Leading Hip-Hop Executive Sam Taylor Out at Kobalt

Sam Taylor is no longer with Kobalt Music, where he was promoted to oversee creative roughly four months ago, Billboard can confirm.

The leading hip-hop publishing and A&R executive declined to comment on his departure, as did a representative for Kobalt Music. 

Taylor has been with Kobalt since 2016, and was promoted to executive vp,creative in July. At the time, Kobalt founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz praised Taylor's "deep relationships" with artists and songwriters. 

Over the past year, Taylor has helped lead Kobalt's charge into hip-hop and R&B with signings like Gunna, Roddy Ricch, Jay Rock and Raphael Saadiq, and star producers including Teddy Walton (Chris Brown, Kendrick Lamar), J White (Cardi B) and Ben Billions (The Weeknd, Beyoncé). 

The news of Taylor's exit was first reported by Variety. His name and image have been removed from the Kobalt website.

Taylor got his start in the A&R department at Elektra Records. He has since held positions at Atlantic Records, Warner/Chappell, Sony/ATV and EMI Music Publishing, where he signed and worked with the likes of Pharrell Williams, Schoolboy Q and Sounwave (Kendrick Lamar).