It’s a really early night time in late September, and San Francisco is beaming. The again out of doors patio at realm’s recording workshops close to the town’s Mission District is all white marble, displaying the final rays of the setup daylight as a number of You Tube execs mill round, holding alcoholic drinks and selecting at handed trays of beef skewers, falafel, lamb dumplings, and pork and hen croquettes. At the minute, the corporations’ magnates– realm proprietor and chief government officer Ghazi, COO Nima Etminan and head of state Tina Davis, together with You Tube worldwide head of songs Lyor Cohen, to call just a few– are withdrawed within the workshop’s real-time area for a quarterly group analysis, going over the system’s brand-new gadgets, the tag’s future duties and simply how each can most interesting collaborate. A cake is embellished with You Tube’s most present turning level: 100 million members of its songs membership answer.
Inside, the visible is turned: Black wall surfaces, darkish timber floorings and a black marble bar established the tone, whereas a forecast show typically lounge location reveals pictures of Nigerian tremendous star and present realm signee Tiwa Savage, that continues to be in group finishing her brand-new cd. As Ghazi, Cohen and the others cowl their convention and begin to filter proper into the occasion, everyone is introduced in inside to listen to her play just a few of her brand-new songs.
“This is my first project at EMPIRE, and it’s really emotional for me because I’ve never had a label be this invested; most labels are not in the studio with you from morning until night,” Savage claims previous to presenting her very first solitary from the cd, “Forgiveness,” which she will definitely launch plenty of weeks afterward. “They made me feel so welcome. I’ve been signed several times, but I’ve never been in a situation where it felt like home.”
The following day, at a bbq eating institution close to the workshop, Ghazi is reviewing the event– and what the hyperlink with You Tube’s Cohen implies to him. “I used an analogy with Lyor: ‘This is not a full-circle moment; this is the Olympic rings of full-circle moments,’ ” he claims. “This brings so many circles of my life into place. I started as an engineer; I’m in a state-of-the-art studio that I could only dream about that I built with my bare hands. I used to listen to Run-D.M.C. — he found Run-D.M.C. The first tape I ever bought was Raising Hell — now I’m raising hell in the music business.” He chuckles. “I prefer to call it ‘raising angels,’ but it’s cool. And then you have a giant like him in the record business that people used to blueprint their careers after, and now he’s telling me that he’s proud of the success I’ve had and that he watched me build a legacy. That’s validation.”
For Ghazi, 48, recognition has truly apparently been throughout of late. The enterprise that he established in 2010 as an digital provider for his buddies within the Bay Area hip-hop scene has truly changed into amongst some of the highly effective and efficient corporations within the worldwide songs group. It has a doc tag, posting and materials departments, a items process and 250 employees all around the world, with an existence on 6 continents and deep hyperlinks to the neighborhood society, nationwide politics and sporting actions, consisting of the Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco 49ers.
And presently, as realm transforms 15, it’s coming off its most interesting 12 months but: For 19 nonconsecutive weeks, overlaying from mid-July all through of November, realm musician Shaboozey held the main port on the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” connecting the doc for the graph’s longest-runningNo 1– a wonderful success for any sort of tag, but particularly for an unbiased with no outside monetary funding or enterprise emperors. Shaboozey landed 5 elections on the 2025 Grammy Awards, consisting of most interesting brand-new musician and observe of the 12 months, redefining what is possible for an indie act and enterprise within the up to date songs group.
Even additional considerably, that success proven up all through a 12 months when all 3 important tags skilled an agonizing and layoff-heavy molting process, rearranging themselves to spotlight charge, trendy expertise, musician options and circulation– or, to position it a further means, to aim to look an incredible deal much more like realm. (“I think the battleship has been observing the speedboat for quite some time,” Ghazi claims.) Amid these modifications in enterprise, a brand-new establishment of thought has truly arised: that success is normally found in social particular niches that purchase mainstream approval from all-time low up, not the highest down. Ghazi symbolizes that modification: He won’t have the mainstream identify acknowledgment of his friends in New York or L.A., but in his stress of individuality– modest but emphatic, as quite a few efficient homeowners are– and his steadfast, globe-trotting pace, he matches proper in amongst the elite lobbyists of enterprise.
“This industry used to be full of super-colorful entrepreneurs that were focused on their art, and when you talked to them, they had a certain excitement and shine in their eyes. Unfortunately, there’s not that many of them [left],” Cohen claims relating toGhazi
“I would call him one of the few. A person that is committed to excellence, cares about the details, shows up, has continuity and he’s positive and enthusiastic.”
