Ghazi Shami, the founder and CEO of EMPIRE Distribution Records and Publishing, is praising his label’s artist, Shaboozey, after his recent, first-ever Grammy Awards win and speech calling out out President Donald Trump‘s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) crackdowns.
On Saturday (February 7), Shami spoke with Hollywood Unlocked during his company’s EMPIRE 15: FULL CIRCLE MUSEUM event — which celebrated 15 years of the label, music, culture, and innovation. Hollywood Unlocked not only captured the nostalgic and creative displays set up, but also spoke with the fearless and trailblazing executives behind EMPIRE, like its founder and CEO, Ghazi Shami.
He also spoke with us about EMPIRE’s artist Shaboozey beating the odds as a Nigerian-American in Country music and recently winning his first-ever Grammy Award. During the 68th Annual Grammys ceremony, Shaboozey took home the award for “Best Country Duo/Group Performance” for his song “Amen (featuring Jelly Roll).” His song “Good News” also received nominations for “Best Country Song” and “Best Country Solo Performance.”
EMPIRE Unlocked: Ghazi Shami Praises Shaboozey’s First Gramy Win And Speech Condemning Donald Trump’s ICE Crackdowns
While Shaboozey has Nigerian ancestry, Shami has Palestinian ancestry. So, we asked the EMPIRE founder about his thoughts on his artist taking to the Grammys stage and calling out President Trump’s ICE attacks. Shami said:
“Man, that was phenomenal because he’s a great human. So, it feels good to win with good people. So, watching him win—you know, he jumped on the phone with his momma and he was talking with his mom on FaceTime.
You know, I’m from Palestine. He’s from Nigeria. These are both civilizations that are thousands of years old. And so, we had a pretty deep conversation about just like, ‘What do our ancestors think of us?’ And, ‘Are we honoring our lineage,’ and things like that. So, it feels incredibly gratifying to do amazing things with somebody who’s actually a really good human.
And standing for something you believe in takes a lot of conviction, and people who tend to have conviction tend to be great in life. And I feel like as a human, I have tremendous conviction in myself and the people around me and the people that I love and the spirit and the principles that I embody. So, it’s nice to see somebody stand on something because a lot of people are afraid, you know? And they’re pocket-watching. And he just said what he felt like was in his heart. And that means a lot to me.”
Hollywood Unlocked also spoke with EMPIRE COO (VP of Operations) Nima Etminan about his feelings on celebrating 15 years with the label. Additionally, EMPIRE President, Tina Davis, spoke with Hollywood Unlocked about her joining the label in 2018 after working in the music industry for over 30 years. She spoke on her breakthrough roles, her time at Def Jam Recordings, managing Chris Brown, and her quick rise to executive.
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