It could have all been so different for Tuma Basa.

He joined YouTube as director of urban music in June 2018, scoring one of the most high profile jobs in the music business, but if his nascent rap career as a teenager in Zimbabwe had worked out, his path might have taken another course entirely.

“I wanted to be a rapper, to be Tuma B,” Basa tells Music Week, grinning and planting his fists on the table for emphasis ...