About this episode

Zainab Hasnain discusses her journey as a Pakistani immigrant woman in the music industry, exploring themes of identity, culture, and empathy through DJing.

Apply for the Vilcek Foundation Creative Promise Awards in Culinary Arts to win $50,000 in unrestricted grant money. Click on ⁠⁠Vilcek.org⁠⁠ for more information. When we first sat down with Zainab Hasnain — DJ, producer, and writer FKA ZEEMUFFIN — back in 2022, she was already doing something remarkable: carving out space as a Pakistani immigrant woman in one of the most male-dominated creative industries in New York City. We're re-releasing this conversation now because a lot has changed since then, and we think it's worth revisiting. Since this episode was recorded, Zainab has played Boiler Room, Governors Ball, and Glastonbury. She opened for Palestinian-Chilean artist Elyanna across her sold-out North American Tour. She's been featured in the New York Times and appeared in the Gap's Summer Campaign. Original music is on the way. But this conversation is about how she got here — and it's just as compelling now as it was then. We talk about growing up between Lahore and Long Island, learning the viola, falling in love with punk and hip hop, and eventually trading a career in finance and tech for a pair of turntables. We get into what it means to be a Pakistani woman taking up…

People in this episode

Host: Saadia Khan

Guest: Zainab Hasnain

Topics covered

• DJ culture
• immigrant identity
• Pakistani women in music
• gentrification
• empathy in art
• food

Keywords

• Zainab Hasnain
• DJ
• Pakistani immigrant
• hip hop
• gentrification
• empathy
• food
• music industry
• female artists

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vilcek Foundation, New York Times, Gap

Places: Lahore, Long Island

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Immigrantly podcast page.