Wassim Slaiby

Wassim Joseph Slaiby (; born November 16, 1979), also known as Sal (stylized in all caps), is a Lebanese-Canadian record executive, talent manager, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He co-founded the record label XO with Canadian singer the Weeknd in 2011, for whom he has also managed for since. Furthermore, Slaiby is the founder and CEO of Universal Arabic Music, which he launched in 2021 in partnership with Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group.

Slaiby first co-founded CP Music Group in 2002, and later joined the Maverick management consortium in 2016. That same year, he founded the entertainment agency SALXCO, through which he has managed artists including Doja Cat, Bebe Rexha, and Nicki Minaj, and producers and songwriters including Jason "DaHeala" Quenneville, DannyBoyStyles, and Metro Boomin. In January 2024, Bloomberg reported that SALXCO did not list Sean "Diddy" Combs as a client on its website.

Early life Wassim Joseph Slaiby was born in Ghazir, Lebanon on November 16, 1979. He escaped the Lebanese Civil War and immigrated to Canada without family when he was fifteen years old. He initially lived in Montreal before moving to Ottawa in his late teens.

Career

2002–2011: CP Music Group Slaiby began his music industry career after meeting and seeing a young fellow immigrant rapper Belly freestyle rapping on an Ottawa street in 2002. Slaiby started managing Belly, with whom he co-founded Capital Prophets Records, Slaiby also hired Amir "Cash" Esmailian, who was a close friend of Belly, as the head of street promotion for the label. Massari's 2005 self-titled album was certified Gold in Canada and garnered a Juno Award nomination. Belly's 2007 album, The Revolution, won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year. Through SALXCO, Slaiby manages the artists signed to XO Records, including singer Black Atlass and rapper Nav, and other artists and producers such as Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, London On Da Track, Ali Gatie, Harry Fraud, Metro Boomin, Bebe Rexha and Swedish House Mafia.

On April 6, 2021, Universal Music Group and Republic Records announced the launch of the new record label Universal Arabic Music, with Slaiby as its founder and CEO.

Other ventures In December 2017, Slaiby joined the Lebanon-based music streaming service, Anghami, as the head of international partnerships. In 2018, he joined the board of HXOUSE, an incubator founded by La Mar Taylor, Belly and the Weeknd consisting of a 30,000-square-foot space facility located near Toronto's waterfront that provides studio rooms and offers equipment needed for recording, designing, and producing at a low cost for young artists. In the same year, he helped bring Shakira to the Cedars International Festival in Lebanon.

In 2019, Slaiby became an investor of the music-focused social video platform Triller. In April 2019, he was invited as a guest speaker to the Brilliant Minds, an annual conference created by Spotify founder Daniel Ek, where he was among a panel of speakers that included former US President Barack Obama, businessman Even Spiegel, and scientist Hartmut Neven.

Philanthropy In 2017, Slaiby and French Montana helped build the Suubi Hospital in Uganda in conjunction with Global Citizen and Mama Hope. In February 2018, he joined the advisory board of the international organization Global Citizen. In November 2018, he canceled his annual birthday party as a result of the deadly wildfires in California and urged his followers in an Instagram post to donate to the Los Angeles Fire Department and the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund.

Personal life On May 15, 2016, Slaiby married Lebanese-American model, philanthropist and Miss USA 2010 Rima Fakih in a ceremony at The Patriarchal Edifice in Bkerké, Lebanon. The wedding was attended by numerous celebrities, including The Weeknd, French Montana, Haifa Wehbe, and Wael Kfoury and was presided over by Maronite Patriarch, Bechara Boutros al-Rahi. The couple have four children together; Rima, Joseph, Amira, and Jacob. They reside in Los Angeles, California.

Slaiby is a Maronite Christian and, in 2017, was invited to visit the Pope who blessed his newborn daughter. 2017 – Billboard Power 100 (no.52) 2018 – Billboard Power 100 (no.53) 2020 – Variety's Manager of the Year 2021 – Billboard International Power Player