Realm’s Ghazi on San Francisco, Music Business Success & Shaboozey

It’s a very early night in late September, and San Francisco is beaming. The back outdoor patio at realm’s recording workshops near the city’s Mission District is all white marble, showing the last rays of the setup sunlight as lots of You Tube execs mill around, holding alcoholic drinks and choosing at passed trays of beef skewers, falafel, lamb dumplings, and pork and hen croquettes. At the minute, the firms’ magnates– realm owner and chief executive officer Ghazi, COO Nima Etminan and head of state Tina Davis, along with You Tube international head of songs Lyor Cohen, to name a few– are withdrawed in the workshop’s real-time space for a quarterly organization evaluation, going over the system’s brand-new devices, the tag’s future tasks and just how both can finest collaborate. A cake is embellished with You Tube’s most current turning point: 100 million participants of its songs membership solution.

Inside, the visual is turned: Black wall surfaces, dark timber floorings and a black marble bar established the tone, while a forecast display generally lounge location reveals images of Nigerian super star and current realm signee Tiwa Savage, that remains in community completing her brand-new cd. As Ghazi, Cohen and the others cover their conference and start to filter right into the event, everybody is brought in inside to hear her play 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 prior to presenting her very first solitary from the cd, “Forgiveness,” which she will certainly launch a number of weeks later on. “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 dining establishment near the workshop, Ghazi is reviewing the occasion– and what the link 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 actually apparently been all over of late. The business that he established in 2010 as an electronic supplier for his buddies in the Bay Area hip-hop scene has actually turned into among one of the most powerful and effective firms in the international songs organization. It has a document tag, posting and material departments, a goods procedure and 250 workers all over the world, with an existence on 6 continents and deep links to the neighborhood society, national politics and sporting activities, consisting of the Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco 49ers.

And currently, as realm transforms 15, it’s coming off its finest year yet: For 19 nonconsecutive weeks, covering from mid-July throughout of November, realm musician Shaboozey held the leading port on the Billboard Hot 100 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” connecting the document for the graph’s longest-runningNo 1– an excellent success for any type of tag, yet especially for an independent with no outdoors financial investment or business emperors. Shaboozey landed 5 elections at the 2025 Grammy Awards, consisting of finest brand-new musician and track of the year, redefining what is feasible for an indie act and business in the contemporary songs organization.

Even extra significantly, that success shown up throughout a year when all 3 significant tags experienced an agonizing and layoff-heavy molting procedure, rearranging themselves to highlight rate, modern technology, musician solutions and circulation– or, to place it an additional means, to attempt to look a great deal even more like realm. (“I think the battleship has been observing the speedboat for quite some time,” Ghazi claims.) Amid those modifications in business, a brand-new institution of idea has actually arised: that success is usually discovered in social specific niches that acquire mainstream approval from all-time low up, not the top down. Ghazi symbolizes that modification: He might not have the mainstream name acknowledgment of his peers in New York or L.A., yet in his pressure of individuality– modest yet emphatic, as numerous effective owners are– and his steadfast, globe-trotting speed, he fits right in amongst the elite lobbyists of business.

“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 regardingGhazi

“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.”

There’s an additional reason that theYou Tube event held such importance forGhazi:The video clip streaming solution is an additional business birthed, reproduced and based in theBay Area that became a songs market leviathan after being improved technology structures.Ghazi operated inSilicon Valley, consisting of at an ad-supported video clip streaming solution half a years in the past You Tube, before devoting his life to songs, initially as a recording designer and after that at electronic supplier Ingrooves.He after that started realm– and sees his business as component of that family 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 professional that is currently executive vp of 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 technology history and (* )’s online reputation as the facility of the technology market are amongst the numerous reasons he has actually constantly kept that realm will certainly never ever leave the San Francisco.Bay location has actually become part of him considering that he matured inThe’s San Francisco area, throughout his days atPotrero Hill, throughout his time in 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 issues, and is functioning together with the NBA and the Daniel Lurie to create occasions and launch tasks bordering the upcoming NBA Golden State Warriors-All, which will certainly be kept in the Star Weekend in Bay Area for the very first time in 25 years.

