Hanni El Khatib (born June 8, 1981)[1] is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer[2] as well as visual director and co-owner of the Los Angeles–based independent record label Innovative Leisure.

[11] He spent a year recording his songs[12] with electric guitar and drums at the suggestion of friend and studio engineer Marc Bianchi of Her Space Holiday.

After participating in a 2009 art show in San Francisco, he began circulating a homemade CDR of his music,[9] one of which he gave to Innovative Leisure label co-founder Jamie Strong.

[22] It was described by the Los Angeles Times as "a taut, muscular collection of rock ‘n’ roll"[23] and by The Guardian as "if Joe Strummer came back as an angry young Filipino-Palestinian American.

[12] The album's final track "I Got A Thing," a cover of the 1970 Funkadelic single "I Got A Thing…"[24][25] that was recorded by Josh Marcy,[22] reached more than 2 million YouTube views in August 2011.

[30] It was released on Innovative Leisure on April 30, 2013,[31] and was described as "desert-burned blues rock boosted by punk, soul and hip-hop – music that has a retro heart but couldn't have been made before 2013" by Rolling Stone.

[32] Its track "Can't Win 'Em All" was featured in a popular Audi commercial[33] that ran during Super Bowl XLVII and was reported to have reached 114 million Americans.

[27] In 2014, El Khatib spent 30 days[34] recording his third full-length Moonlight with drummer Ron Marinelli and engineer Sonni DiPerri at Los Angeles studio The Lair.

[40] The first track from these sessions was "Baby’s OK," described by El Khatib as "completely improvised and was a total stream of consciousness lyrically and musically" and premiered in April 2016 by The Fader magazine.

[44] A reviewer for Clash Music said "it might well be his most creative document to date"[45] and Mass Appeal reported that "as an already talented multi-instrumentalist, Hanni delivered on our high hopes.

"[46] Hanni El Khatib's music has been used in television commercials for Converse,[47] Captain Morgan, Applebee's, Sky Atlantic, Nike,[48] Nissan,[49] Levi's,[50] T-Mobile and Apple.