REVIEWS

“I’ve worked directly with Rasheed for 3 years across multiple global partnership marketing campaigns. He’s been an incredible partner internally within the marketing organization but also an incredible partner to our external brands, people and organizations that we seek to build meaningful connections with. I’m inspired by Rasheed’s ability to drive a project forward within a complex, multi-layered organization, while equally having an intentional creative mind, providing ideas to up-level the work that we do globally. 

Within the past two years, Rasheed has tactfully and strategically developed a new vertical within Spotify’s marketing organization with fashion partnerships. Tapped into the cultural nuances of that industry, he has influenced and rallied Spotify’s marketing teams to prioritize key cultural moments and fashion partners, like Basquiat, Thebe Magugu, and Spotify’s GetReadyWithMusic fashion positioning, proving to us all how that vertical can both drive the business and elevate the Spotify brand. Rasheed spearheaded a Global Fashion Partnerships playbook that set an exceptional foundation for successful fashion partnerships and helped provide a roadmap regions could utilize to activate through fashion within their global market. 

Rasheed is a leader you can count on, and a leader you can trust. I highly value his prioritization of community, connection and relationships which has helped transform the role of partnerships at Spotify.”

“Rasheed has the distinct talent of seeing campaigns from a bird's eye view & as opportunities for internal collaboration. With Fall Fashion Month, he pulled together a workstream of folks across teams, verticals, and separate markets at Spotify to execute on shared goals. Aside from the fact that the campaign itself was an incredible show of Spotify's force as a holistic partner, I really enjoyed working on it for the following reasons:

• Organization: Rasheed is incredibly organized. I take pride in my work as an organized/Type A person myself, but I was humbled this year to continue to learn new ways to ensure success in campaigns through watching him work. There isn't a page unturned by Rasheed, and his attention to detail is one to be marveled.

• Communication/clarity: In any campaign, but especially one of this magnitude, communication is key. At every point, Rasheed was clear, communicative, step-oriented, and made sure that each member of the XFN was aware of wider goals & other specifics that build the breadth of our collective work.

• Flexibility: Whenever you work with external partners, very rarely will every single thing go to plan. In these moments, Rasheed was always prepared with a Plan B and perspective that kept the teams on-track.”

“Rasheed and I have worked closely together for two years and in that time I have learned that he doesn’t just possess good qualities- he embodies them at such a high standard that he completely resets the bar. Some examples:

Rasheed is incredibly intelligent - he is a quick learner, a critical thinker, a top performer... and still always eager to learn more. When he first started on our team, he was assigned to manage an important partnership with Microsoft during a stage of hyper-growth. He was able to jump in, keep up, and elevate our output as we built it into a global multimillion-dollar relationship.

Rasheed is also incredibly personable - even with all of his achievements and recognition on our team, he has stayed humble and open to collaborating with others. His positive attitude, amazing sense of humor, emotional intelligence, and one-of-a-kind energy make him a trusted friend and colleague to everyone who meets him. He is a magnet that brings our larger team together, even during these distant times.

Rasheed is the most hardworking - two months into his new job at Spotify, he decided to rent a hotel room on Christmas Day (also his birthday) to dedicate time to work away from the distractions of friends and family celebrating the holiday. This summer, he went out of his way to set up an impressive Covid-era makeshift office, where he would spend early mornings, late nights, and long weekends dedicated to serving his clients and team members. This ethic also applies to his endless quest for self-improvement and discipline in his personal life. I don’t know how he does it all, but he never stops.

Rasheed is a force! He is tuned in to so many areas of culture, and interprets trends in a way that is uniquely his own. Even more impressive, he is able to translate what’s happening in the world to be understood and/or enjoyed by various audiences. From working with our American Eagle clients to bring their Young Money partnership to life to working with the tourism board of New Orleans to promote the city’s distinct microgenres, Rasheed’s mix of knowledge and intuition has proven to be a recipe for success when it comes to cultural content programming. Beyond the scope of his job responsibilities, he has been known to provide intel on the best clubs in Atlanta, the best food in Brooklyn, the best places to find a good blazer, the best industry events for networking... he knows it all! Most importantly, he has been a proud advocate, a strong role model, and a patient guide as our team has collectively endeavored to be more supportive of our Black community both at Spotify and beyond. All of that to say: however you define a beacon of culture, Rasheed is it.

I could go on and on, and I’ll leave you with my wholehearted belief that any team would be lucky to have Rasheed. He is one in a million.”