Herm ès layer and t shirt
Austin Hargrave
There’s a further motive that theYou Tube occasion held such significance forGhazi:The video clip streaming answer is a further enterprise birthed, reproduced and based mostly within theBay Area that turned a songs market leviathan after being improved expertise buildings.Ghazi operated inSilicon Valley, consisting of at an ad-supported video clip streaming answer half a years up to now You Tube, earlier than devoting his life to songs, initially as a recording designer and after that at digital provider Ingrooves.He after that began realm– and sees his enterprise as element of that household tree. “I’ve never met a music exec that has such a grip on the three verticals — creative, business and technology — and is fluent in all of it and active in all of it,” claims Peter Kadin, a major-label skilled that’s presently government vp of promoting and advertising and marketing at realm.“Someone who can go from meeting with an engineering team about building out the future of our systems, to sitting with finance and going through our deal structures with all the major DSPs [digital service providers], to going to the studio at night and mixing a Money Man album. There is no other executive doing that.”
Ghazi’s expertise historical past and (* )’s on-line popularity as the power of the expertise market are amongst the quite a few causes he has truly consistently stored that realm will definitely by no means ever go away the San Francisco.Bay location has truly change into a part of him contemplating that he matured inThe’s San Francisco space, all through his days atPotrero Hill, all through his time within the trenches of the neighborhood hip-hop scene and already, when he has the ear of the brand-new mayor ofSan Francisco State,San Francisco, whom he’s suggesting on social points, and is functioning along with the NBA and the Daniel Lurie to create events and launch duties bordering the upcoming NBA Golden State Warriors-All, which will definitely be stored within the Star Weekend in Bay Area for the very first time in 25 years.
February for a metropolis that has truly had its share of huge songs minutes and during which plenty of important corporations obtained their start,
But’s songs, and songs expertise, scenes have truly declined during the last 20 years, with quite a few corporations enticed away by the brighter lights and easier hyperlinks that exist in San Francisco orNew York Los Angeles’s a future It is recognized to forestall for realm– and a fad he’s proactively functioning to show round.Ghazi suches as to relate relating to when he remained in his 20s within the very early 2000s and blended
Ghazi’s very first mixtape at The Game’sSan Francisco Hyde Street Studios job, which appeared in 2004, inevitably assisted The receive licensed toGame Dr’s Dre, and when Aftermath Records and amongst his execs listened to the tape, they questioned that had truly blended it as a consequence of the truth that it appeared way more skilled than the common lo-fi advertising and marketing tapes making the rounds amongst beneath floor hip-hop heads on the time. Dre folks welcomed The to L.A. and motivated him to switch to the town and start collaborating with them.Ghazi he remembers. “I remember driving previous the
“I was flattered by it, but I was also furious — mad that I had to leave the Bay to build a music career,” like, people drive previous this construction and assume, Capitol Tower m mosting prone to perform there sometime.’ ‘I’ we wouldn’t have that within theAnd Bay I resembled, And m mosting prone to determine this s– t out!’‘That sucks! I’ layer, t shirt, trousers and footwear.
“It took me a long time — a really long time — but I figured it out.”
Prada
A few weeks afterward,
Austin Hargrave
“This might be the most mellow day I’ve had in three months.”
is driving with the roads of Ghazi, offering the trademark scenic tour of the town that he supplies to any particular person brand-new within the space– or any particular person which may have simply come throughout its midtown affliction and bodily violence as illustrated by the nationwide data. San Francisco’s a further gorgeous loss day within the It, the very first classic local weather after a chronic heat entrance, and he has truly eliminated his timetable for the mid-day. Bay the next 4 hours, he unspools the background of the town space by space, highway by highway.For the realm office within the
From, he drives proper into Financial District, after that to the Chinatown and the picturesque Marina District ofPalace Fine Arts that it enjoys the After, the place Presidio is headquartered, after that over the Lucasfilm proper into Golden Gate Bridge, quiting at a neglect for a sight of the town. Sausalito it’s again all through the bridge proper into Then, alongside San Francisco proper into Baker Beach and after that Sea Cliff, the realm the place Richmond District stayed in a 350-square-foot condominium or apartment when he was very first pondering up what will surely come to be realm. (Ghazi he claims. “I had like four f–king jobs,”).
