- Black Music Research Unit
About me
Hussein is a principal lecturer at the University of Westminster and Chair of the Black Music Research Unit. He is a musician, technologist and educator who researches and publishes on the various intersections of technology and automation with labour, ethnicity, gender, age, culture, business and legislation. He was part of the team that established Rockschool's popular music exams and has worked for various artists, including Beats International and De La Soul. His recent media composition work includes the BBC TV award-winning comedy-drama series Boarders.
He has taught at a number of distinguished institutions including Goldsmiths, IOE, City Lit, UOW and organisations such as Prince’s Trust, Community Music, Rockschool, the music and arts services for Harrow, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing and Westminster and project-managed special projects for Arts Council of England, Princes' Trust, BBC R2, Somerset House and Quintin Hogg Trust.
As a session musician, he has worked for a diverse range of artists, including Beats International, Freak Power, Norman Cook, and Ephraim Lewis. Karen Ramirez, Billy Ocean, Charles and Eddie, Eusebe, DeLa Soul, Elisha LaVerne, Alex Parks, Alistair McGriffin. As a member of the seminal UK P-Funk outfit Microgroove, as well as early career hip hop artists, places him as a key component in areas of cross-cultural development of British Music within academia. Companies he has worked for include Universal, Polydor, Warners, AVEX, Sanctuary, Sony, BBC TV, CITV, C4 and BFI. As a writer, his material has been featured in films, TV, and songs signed to some of the largest publishers, including AVEX and Sony.
He is joint academic outreach and EDI lead for the Westminster School of Arts.
Teaching
I teach across the range of subject areas including performance, improvisation, modular synthesis, guitar, musicianship, music technology, performance technology, songwriting, production, music business, artist development, contextual studies and artificial intelligence.
I support students in their interests and aid them in their development as rounded musicians, artists and content makers.
Research
My research covers the following areas of interest.
1. Modular synthesis and music technology
2. Improvisation applied to discipline specific areas of composition, songwriting and performance including computer mediated approaches
3. Higher Education in areas of concern for Digital Competency, Ethnicity, EDI, technologies. business and pedagogy.
4. Artificial Intelligence and its use in Music as assistant and as creator.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.