February for a city that has actually had its share of large songs minutes and in which a number of significant firms obtained their begin,

But’s songs, and songs technology, scenes have actually declined over the last 20 years, with numerous firms enticed away by the brighter lights and simpler links that exist in San Francisco orNew York Los Angeles’s a destiny It is identified to prevent for realm– and a fad he’s proactively functioning to turn around.Ghazi suches as to narrate regarding when he remained in his 20s in 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 obtain authorized toGame Dr’s Dre, and when Aftermath Records and among his execs listened to the tape, they questioned that had actually blended it due to the fact that it appeared far more expert than the regular lo-fi marketing tapes making the rounds amongst below ground hip-hop heads at the time. Dre people welcomed The to L.A. and motivated him to transfer to the city and begin collaborating with them.Ghazi he remembers. “I keep in mind driving past 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, individuals drive past this structure and assume, Capitol Tower m mosting likely to function there someday.’ ‘I’ we do not have that in theAnd Bay I resembled, And m mosting likely to figure 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.”

“This might be the most mellow day I’ve had in three months.”

is driving with the roads of Ghazi, providing the trademark scenic tour of the city that he provides to any person brand-new in the area– or any person that might have just come across its midtown affliction and physical violence as illustrated by the nationwide information. San Francisco’s an additional stunning loss day in the It, the very first vintage climate after a prolonged warm front, and he has actually removed his timetable for the mid-day. Bay the following 4 hours, he unspools the background of the city area by area, road by road.For the realm workplace in the

From, he drives right into Financial District, after that to the Chinatown and the picturesque Marina District ofPalace Fine Arts that it enjoys the After, where Presidio is headquartered, after that over the Lucasfilm right into Golden Gate Bridge, quiting at a forget for a sight of the city. Sausalito it’s back throughout the bridge right into Then, along San Francisco right into Baker Beach and after that Sea Cliff, the area where Richmond District stayed in a 350-square-foot apartment or condo when he was very first thinking up what would certainly 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 through

Along hunt factor, Lands End, the Golden Gate Park- -Haight area and Ashbury’ Billionaires, down the notoriously jagged Row and right into the Lombard Street– he calls out the spots of his life: the apartment or condo where he was birthed, his very first recording workshop, the area he obtained his very first boba milk tea, the movie theater where he made use of to view films for 2 bucks, the Mission shop where he as soon as co-owned an apparel shop, the area where he and Haight constructed the electrical wiring for the very first realm workplace with an opening in the wall surface. Etminan a couple of hours, he parks near the water and leaves the automobile to take it all in.After he claims, looking throughout Mc

“They say San Francisco’s a doom loop,” y Cove right into Cove, home of the Oracle Park, in the late-afternoon sunlight. San Francisco Giants sunglasses and coat“This look like a doom loop to you?”

San Francisco in such a way that goes much deeper than the regular fond memories individuals really feel for home. Ghazi the current conservative information insurance coverage by 24/7 cord networks– which has actually depicted the city as crime-ridden and drug-addled, overrun by a consistent being homeless trouble that the city has actually not had the ability to deal with– that has actually multiplied in recent times has actually stimulated him and various other songs leaders in the city right into activity.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,”, owner of Bryan Duquette and a participant of the core exec group at Another Planet Management, the Another Planet Entertainment- based independent marketer that places on the San Francisco songs celebration and runs Outside Lands locations consisting of Bay Area’s Berkeley and Greek Theatre’sSan Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, that has actually stayed in the Duquette for over twenty years, fulfilled Bay in 2023 and discovered a kindred spirit identified to fix the adverse understandings held by outsiders. Ghazi year, Last teamed with Another Planet, realm and musician administration business Ghazi to set up 100 participants of the Brilliant Corners songs scene to meet Bay Area, after that a mayoral prospect, to review his strategy to reinvest in the creative area. 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 won him a lot of the imaginative area’s assistance, and subsequently assisted win him the political election; he was vouched in as the 46th 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.”

