How Tuma Basa is Bringing Black Music to the World with YouTube

Feb 10, 2022

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Since Tuma Basa broke into the music industry in the late ‘90s, he’s seen first-hand the complete transformation of the business. But amid the changes, Tuma has been a consistent force in curating hip-hop music and connecting it with brand-new audiences far and wide. That’s on full display in his current role as the Director of Black Music & Culture at YouTube.

It’s a unique title for an even more unique individual. Tuma cut his teeth in music on the programming side, working for BET and MTV for over 10 years. Next, he was a guiding force in the launch of P Diddy’s REVOLT TV. But once the industry embraced streaming, Tuma left traditional TV and joined the new frontier with Spotify. There, he was the curator behind the RapCaviar playlist — which amassed over nine million followers at the time, making it a top-5 Spotify playlist globally.

Tuma joined YouTube in 2018. The platform may not get the credit that a service like Spotify does, but it's just as influential in bridging artists directly with listeners. True to form, Tuma is leveraging YouTube’s worldwide reach and connecting it with not only emerging artists (think NBA YoungBoy) but on-the-rise genres too (AfroBeats, Dancehall).

I really enjoyed this interview with Tuma, who is on the frontlines of the streaming era. Here are all the topics we covered on the show:

Episode Highlights

[02:44] Being on the front lines with the hip hop world

[04:55] Tuma’s experience working at MTV when Dancehall was becoming part of mainstream music

[06:01] The disconnection in terms of expectations: paid shows vs promo

[07:50] Tuma talks about African artists and folk traditional music

[09:28] The reasons why Tuma found YouTube attractive

[11:14] Breaking barriers and giving more exposure to artists through streaming

[12:45] What does success look like for Tuma?

[15:23] Why you should spend time and have more focus on YouTube

[18:30] NBA YoungBoy: One of the biggest stars on YouTube

[26:36] The role of technology in the music industry

[28:26] The CD and DVD era

[31:15] Tuma’s outlook about generation transfer, and the concept of an album

[37:51] Trends where music is heading, and what people think about emerging technology

[41:45] What Tuma wants the “Trapital” audience to know about

Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co

Guest: Tuma Basa, @tumabasa

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