Top Spotify executive Tuma Basa, who formerly served as global programming head of hip hop, has left the company. Basa was also the curator of the company’s cult-favorite RapCaviar playlist
, which has amassed almost 9 million followers and spawned a live touring franchise.Basa’s departure from Spotify was announced yesterday, and Billboard reports that he is headed to YouTube, which is poised to launch a new music subscription service of its own in coming months. YouTube is reportedly experiencing delays with the product, tentatively titled Remix. The service, which would merge two of Google’s existing paid music streaming products, YouTube Red and Google Play Music, was initially rumored to bow this month.
RapCaviar is the biggest genre-specific playlist on all of Spotify, and has helped break buzzy artists like Desiigner and Cardi B. In Basa’s absence, Spotify said it will continue to grow the brand globally with an expanded fleet of local curators. “The RapCaviar team, which is rapidly expanding with boots on the ground globally, is committed to building the brand and giving its users the best hip hop experience on the platform,” Spotify, which filed to go public on Wednesday, said in a statement.
Prior to joining Spotify in 2015, Basa served as vice president of music programming at Revolt TV, and has also held various roles at MTV and BET.
In 2025, TikTok managed to put most of its regulatory issues in the U.S. to bed. As…
Update, Oct. 6: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the relationship between…
Slow Ventures cofounder Sam Lessin says his company is investing in cults. "I think we're…
Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends,…
In 2023, Photoshop developer Adobe jumped into generative AI with its launch of Firefly. Firefly…
Ticketmaster parent Live Nation is getting into the creator biz. The publicly traded multinational corp,…