afikra Quartertones Live With Ghazi Shami & Suhel Nafar at Sole DXB 2024
This episode of Quartertones was recorded live on the Sole DXB stage in Dubai on December 13, 2024. Founder of Empire Records Ghazi Shami, and head of Empire WANA Suhel Nafar explore the challenges and future of the Arab music industry, from Ghazi's connection to Palestinian heritage to Suhel's work with DAM and Empire. They discuss cultural representation, the impact of geopolitics on music, and the potential for Arab music on the global stage, touching on digital distribution, local and global influences, and empowering Arab artists.
Ghazi Shami is a Palestinian-American music technologist, record producer, audio engineer, entrepreneur, CEO, and founder of Empire Distribution. Empire Distribution was founded in 2010 in San Francisco, California and now also has offices in New York, Nashville, the UK, and the Middle East.
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Suhel Nafar is the co-founder of Palestinian hip-hop group DAM, which was featured in award-winning documentary Slingshot Hip Hop. Formerly, Nafar was the global lead of Arab music and culture at Spotify and is now the vice president of strategy and market development at Empire Distribution WANA. He is also the music supervisor for Netflix’s show Mo.
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Hosted by 👉 Mikey Muhanna
QuarterTones
This podcast series hosts current Arab musicians from different geographies, who play contemporary and modern music, including folk, pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, classical, among other genres. Discover some of the most interesting work across the region and genres, and understand the music that these experts perform or study.