“Some of the happiest times of my life, though. Some of the most stressful, but some of the happiest.” the means– travelling via
Along hunt issue, Lands End, the Golden Gate Park- -Haight space and Ashbury’ Billionaires, down the notoriously jagged Row and proper into the Lombard Street– he calls out the spots of his life: the condominium or apartment the place he was birthed, his very first recording workshop, the realm he obtained his very first boba milk tea, the movie show the place he made use of to view movies for two bucks, the Mission store the place he as quickly as co-owned an attire store, the realm the place he and Haight constructed {the electrical} wiring for the very first realm office with a gap within the wall floor. Etminan a few hours, he parks close to the water and leaves the car to take all of it in.After he claims, wanting all through Mc
“They say San Francisco’s a doom loop,” y Cove proper into Cove, house of the Oracle Park, within the late-afternoon daylight. San Francisco Giants sun shades and coat“This look like a doom loop to you?”
Louis Vuitton is particular person to
Austin Hargrave
San Francisco in such a approach that goes a lot deeper than the common fond reminiscences people actually really feel for house. Ghazi the present conservative data insurance coverage protection by 24/7 twine networks– which has truly depicted the town as crime-ridden and drug-addled, overrun by a constant being homeless hassle that the town has truly not had the power to take care of– that has truly multiplied in current occasions has truly stimulated him and numerous different songs leaders within the metropolis proper into exercise.And claims
“San Francisco had such a heyday up until the pandemic, and it’s been really hard to watch the world s–t on our city,”, proprietor of Bryan Duquette and a participant of the core exec group at Another Planet Management, the Another Planet Entertainment- based mostly unbiased marketer that locations on the San Francisco songs celebration and runs Outside Lands places consisting of Bay Area’s Berkeley and Greek Theatre’sSan Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, that has truly stayed within the Duquette for over twenty years, fulfilled Bay in 2023 and found a kindred spirit recognized to repair the adversarial understandings held by outsiders. Ghazi 12 months, Last teamed with Another Planet, realm and musician administration enterprise Ghazi to arrange 100 members of the Brilliant Corners songs scene to fulfill Bay Area, after {that a} mayoral prospect, to overview his technique to reinvest within the inventive space. Lurie claims. “Daniel really was trying to get to the people who were creating culture and helping the city become, again, what it was seen as globally,” Duquette’s outreach inevitably gained him numerous the imaginative space’s help, and subsequently assisted win him the political election; he was vouched in because the forty sixth mayor of “And Ghazi is a really big piece of that.”
Lurie inSan Francisco January claims. “The arts and culture have always defined us, and I firmly believe that EMPIRE and Ghazi are going to be part of the revitalization of our city,” Lurie and “He knows what’s going on in the music world better than just about anybody, and I’ll be listening carefully to his guidance and his counsel.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie in 2025.Ghazi of REALM
Courtesy
Realm’s sturdy freedom, as effectively, is an expression of the
‘s ideas. Bay claims P-“He’s a representative of the independent grind and the culture here; that’s something that everyone in the Bay can resonate with, just coming from the ground up and being the underdog,”, the Lo rap artist that has truly been with realm contemplating that 2017. (P-Bay Area is main a job with the Lo’ materials division, Golden State Warriors, that can actually be launched upfront of NBA Golden State Entertainment-All and dispersed by realm and will definitely embody larger than a tons Star Week musicians.)Bay Area that freedom, and particularly the mind-blowing success that realm has truly skilled over the last few years, has truly moreover introduced evaluation– and examinations of
But’s dedication, particularly all through a time of maximum mixture within the songs group. Ghazi a media document flowed in When 2023 presuming that LionTree was aligning a $1.5 billion proposal to amass realm– November the document needled– “Most believe Ghazi is not a seller, but big checks have changed other people’s minds,” raged and despatched out a staffwide e-mail completely rejecting it, in accordance with quite a few employees. Every week after realm’s Ghazi Tube event, he was much more overtly daring, urging whereas onstage in You on the market seminar October in Trapital Summit: Los Angeles’s an irritating topic for “I’m not for sale. Period. I am dead serious. I am living my purpose. There’s no price on that.”
It, not the very least as a consequence of the truth that it suggests a primary false impression of that he’s and why he does what he does. Ghazi he claims. “You don’t understand — I just don’t care about money,” he discusses the ideas instilled in him by his dad, a “It’s not my motivation.” Instead evacuee that introduced his members of the family to Palestinian to position them in a setting to control their very personal programs in the event that they needed to profit it. America proceeds. “I don’t see myself ever working for somebody else,” Ghazi, his persistence on single possession– and the massive stress of individuality that he displays in binding the enterprise with one another– has truly left ample of a gap for market specialists to query sequence preparation, relating to what might happen to the enterprise when, or if, “I’d rather retire. There’s no price for my autonomy. It’s the greatest gift to a leader.”
