UNIFIED Signs Fat Papi and prodshushy as First Clients of Its New Zealand Office
UNIFIED Artist Management has signed Fat Papi and producer prodshushy — the duo behind the viral track "Freaked Out" — as the first clients of its newly established New Zealand office, according to Billboard.
The Auckland-based pair join the roster led by senior artist manager Matt Harvey, who heads UNIFIED's NZ operations. Harvey called Fat Papi "a generational talent" whose music has resonated internationally in a remarkably short space of time, Billboard reported.
Fat Papi, whose real name is Baban Hussain, is a Kurdish rapper, singer and songwriter. He has been releasing music independently since 2023. His style blends melodic hip-hop, synth-driven club production and hooks designed to lodge quickly — the kind of sound that travels well on short-form video platforms.
"Freaked Out" backed that up with numbers. The track accumulated over 7 billion views across TikTok and 9 billion views on YouTube Shorts, according to Billboard. It reached No. 55 on the Billboard Global 200 — the chart that ranks the most-consumed songs worldwide based on streaming and sales data — and hit No. 2 on YouTube's US Top Songs on Shorts. On the Billboard Hot 100, the flagship US singles chart, "Freaked Out" was Fat Papi's first career entry, debuting at No. 89 and lifting to No. 88.
Fat Papi currently has nearly 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify. For an artist who has been self-releasing for roughly three years, that audience puts him in a tier where management and publishing infrastructure become the logical next step.
The management agreement was announced days after Warner Chappell Music — the publishing arm of Warner Music Group — struck a worldwide publishing deal with Fat Papi and prodshushy, Billboard reported. A publishing deal covers the rights to the compositions themselves: the melodies and lyrics, separate from the sound recordings. Warner Chappell's involvement means the duo's songwriting catalogue is now administered globally under one of the three major music companies.
Fat Papi said joining UNIFIED is an exciting next step and that he is proud to represent both his Kurdish heritage and New Zealand, Billboard reported.
For fans, the back-to-back deals signal that the infrastructure around Fat Papi and prodshushy is being built quickly — management to guide the career, publishing to handle the songs — while the duo's audience, built largely through short-form video, is already substantial.