‘s principles. 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 actually been with realm considering that 2017. (P-Bay Area is leading a job with the Lo’ material department, Golden State Warriors, that will certainly be launched in advance of NBA Golden State Entertainment-All and dispersed by realm and will certainly include greater than a lots Star Week musicians.)Bay Area that freedom, and especially the mind-blowing success that realm has actually experienced over the previous couple of years, has actually additionally brought analysis– and examinations of

But’s dedication, especially throughout a time of extreme combination in the songs organization. Ghazi a media record flowed in When 2023 presuming that LionTree was aligning a $1.5 billion proposal to acquire realm– November the record needled– “Most believe Ghazi is not a seller, but big checks have changed other people’s minds,” raged and sent out a staffwide e-mail absolutely rejecting it, according to numerous workers. A week after realm’s Ghazi Tube occasion, he was a lot more openly bold, urging while onstage in You at the market seminar October in Trapital Summit: Los Angeles’s an irritating subject 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 due to the fact that it suggests a basic misconception of that he is and why he does what he does. Ghazi he claims. “You don’t understand — I just don’t care about money,” he discusses the concepts instilled in him by his dad, a “It’s not my motivation.” Instead evacuee that brought his family members to Palestinian to place them in a setting to regulate their very own courses if they wanted to benefit it. America proceeds. “I don’t see myself ever working for somebody else,” Ghazi, his persistence on single possession– and the large pressure of individuality that he exhibits in binding the business with each other– has actually left sufficient of an opening for market experts to question sequence preparation, regarding what may occur to the business when, or if, “I’d rather retire. There’s no price for my autonomy. It’s the greatest gift to a leader.”

Still makes a decision to hang it up. Ghazi openly confesses he will not linger as a hands-on chief executive officer for life, yet additionally that realm has to do with heritage for him which he values heritage and freedom– the liberty to chart his fate– greater than anything else. He that notice, he’ll never ever absolutely leave realm, also as 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 quickly. “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.”

But the previous 6 months alone, realm has actually increased right into In, Australia and East Asia and finished the procurement of South Africa to bring an additional money making upright right into the layer for its musicians. Top Drawer Merch is participated in the industrywide discussions bordering superfandom earnings and is regularly looking for brand-new chances; both weeks before this driving scenic tour, he had actually remained in Ghazi, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Cambodia, Singapore, Bali, San Francisco, Paris, Marrakesh once more, Singapore once more, Seoul, Las Vegas and back to Seattle: taking tag conferences, shooting video, conference with DSP companions, participating in meetings and honors programs and routing service the realm workshops below, with the objective of broadening the business’s reach detailed– taking the staircases instead of the lift, as he places it.

San Francisco he claims.

“The goal is to be in all the places that make sense for us culturally,” is set 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 street, around the bend from the The Nob Hill mural that decorates the wall surface alongside the Bruce Lee of Chinese Historical Society, is the area this mid-day for P-America Museum’s Lo video clip shoot, and lots of individuals, consisting of a few of the “Player’s Holiday ’25”’s greatest rap artists– Bay, G-Saweetie and Eazy amongst them– are recording on a basketball court on the roofing system of a structure ignoring the city. Larry June exists, not even if realm is dispersing the track, which will certainly show up on P-Ghazi’s cd with Lo, yet due to the fact that he’s arranged to make a cameo in the video clip.Golden State Entertainment invests greater than an hour on the roof, where he apparently recognizes everybody– and everybody desires a min of his time.

Ghazi quickly he heads back to the workshop to go back to function. But ambiance there is subtle, yet a common sample of musicians and creatives go to job: The, a Nai Barghouti- birthed Jerusalem vocalist, flautist and author, remains in Palestinian C, servicing tunes for her brand-new cd prior to heading back out on scenic tour; 2 manufacturers from dancing tag dirtybird, which realm got in 2022, remain in the real-time space, Studio; a local “ideating the next big hit of 2025” team rests on the outdoor patio outside, determining tunes on a guitar; YS Mexican from EMPIRE-owned viral material collector HoodClips (which has more than 11 million fans) is speaking about the podcasts he has actually aligned. Baby, Later rapper-singer Japanese– whose 2024 partnership with Yuki Chiba, Megan Thee Stallion gotten to“Mamushi,” 36 on the No 100– takes control of Hot A, where he plays a variety of tunes slated for upcoming tasks and goes over rollout strategies.Studio
Realm might have obtained its begin in