“It was a pleasure working and collaborating with Rasheed last year. He has such a creative approach to projects and partnerships which seeps through the rest of the team and creates a positive working environment.

Working closely together on the Soundtrack Behind The Runway campaign, Rasheed led the process seamlessly from start to finish with efficient communication & strategy meetings throughout. It's not always easy bringing in people from different teams, countries and timezones so it's a testament to his organisational ability that he was able to achieve this so harmoniously.

Having only been in the company for around 7 months at the time, it was one of my first global cross functional projects that I had worked on. With this in mind Rasheed made it a point to solidify my understanding of the wider business, the different teams and the personnel we would be working with. This was something I truly appreciated as it allowed the rest of the campaign to roll out at a truly high level, as is shown in the positive results both internally and externally.

I not only look forward to working with Rasheed on future campaigns and projects together but also learning from him as he has proven himself to be one of the most proficient creative marketers in the business.”

“I had the best experience working alongside Rasheed late last year. He possesses extremely valuable skills that contribute significantly to the success of Partner Marketing and Spotify overall.

One of Rasheed's standout qualities is his highly efficient approach to driving cross-functional collaboration. During the Fall Fashion Month campaign, Rasheed seamlessly lead multiple global teams in executing the experiential, social, digital, and OOH components of the campaign. He ensured that everyone had full visibility into each other's work week-over-week, ensuring deliverables and deadlines were met.

I also had the pleasure of witnessing Rasheed's leadership qualities during this campaign. Not only did he lead overall marketing strategy, but he drove campaign planning and execution amongst our global fashion partners. Rasheed is a true thought leader for the company, taking needed risks and venturing into uncharted territory, taking Spotify to new heights. His ability to execute cutting-edge campaigns and balance tasks in multiple areas of the project is a testament to his organizational skills, creativity, and dedication to delivering high-quality results.”

“Rasheed has exemplified extraordinary customer service to some of Spotify's largest advertisers and agencies. Most notably, he has driven several millions of dollars of incremental revenue from Microsoft on his own. He has helped our teams foster JBPs and long-term partnerships.

Rasheed easily gains trust among internal and external stakeholders. Rasheed is a cultural icon on our team. Be it his references to music and movies, or his incredible taste in fashion, Rasheed is at the forefront of culture, allowing him to craft campaigns and narratives that align with the world around us today, especially with regards to entertainment.”

Rasheed is the ideal team player, i.e. humble, hungry and smart. He works early or late hours as needed for global initiatives, has led some of the most involved and innovative campaigns (e.g. Salesforce's Michelle Obama podcast sponsorship), and yet always makes time to educate and elevate other members of his team. Rasheed always dismisses praise and is determined to be even better than he is, everyday. He strives for excellence.”

“Rasheed is extremely organized, buttoned up, and always prepared for the next meeting or action item - and he ensures the rest of the team is too. He provided thoughtful and realistic guidance to the working team as we anticipated the likelihood of getting the partner onboard. He utilized  his expertise with partners to prepare us for realistic outcomes that we otherwise wouldn't have prepared for. I felt a really strong sense of partnership with Rasheed - he was eager to work together to drive success and was willing to exhaust every option, no matter how much tedious work it involved, in order to push the work forward.”

“I had the pleasure of hiring Rasheed early in his career as a Digital Account Representative. The group was in its infancy, and the addition of Rasheed helped catapult the role to a new level. Rasheed was detail oriented, organized, extremely intelligent, and exceptional at providing top customer service. Within a few months of joining he had volunteered to help create valuable resource documents that detailed step by step processes for the many facets the role was responsible for.

It has been impressive, yet far some surprising, to see Rasheed advance his career and excel as a leader. Given the opportunity, I would gladly work with Rasheed again.”

“Rasheed has been a long time valued partner of Layerframe. He has a unique way of having a pulse on the cultural zeitgeist while also being strategic not only for the Spotify brand but also their partners. He was instrumental in onboarding Spotify’s partners into The Vault, Spotify’s bespoke digital asset management system. This allows partners to have streamlined access to approved materials from various internal groups. In particular, he spearheaded access to Spotify’s EQUAL (women in music) and Radar (emerging artists) assets.

With his vision and direction we assisted him in kicking off the groundbreaking Spotify Fashion vertical.We affectionately call Rasheed the Mayor. We get excited when we get to work with any of our valued Spotify contacts but especially when it’s Rasheed.”