Empire VP Suhel Nafar on Arab Artists, Impact of Israel-Hamas War – Billboard

Suhel Nafar understands the impression that music can have around the globe.

Born in Lod — a metropolis about 25 miles from Jerusalem — to Palestinian dad and mom, Nafar discovered English by listening to Dead Prez, 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. The affect of these artists was so robust that within the late Nineteen Nineties, he — alongside together with his brother Tamer Nafar and their good friend Mahmoud Jreri — began the primary Palestinian hip-hop group, DAM.

“Listening to hip-hop and seeing music videos of artists being chased by police and feeling their oppression and their anger without knowing what they were talking about because I didn’t speak English — I felt they were talking about me,” Nafar tells Billboard over Zoom from Lod in late October.

He spent 20 years touring the world with DAM, whose lyrics centered on such matters as inequality and oppression. Through his travels, he noticed a necessity out there and is now working behind the scenes to fill it.

“There aren’t enough of us,” Nafar says, “Arabs, Muslims, brown people and people of color in the music industry to support the artists in the region and around the world.”

Nafar began working on movies, movies and different jobs that centered on artists within the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) area, which incorporates the Middle East, and helped its music scene coalesce. He moved to the United States in 2013 and taught as an artist in residence at New York University and, in 2018, started a three-year stint at Spotify. There, he helped set up WANA content material on the platform and labored in its artist and trade partnerships division.

As vp of technique and improvement at EMPIRE, the place Nafar began in early 2021, he’s main the corporate’s enlargement into the WANA area, which is wealthy with expertise. Nafar says the era of musicians he’s fostering can assist heal “the wound” inflicted by the conflicts there and their far-reaching repercussions.

He sees “glocalization” — world music genres corresponding to pop and hip-hop tailored to WANA cultures — as the perfect supply system and cites “Rajieen,” a direct response to the disaster that includes 25 WANA artists for example. Nafar says the track and its highly effective video have reached virtually 10 million streams throughout all platforms.

What is EMPIRE’s West Asia and North Africa technique?

I made a decision to maneuver to EMPIRE as a result of I felt that the expertise of Spotify is nice however that artists wanted extra behind-the-scenes help. [I needed] to be nearer to artists and work with them on technique. As an individual that had the artist background, the [digital service provider] background and the content material creation background, I believed I might assist artists extra from the label facet.

At EMPIRE, I deal with the technique and improvement for the area. It means working with so much of artists on signings and signing labels as properly. I’m additionally creating the market. There’s a niche [in the WANA region] as a result of we don’t have sufficient folks behind the scenes. We don’t have sufficient managers. We don’t have sufficient labels.

How does EMPIRE’s impartial method to enterprise affect your efforts?

My complete concept was how I might create a extra impartial mentality for others in order that they might create their very own EMPIREs and construct their very own rosters and govt groups. We signed so much of labels from the area, together with good individuals who love music and are simply lacking expertise, or individuals who have the abilities however are lacking folks to be on their crew. We’re offering this infrastructure to so much of folks right here.

You’re saying that you just’re constructing the trade itself, to a sure extent.

It’s supporting to amplify what’s already there greater than constructing, I might say.

What have been your greatest successes thus far?

The quantity of feminine artists we’ve got is superb. We had no less than 4 Arab feminine artists on Spotify’s Times Square billboard. My crew and I are supporting voices of females from Morocco, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the diaspora. This sort of pleasure evokes different feminine artists to develop. I’m actually proud of that.

Who are some Arab artists you’re most enthusiastic about?

Maro is a half-Lebanese, half-Ukrainian artist who speaks Arabic, English, French, Ukrainian and Russian and might sing in each language. He was raised in Beirut, the place he grew up enjoying guitar within the streets as a busker. When there was violence in Lebanon, he needed to transfer to Norway … We received a chance to convey him to the U.S., the place he’s residing now.

What about hip-hop artists?

