Dating & Relationship status

In 2021, Esmailian launched a Champagne named Noirblanc, under the house name Xavier D’Orsenac.

In April 2019, Esmailian premiered 21 previously unreleased songs on the fifth episode of The Weeknd’s Beats 1 radio show, Memento Mori. Tracks by Lil Uzi Vert, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Gunna, Nav, 21 Savage, Offset, Gucci Mane, Future, and others were played.

In 2016, Esmailian discovered the Toronto-based rapper and singer, Nav, signing him to XO and becoming his manager. In February 2017, Nav released his self-titled mixtape which reached number 24 on the Billboard 200. Esmailian was an executive producer on that project. He would go on to be an executive producer on Nav and Metro Boomin’s Perfect Timing later that year and on Nav’s debut studio album, Reckless in 2018. Also in 2018, Esmailian earned songwriting credits on The Carters’ Everything is Love album with “Friends.” He would again earn executive producer credits on Nav’s second studio album, Bad Habits, which was released in March 2019 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.

While living in Miami in 2011, Esmailian’s friend, Hawk Marley, sent him some of The Weeknd’s tracks when the artist was relatively unknown. Esmailian then drove to Toronto, Canada and began managing The Weeknd. In 2012, Esmailian and The Weeknd founded the XO record label as a joint venture with Republic Records. Through the XO and Republic partnership, The Weeknd released several albums in the following years, including Trilogy (2012), Kiss Land (2013), and Beauty Behind the Madness (2015). The latter album would be honored with two Grammy Awards. Along with Slaiby, Esmailian was named to Billboard’ s “40 Under 40: Music’s Young Power Players” list in 2015.

In 2002, Esmailian’s friend and rapper, Belly, was signed to Wassim “Sal” Slaiby’s Capital Prophets label (later the CP Music Group). Slaiby also hired Esmailian as the head of street promotion for the label. At age 19 in 2003, Esmailian began traveling with rapper and friend, Juelz Santana, on his tours. In 2007, he started managing Belly, which took him to Florida in an effort to help his client break into the club scene.

Amir “Cash” Esmailian (born 1983; also known as Cash XO) is an Iranian-Canadian talent manager, music executive, and record producer who is the co-founder of the record label, XO Records, and the co-manager (with Wassim “Sal” Slaiby) of The Weeknd. He has executively produced albums and songs for Nav (whom he also manages) and The Carters, among others. He is also the host of a Beats 1 radio show called, Memento Mori.

Esmailian grew up in Tehran, Iran in 1983, during the Iran–Iraq War. To flee the conflict, his family emigrated to Ottawa, Canada in 1988. Growing up, Esmailian was neighbors with future rapper and XO signee, Belly. The two would often go to recording studios together. He got his nickname, “Cash”, as a child, given to him by his friend and future XO member, Hawk Marley. His first job as a 12 year-old involved making Canadian Football League trading cards. He is a graduate of Merivale High School in Ottawa.