Arista Records Hires Kristopher Riddick-Tynes and Kendall Freeman as co-heads for the urban division
Arista Records has announced its two new co-heads of its urban music division – Khristopher Riddick-Tynes and Kendall “Young Sav” Freeman.
Khristopher Riddick-Tynes will serve as Vice President of A&R and co-head of urban music, based in Los Angeles, and Kendall “Young Sav” Freeman as the Vice President and co-head of urban music, based in New York.
“As Arista’s first co-heads of urban music, Khris and Kendell will help build our label’s presence in the urban, hip-hop and R&B music genres,” said Arista president-CEO David Massey. “They have both worked with some of the biggest artists and producers in our industry and have incredible ears for discovering and developing authentic music.”
Some of the initial artists whom Riddick-Tynes and Young Sav will be working with in the hip-hop/R&B space include Princess Nokia, Audrey Nuna, Dada1k, and Yung Boi Rob.
At a young age, Khristopher boasts an impressive production resume. The writer and producer graduated from Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, California and has already worked with Toni Braxton and Boyz II Men in the course of his career.
He has also written and produced records for big profile stars such as Ariana Grande, Fifth Harmony, Meghan Trainor, Pitbull, Chris Brown, Drake, Lil Baby, Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Russ, Ty Dolla $ign and Wiz Khalifa. He earned two 2020 Grammy nominations for co-writing Rick Ross’ “Gold Roses’’ featuring Drake, and for his work with Jessie Reyez on her debut album. In 2015, he won a Grammy for his work on co-writing and producing Toni Braxton & Babyface R&B album of the year, “Love, Marriage and Divorce.”
“I’m looking forward to bringing the best artists and their music to the close-knit Arista family and beginning a new journey with this relaunched label that has been so influential in my life and throughout my music career,” he said.
Kendell “Young Sav” Freeman started from the bottom when it came to his successful career. His passion for music started from a young age. He began working as an intern at Payday Records and Razor Sharp Records while he was still in high school.
After interning at TVT records, he was brought over to Def Jam as an intern, where he eventually landed a job at the label as the mixshow manager. Over the next few years, Sav had the opportunity to work with a number of artists including Big Sean, Trinidad James, Jay Z and more. He has been working as the Vice president of Maybach Music for the last few years.
“The Arista brand is known for developing some of the biggest artists in history and I can’t wait to build on that creative legacy by supporting new urban music talent and fulfilling artistic visions inside and outside the studio,” he noted.
The two will be responsible for evaluating talent, overseeing the recording and production of artist projects, finding suitable producers, writers, sound engineers and recording studios. They will also work closely with the other label departments including marketing, publicity, promotion and sales to ensure recorded material is commercially successful.
