Crada (producer)

Christian Kalla, better known as Crada, is a Grammy-nominated German producer, instrumentalist, mix engineer and songwriter from Marktleuthen, Germany. He has produced and written for artists and groups such as Drake, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, Kendrick Lamar, Emeli Sande, Tinie Tempah, Conor Maynard, Clare Maguire, Jay Rock, Talib Kweli, The Lox, La Fouine, Tim Bendzko among others. He is currently one of the most sought-after producers in Europe.

Born and raised in a small town in northern Bavaria, he started DJ-ing at the age of 13. By the age of 18, without any formal musical training, he started using the Magix Music Maker beat-making program. A few years later, he produced his first major record on the very same producing software. After leaving his hometown he studied music at Mannheim's University of Popular Music and Music Business, where he graduated in 2009.

Crada was influenced by many kinds of music including uk breakbeat records, rap and electronic music in general.

Crada was producing and djing in a three piece band called Sceptic from 2001–2005. After the group split up he went on to work with his mentor Ali Rasul (formerly front man of rap group Square One) on his 'Opium' Mixtape series. In 2005 Crada enrolled at Germany’s most prestigious music school Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim. He also worked with several other German artists by that time including Samy Deluxe, Curse, Olli Banjo. Following the collaboration with Ali Rasul he was introduced to his managers DJ Kitsune and Markus Ernst who he worked with ever since. In 2008 Crada started doing several writing/production trips to New York. Crada's first US Single Release with The Lox is known to be a direct result of those sessions. In the following years he contributed music for the debut albums of Drake and Kid Cudi and gained international recognition.

Crada has received 1x US Platinum Award, 1x US Gold Award, 1x Platinum Award Germany, 4x Gold Award Germany, 1x Platinum Award Canada, 2x Gold Award UK, and 2x Platinum Award France until 2016.

On November 20, 2013 Crada signed to Starting Lineup Music Publishing/BMG Rights Management (Berlin) for an exclusive worldwide publishing deal.

In 2015 he announced via Facebook and Instagram that he became a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.