
- One Chance To Dance" (featuring Joe Jonas)
As Featured Artist[]
- "Dimelo" (Rak-Su featuring Wyclef Jean and Naughty Boy) (Album: Our Version of Events)
- "Daddy" (Emeli Sandé featuring Naughty Boy)
Awards and Nominations[]
In January 2015, Khan was nominated for the Young Achiever award at the British Muslim Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Best Song | "La La La" | Won |
| 2013 | Best Video | "La La La" | Won |
| 2013 | YouTube Breakthrough | "La La La" | Nominated |
| 2014 | Dance Song of the Year | "La La La" | Nominated |
| 2014 | British Video of the Year | "La La La" | Nominated |
| 2016 | British Video of the Year | "Runnin' (Lose It All)" | Nominated |