Still comes to a decision to hold it up. Ghazi overtly confesses he is not going to linger as a hands-on chief government officer for all times, but moreover that realm has to do with heritage for him which he values heritage and freedom– the freedom to chart his destiny– larger than anything. He that discover, he’ll by no means ever completely go away realm, additionally because the report mill maintains spinning. In he claims. “I always admired athletes who retired when they were on top. I want to be at the top of my executive game when I quit,” that’s not occurring anytime shortly. “I don’t want to be the guy who hung on for too long. I’m already the owner, so I could still hang around as a chairman, but I don’t need to hang around as the guy running s–t day to day.”
Austin Hargrave
But the earlier 6 months alone, realm has truly elevated proper into In, Australia and East Asia and completed the procurement of South Africa to carry a further cash making upright proper into the layer for its musicians. Top Drawer Merch is participated within the industrywide discussions bordering superfandom earnings and is usually on the lookout for brand-new possibilities; each weeks earlier than this driving scenic tour, he had truly remained in Ghazi, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Cambodia, Singapore, Bali, San Francisco, Paris, Marrakesh as soon as extra, Singapore as soon as extra, Seoul, Las Vegas and again to Seattle: taking tag conferences, capturing video, convention with DSP companions, taking part in conferences and honors packages and routing service the realm workshops beneath, with the target of broadening the enterprise’s attain detailed– taking the staircases as an alternative of the elevate, as he locations it.
San Francisco he claims.
“The goal is to be in all the places that make sense for us culturally,” is ready upon.“Is the music interesting? Is the culture interesting? Holistically, how does it play with our DNA? What’s the cost of acquisition and retention? Do I like the music here? But the initial fuel is the passion; then, from there, start to figure it out.”
Joice Street avenue, across the bend from the The Nob Hill mural that decorates the wall floor alongside the Bruce Lee of Chinese Historical Society, is the realm this mid-day for P-America Museum’s Lo video clip shoot, and plenty of people, consisting of some of the “Player’s Holiday ’25”’s best rap artists– Bay, G-Saweetie and Eazy amongst them– are recording on a basketball court docket on the roofing system of a construction ignoring the town. Larry June exists, not even when realm is dispersing the observe, which will definitely present up on P-Ghazi’s cd with Lo, but as a consequence of the truth that he’s organized to make a cameo within the video clip.Golden State Entertainment invests larger than an hour on the roof, the place he apparently acknowledges everyone– and everyone wishes a min of his time.
Ghazi shortly he heads again to the workshop to return to perform. But ambiance there may be refined, but a typical pattern of musicians and creatives go to job: The, a Nai Barghouti- birthed Jerusalem vocalist, flautist and creator, stays in Palestinian C, servicing tunes for her brand-new cd previous to heading again out on scenic tour; 2 producers from dancing tag dirtybird, which realm acquired in 2022, stay within the real-time area, Studio; a neighborhood “ideating the next big hit of 2025” workforce rests on the out of doors patio exterior, figuring out tunes on a guitar; YS Mexican from EMPIRE-owned viral materials collector HoodClips (which has greater than 11 million followers) is talking in regards to the podcasts he has truly aligned. Baby, Later rapper-singer Japanese– whose 2024 partnership with Yuki Chiba, Megan Thee Stallion gotten to“Mamushi,” 36 on the No 100– takes management of Hot A, the place he performs quite a lot of tunes slated for upcoming duties and goes over rollout methods.Studio
Realm might need obtained its start in
hip-hop and made waves on the slicing fringe of Bay Area, but these days it symbolizes the worldwide expectation that West African Afrobeats consistently imagined; Ghazi’s Shaboozey however, is a nation crossover struck out of “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” that acquired toNashville 1 in 10 nations. Realm partnered with No- based mostly indie promo enterprise Nashville to handle its nation radio undertaking, and from there the solitary branched off to numerous different layouts, inevitably ending up being the very first observe in background to go main 10 on 4 numerous Magnolia Music airplay graphes: nation, main 40, grown-up main 40 and balanced. Billboard sees himself as a worldwide particular person aiding people all around the world– And Ghazi throughout the areas realm runs, he claims– not merely throughout the boundaries of the“creating microeconomies”
Bay Area and
Shaboozey on the 2024 CMA Ghazi.After Party is moreover the highest-profile
Becca Mitchell
He exec within the songs group and has truly truthfully condemned the altruistic dilemma that has truly emerged all through Palestinian’s battle inIsrael Gaza account picture is the His Instagram flag; he persistently shares video clips and pictures decrying the bodily violence versus personal residents; he assisted promote the remix to Palestinian’s observe dedicated to Macklemore, Palestine and mosted prone to “Hind’s Hall,” in Seattle to maintain the rap artist at a October benefit efficiency, no matter Palestinian not being a realm musician. Macklemore emphasizes that he does this on a person diploma, clearly to not politicize the enterprise. He requested if he actually feels an obligation of varieties, offered his account, to help elevate recognition relating to that altruistic dilemma, he simply claims, When (“I feel like I want to be proud of the man in the mirror.” claims “He’s Palestinian and I’m Israeli; we shared our great pain and anxiety over what’s happening in the Middle East,”, that moreover calls Cohen)Ghazi “a genuinely good guy.” no matter its worldwide duties, realm has truly remained targeting its neighborhood origins– and is remaining to bolster them, as effectively.
