Khai Jaden Tyson (born October 12, 2002), known professionally as Khaiti, is an American singer and songwriter. He signed with Gensowise & Damian Martinez's independent label, New Gen Music, and rose to fame after he used samples of Terror Jr's "Come First", and Samantha Jade "Sweet Talk" to make his hit singles "Us" and "U Say" (known currently as "2002WATTS").
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Early Life
Khaiti was born in Baltimore, MD. He was raised by his mother, father, and his grandparents from his mother's side. He started making music at age twenty. He grew up listening to Juice WRLD, Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, Justin Bieber, Usher, and Michael Jackson among others. Khaiti attended Faith West Academy, Aristoi Classical Academy, Camden Military Academy, Morton Ranch High School, and Katy High School.
Khaiti started his education at Faith West Academy from first to fifth grade, but would be expelled in fifth grade after behavioral problems in his classes. Although maintaining good grades, he would find himself in class exchanging jokes and enjoying his friends' company instead of keeping attentive to respect the classroom. In sixth grade, he attended Aristoi Classical Academy. This is where he would continue to experience behavioral issues but experience a positive that led to his choice to pursue music. On November 11th, 2014, he would sing with his choir at Aristoi Classical Academy for a Veteran's Day performance. He would end up singing lead for one of the songs performed by the choir, and would land on the front page of "Houston Chronicle" for the event. Later that school year, the choir would be asked to sing at the "Sugar Land Skeeters" for their success. In seventh and eleventh grade, he would attend Morton Ranch Middle & High School. In eighth grade, he attended Faith West again after bridges were rebuilt between Khaiti and the school principal at the time. He would leave Faith West in the middle of ninth grade in December 2016 to attend Camden Military Academy, after the behavioral problems became more of a home issue, sneaking out and disobeying his parent's rules. He would come back to live in Houston, TX after being in Camden, SC for school from January 2017 to May 2018. After returning from military school, he would attend Faith West Academy but later into his junior year get into some more behavioral issues at his school. He would spend his senior year and graduate.
Career
In 2023, Khaiti started his career by making "DONTWANNAGOHOME", which was posted on SoundCloud to highlight his battle with dermatomyositis, and his emotions towards living. Later that year, his songs, "Us" and "U Say" (known currently as "2002WATTS" as homage to Michael Jackson) were his highest played on the streaming platform, SoundCloud, amassing 500k+ plays combined.
Notoriety came for him in June of 2024 when he was introduced by a mutual friend to Gensowise, an artist, producer, and CEO of label New Gen Music. After the two connected, he would go on to sign with the label in June of 2024, and go viral on Instagram after posting covers of popular songs by John Legend, Ed Sheeran, and even a cover of his unreleased songs at the time, "MAMMAMIA" & "¡DONTWANNAGOHOME, PT. II". The publicity followed when he started posting trending videos on Instagram and TikTok of posting himself lip syncing to his songs. Performing in July 2024, he started to get attention around his hometown of Katy, TX, as people began to recognize and remember him from schools around the area such as Katy and Morton Ranch High School, along with Faith West Academy. Being that his performances and label were based in San Antonio, he made the decision to go full-time in songwriting. In February of 2025, after building up a fanbase from social media platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok, he released his first studio album under his label New Gen Music, named "Imagine." Tallying whopping numbers and building popularity at a quick rate, he managed to debut on the Billboard Top 200 at Number 2.
Legal issues
In 2023, Khaiti was charged with a DWI (Drinking While Intoxicated) misdemeanor filed by Harris County in Houston, TX. After not showing up to his court date, he would later go back for a short period of time. Khaiti would explain in an interview that he was "not in a good place in his head". He would go on to say that he blames himself for putting people's lives in danger that day, stating how traumatic is was for him to realize his mistake, "Knowing that I wouldn't have been awake to see the person whose life I had damaged, or anyone who could have been affected by what I've done." He would have the case dismissed as of June 28th, 2024, but the impact it had on Khaiti is heavily involved in his point of view when it comes life, per his words.