Meet Zainab Hasnain | DJ, Content Creator and Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zainab Hasnain and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zainab, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve been working on my personal brand for over 10 years. I was 21 when I started and didn’t have any mentors or anyone to give me help or guidance as to how to build my business. It was a lot of trial and error, learning new skills, putting myself out there, and figuring it out as I go. I knew I wanted to work for myself, scale my interests and passions into a real business, and create freedom in my life.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a classically trained musician and dancer with a passion for storytelling. My start in music began in writing as a journalist, profiling my favorite artists and championing the underground. Eventually, I took the money I was making from my day job in banking and enrolled in a course at a DJ school. After getting laid off from several jobs, I decided to go full time into DJing and entrepreneurship. It has been a difficult but rewarding journey. In my art, I always seek to represent my identity of being a Pakistani immigrant woman who is also a New Yorker. I think everyone’s art is unique because there is no one like you in the world. Whatever you have to express can’t be expressed by anyone else and therefore everyone should feel free to create and share their work in the world.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting NYC, what are some spots they could take them to?
If someone were to visit me in New York City, we would start the day off by going to my favorite coffee shop in Fort Greene, La Bicicleta. After grabbing a delicious danish and cappuccino, we would do some people-watching. Then we would walk through fort green park and hop on the subway to head to the east village. We’d do a record store crawl and do some crate digging. After building up an appetite, we’d head to Vanessa’s Dumplings in the Lower East Side and then wash it down with some chai at Punjabi Deli. Then we’d do some vintage shopping at Mr. Throwback. To wind down we’d go to housing works in Soho to get another coffee and browse books. Finally, we’d head back up to the East Village to 7th street burger for dinner. To end the night, we’d head back to Brooklyn and go to Half Moon for some dancing. The night wouldn’t be complete without one final meal, where we’d snag a Doner Kebab at the Turks Inn.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a shoutout to the community at Dubspot, the DJ school where I learned how to DJ. Everyone from that school looked out for me in so many ways, from booking me for my first gig, giving me my first pair of turntables, and always allowing me to utilize their space to practice.

Website: zeemuffin.com

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Linkedin: zainab hasnain

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Youtube: zeemuffin