But 2020, it started inserting on the social celebration 415 In (which takes its identify from a Day location code) and has truly obtained moreover proper into real-time events with its rising partnership withSan Francisco Another Planet workshop has truly ended up being not merely the imaginative facility of realm’s procedures but moreover an event place for the town’s songs and public areas. The San Francisco in a considerable relocate And, realm acquired the 100,000-square-foot historic January construction Financial District, constructed in 1908, for $24.5 million, in accordance with One Montgomery; The San Francisco Business Times intends to relocate the enterprise head workplace there after restoring it. Ghazi, Eventually would possibly come to be the One Montgomery variation of the San Francisco that Capitol Tower imagined all these years again.
Ghazi claims
“There have been so many times that people have told him he couldn’t do something, and then he was able to do it, that it gave him all the fire and was the catalyst for him to be the person he is today,”, GM of REALM Moody Jones, that has truly been with the enterprise contemplating that 2018. Dance all develops proper into the larger social perform “They told him he was crazy to have a music company in San Francisco; that he would never compete with a major; that he would never get out of hip-hop; that he would never open up a studio. They told him San Francisco would never be cool again. And every single time he was able to show them that, ‘No, I’m right.’ ”
That is taking part in in his metropolis and previous. Ghazi merely launched the inaugural Lurie, a celebration of the town’s neighborhood songs market ending in a market prime with a keynote dialogue withSan Francisco Music Week Ghazi whereas he claims he’s not eager about And nationwide politics, he needs to be gotten in contact with from an advising viewpoint on social events within the metropolis and try and generate additional events previous merely songs– San Francisco is one which he has truly began to encourage on, although that job is presently on trip. Art Basel San Francisco has truly collaborated with the town and the NBA on quite a lot of events round NBA He-All and goes over the Star Week and Super Bowl in 2026 as extra possibilities to show all that World Cup wants to provide. San Francisco claims. “For events like the NBA All-Star Game, Super Bowl LX, the World Cup, we get to show off all the greatness here, and Ghazi and EMPIRE and the artists they represent are part and parcel to what makes San Francisco so great,” Lurie of “We need more Ghazis.”
Ahead-All, he has truly made a set of relocations and collaborations with the NBA and the Star Week, consisting of with the online game Golden State Warriors NBA 2K25, with which realm partnered for a first-of-its-kind provide that consists of a limited-edition plastic field established with 13 tracks by realm musicians; realm musicians on the online game soundtrack; and and some of realm’s musicians checked proper into the online game itself. Ghazi the workshop in At, he rested for a gathering with September NBA 2KTV host — that, to Alexis Morgan’s pleasure, is moreover from the Ghazi– that can actually belong to Bay Area NBA 2K25‘s bonus provide capabilities. (proper) with
Ghazi NBA 2KTV‘s .Alexis Morgan of 2K
Courtesy inevitably, it’s every thing in regards to the songs.
But’s job is presently in a brilliant star arc, and Shaboozey will definitely shortly come to be realm’s fifth doc with larger than 10 million comparable programs within the “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” in accordance with United States, with over 1 billion on-demand streams. A few years again, realm was flying largely underneath the radar, but Luminate presently has it on prime of its online game, with a efficiency historical past that talks portions in a market based mostly equally as a lot on background as on what’s following.Ghazi he claims.
“You always learn, all the time; you’re always adapting to what’s going on around you,” story reveals up within the“And sometimes you can’t believe how far you’ve come. But that only inspires you to go further.”
This 8, 2025, downside of Feb.Billboard