MC Abdul, a 15-year-old child from Gaza, is a genius who began rapping when he was 9. He discovered English from hip-hop and speaks it higher than so much of Americans I do know. Just a few months in the past, we lastly received him out of Gaza and flew him and his dad to San Francisco on an artist visa. He carried out a tremendous present there for over 20,000 folks. He was within the studio and taking conferences to start out his album rollout and was supposed to return again to Gaza [a few] weeks in the past. Then the entire scenario began, so he couldn’t return to his household.

Another artist I really like is Soulja, a rapper from Sudan. When the conflict in Sudan occurred, we had to assist him escape from Sudan to Egypt, and now he’s in Saudi Arabia. His current launch, “Ayam,” is a breakup track the place he’s telling his love he doesn’t need to see her anymore, however his love is definitely Sudan. He wrote it the day he escaped and was virtually killed.

Name one of the ladies artists you’re supporting.

Nai Barghouti is one other superb artist. She’s a conventional Palestinian folks artist who not too long ago did a track with Skrillex, “Xena.” Her vocal expertise are unbelievable. Sometimes we’re like, “Are you human?” Because generally it appears like her voice is simply an instrument. We’re working on a couple of tasks together with her.

Developing Arab artists and selling the area globally should really feel like a once-in-a-lifetime alternative.

There are individuals who’ve been on this subject earlier than me that did so much of nice work and different cultures that impressed us so much. My days at Spotify impressed me a lot as a result of I labored carefully with the Latin crew, the Afro crew, the Desi crew. I watched how Okay-pop began from the early phases. I simply localized what I discovered from all these totally different cultures.

How have issues shifted because the current battle began? What are your workdays like?

Artists are usually not feeling like they need to launch music. That’s the most important hit. The division I’m working [went from releasing] no less than 20 songs every week to virtually no songs. The first week, it was the shock of “What the fuck is going on?” after which canceling reveals. Lots of festivals throughout the Arab world had been canceled.

As an artist myself, this isn’t the primary time I’ve gone via it. There have been many occasions after we had been about to drop an album, then Israel invaded Gaza, or there was some protest, or folks had been getting killed. We discovered the best way to maneuver in these unlucky conditions.

What’s the primary transfer in that maneuvering?

Before enterprise is folks. Lots of it’s psychological help as a result of many artists are going via so much of emotional ache proper now. Everyone is aware of somebody in Gaza. Every household is aware of a household. I do know a hip-hop producer in Gaza that misplaced his complete household.

If this turns into a protracted conflict, how do you foresee it affecting your online business?

Music is like historical past books. The artists would be the ones telling the tales. They will doc what’s occurring higher than the Western media. They will do higher songs than Taylor Swift and never do a publish about Taylor Swift’s bodyguard. I simply hope this received’t get to some extent when it’s normalized and [people] will neglect about it.

The story of Taylor Swift’s bodyguard returning to Israel to serve within the Israel Defense Forces was extensively coated by the media, together with Billboard. What are your ideas on that story?

From my perspective, exhibiting how cute this bodyguard is [who is] going to hitch the military is just not one thing to make cool at a time when 1000’s of children are being killed. [Humanitarian organizations] contemplate the IDF an unlawful military that has achieved so much of unlawful actions. We as people who find themselves working for music and tradition ought to be uplifting the voices that will heal this wound and never say, “Look at this Taylor Swift bodyguard.”

Is there anything you want to say?

I want this interview was in a special time [with me] speaking extra in regards to the enterprise. I truly virtually canceled as a result of it’s overwhelming watching my household and pals going via genocide. I need to characterize the brand new era and the music that’s fucking superb; not the scenario the place there’s an oppressor bombing households as we converse.

I additionally need to say that from a music and tradition perspective, we’re getting into a really distinctive period of the glocalization of a brand new era. The tradition is morphing. There isn’t one tradition anymore. There’s nobody style anymore. This is the voice that I want to amplify greater than something.