Dallas Austin (born December 29, 1972 in Columbus, Georgia) is an African American songwriter, record producer, guitarist, and keyboardist.

He has crafted songs for a number of R&B and pop chart artists, including Boyz II Men, Monica, Madonna, Janet Jackson, For Real, Aretha Franklin, Another Bad Creation, and Brand New Heavies. Austin's most notable works are his many hits for LaFace act TLC, including "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg", "What About Your Friends", "Creep", "Silly Ho", "Unpretty", and "Girl Talk". He has a son, Tron, with TLC member Rozonda "Chili" Thomas.

Austin has tried his hand at remixing for other artists, most notably "They Don't Really Care About Us" for Michael Jackson and "The Power of Goodbye" for Madonna. In more recent times, Austin's work has returned him to the charts, writing and producing the hits "Trick Me" for Kelis as well as "Left Outside Alone" and "Sick and Tired" for Anastacia.

In addition to American artists, Austin has produced songs for overseas artists. In 1999, Austin and Japanese pop diva Amuro Namie began a professional relationship which breathed new life into her career. Most of Amuro's hits since that year have been produced by Austin. Since their collaboration began, Amuro's hits now have an almost exclusive R&B flavor. Sales numbers and Oricon rankings demonstrate the large impact Austin has had on the Japanese pop scene as well as the American one.

Austin is known for socially conscious productions such as TLC's "Unpretty" and "Damaged," and more, recently, "Ugly" for UK act Sugababes. For the Sugababes, Austin produced several other tracks on their #1 album, "Taller In More Ways," including the single, "Push The Button", which spent three weeks at the top of the UK charts, holding off comeback single "Trippin'" by UK star Robbie Williams. He is also responsible for producing Gwen Stefani's single "Cool" from her "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." album.

Other credits of Austin's include the #1 single "Hit 'Em Up Style" recorded by Blu Cantrell, "Don't Let Me Get Me" and "Just Like A Pill" recorded by P!nk and the hit "Secret" by Madonna.

Austin executive produced the film Drumline (2002) for 20th Century Fox. He also served as the film's musical director. Austin is currently working with Warner Bros. studios on another music-driven film. Upcoming projects also include a part in the re-release of Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi.

Credit: en.wikipedia.org