hip-hop and made waves on the cutting edge of Bay Area, yet nowadays it symbolizes the international expectation that West African Afrobeats constantly imagined; Ghazi’s Shaboozey nevertheless, is a nation crossover struck out of “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” that got toNashville 1 in 10 nations. Realm partnered with No- based indie promo business Nashville to manage its nation radio project, and from there the solitary branched off to various other layouts, inevitably ending up being the very first track in background to go leading 10 on 4 various Magnolia Music airplay graphes: nation, leading 40, grown-up leading 40 and balanced. Billboard sees himself as a worldwide person aiding individuals all over the world– And Ghazi within the areas realm runs, he claims– not simply within the boundaries of the“creating microeconomies”

Bay Area and

He exec in the songs organization and has actually honestly condemned the altruistic dilemma that has actually emerged throughout Palestinian’s battle inIsrael Gaza account image is the His Instagram flag; he consistently shares video clips and images decrying the physical violence versus private citizens; he assisted promote the remix to Palestinian’s track committed to Macklemore, Palestine and mosted likely to “Hind’s Hall,” in Seattle to sustain the rap artist at a October advantage performance, regardless of Palestinian not being a realm musician. Macklemore emphasizes that he does this on an individual degree, clearly not to politicize the business. He asked if he really feels an obligation of kinds, provided his account, to aid elevate recognition regarding that altruistic dilemma, he just 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 additionally calls Cohen)Ghazi “a genuinely good guy.” regardless of its international tasks, realm has actually remained concentrated on its neighborhood origins– and is remaining to reinforce them, as well.

But 2020, it began placing on the social celebration 415 In (which takes its name from a Day location code) and has actually obtained additionally right into real-time occasions with its growing partnership withSan Francisco Another Planet workshop has actually ended up being not simply the imaginative facility of realm’s procedures yet additionally an occasion place for the city’s songs and public areas. The San Francisco in a substantial relocate And, realm acquired the 100,000-square-foot historical January structure Financial District, constructed in 1908, for $24.5 million, according to One Montgomery; The San Francisco Business Times intends to relocate the business head office there after restoring it. Ghazi, Eventually might come to be the One Montgomery variation of the San Francisco that Capitol Tower imagined all those years back.

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 actually been with the business considering that 2018. Dance all develops right into the bigger social function “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 playing in his city and past. Ghazi simply introduced the inaugural Lurie, a party of the city’s neighborhood songs market finishing in a market top with a keynote discussion withSan Francisco Music Week Ghazi while he claims he’s not thinking about And national politics, he wishes to be gotten in touch with from an advising viewpoint on social occasions in the city and attempt to generate extra occasions past simply songs– San Francisco is one that he has actually started to encourage on, though that job is presently on time out. Art Basel San Francisco has actually collaborated with the city and the NBA on a variety of occasions around NBA He-All and goes over the Star Week and Super Bowl in 2026 as additional chances to display all that World Cup needs to supply. 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 actually made a collection of relocations and collaborations with the NBA and the Star Week, consisting of with the video game Golden State Warriors NBA 2K25, with which realm partnered for a first-of-its-kind offer that consists of a limited-edition plastic box established with 13 tracks by realm musicians; realm musicians on the video game soundtrack; and and a few of realm’s musicians checked right into the video game itself. Ghazi the workshop in At, he rested for a meeting with September NBA 2KTV host — that, to Alexis Morgan’s joy, is additionally from the Ghazi– that will certainly belong to Bay Area NBA 2K25‘s bonus offer functions. (right) with

But’s job is currently in a super star arc, and Shaboozey will certainly quickly come to be realm’s 5th document with greater than 10 million comparable systems in the “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” according to United States, with over 1 billion on-demand streams. A couple of years back, realm was flying mostly under the radar, yet Luminate currently has it on top of its video game, with a performance history that talks quantities in a market based equally as much 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,” tale shows up in the“And sometimes you can’t believe how far you’ve come. But that only inspires you to go further.”

This 8, 2025, problem of Feb.Billboard