YouTube has confirmed the hiring of Spotify‘s hip-hop programming head Tuma Basa. He will now serve as its urban music director, and will use his “deep knowledge” to help connect “artists and fans,” per YouTube’s music lead Lyor Cohen.
If you don’t know about Basa, he’s known for curating Spotify‘s legendary RapCaviar playlist. The playlist gained a major following (over 9 million to date) and provided a lot fo exposure to artists.
With the hiring of Basa, YouTube is hoping to continue to momentum of popularity into its YouTube Music service or other services alike. This type of hire shouldn’t really come as a surprise either. Spotify perviously hired Apple Music’s hip-hop programming lead in April.
