Hussain Spek Yoosuf
music publisher and songwriter in New York
Hussain Spek Yoosuf
music publisher and songwriter in New York
I was born in Montreal, Canada and grew up listening to and revering hip hop. I've had two main branches of my life; one as an artist and one as an entrepreneur. As an artist most people know me as a former member of Dream Warriors, a Canadian hip hop group I joined at 17. Later I relocated to the UK touring with Us3 and worked on Nitin Sawhney's Mercury nominated album 'Beyond Skin'. I also released a solo album 'Don't Sweat The Small Stuff' that LOADED Magazine described as 'like De La Soul and Prince in a mucky mudwrestle'. In business, I have worked as a music publisher for over a decade, perhaps best known for evangelizing music rights in the Middle East. In 2011 I founded PopArabia, a music rights company launched with investment from Abu Dhabi government initiative, twofour54. PopArabia represent the leading music publishers in the world including Sony ATV- EMI, Kobalt, Peermusic and others and have pioneered music rights in the Arab world.
In 2015 I relocated to NYC as the Senior Vice President, Creative & A&R at Reservoir, an independent music publisher with a fast growing catalogue, where I help to develop the careers of our songwriters and head creative for the company across the US.