Spotify has confirmed reports earlier this week about it poaching Apple Music’s hip-hop and R&B curator Carl Chery. He’s joining Spotify as its new head of urban music, slotting neatly into the position previously filled by RapCaviar creator Tuma Basa.
Spotify said that Chery will be based out of Los Angeles and ‘working closely with hip hop editors across the globe to help scale the genre – breaking borders for a deeper artist and fan connection’.
“We are excited to have CC join the expanding Shows & Editorial team as Head of Urban Music,” said Spotify’s boss of shows and editorial Nick Holmsten. “His expertise, passion and knowledge of hip hop culture strengthens our commitment to building the genre globally to deliver the best experience for music fans.”
This particular genre is absolutely at the heart of Spotify and Apple Music’s rivalry in 2018, with Apple Music recently making a habit of announcing streaming milestones for urban artists (Drake, for example) that seemingly over-index compared to Spotify.
Meanwhile, Basa’s post-Spotify destination remains officially unconfirmed: it was reported that he was off to YouTube to work with Lyor Cohen’s team on that service’s revamped subscription tier, but his LinkedIn profile remains unchanged at the time of writing.
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