MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we interview influential figures in the music industry about the tracks that have – until now – defined their journey and their existence. To start 2024, Joe Kentish, president of Warner Records UK, and the man who signed Dua Lipa, is taking her place in the hot seat. The Key Songs In The Life Of… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
Next year, Joe Kentish will celebrate 10 years with Warner Records UK. He first joined the label in 2014 as Senior A&R and was later promoted, via a stint as Head of A&R, to President, starting in 2021.
2024 also sees him celebrate 25 years in the business. He got his start as co-founder of London-based independent label Middlerow Records, a tastemaker at the heart of the UK garage scene.
He then broke into the major ecosystem after being hired by Jamie Nelson to lead Parlophone’s Innocent brand.
After a stint with Mercury/Virgin EMI, one of his first signings to Warner Records was Dua Lipa – now a multi-Grammy Award-winning global superstar, whose third album is due later this year. It’s not a bad business card.
His key songs reach back beyond his 25 years in business, but also suggest where he’d like the next 25 years to take him.
Reflecting on the process, he says: “Like most people, I suppose, it was a mixed bag. Reducing your life into seven pieces is… a challenge. But it’s also a lot of fun to remember why you connected with certain songs.
“I think it’s interesting that so many of these songs – and many others that didn’t really make the cut – happened in a fairly small time frame. It was actually harder to choose songs from the last 20 years. I think there is a period when we experience everything more intensely.
“Also, I was lucky enough to start listening to music at a time when circumstances and economics meant that you really absorbed the choices you made; you lived with them because they were all you had.
So here are Kentish’s picks, ranging from singer-songwriters and queens of soul to pop superstars and classic jungle – all starting with hip-hop that’s as old-school as possible…
1) Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Team, The Show (1985)
This is the first record that I admit to having bought. I think I was eight or nine when it came out. On side B was La Di Da Diwhich was Slick Rick, with Doug E. Fresh just beatboxing.
It’s hard to believe, because hip-hop is everywhere today, but I remember it all seemed so exotic at the time – especially to a kid growing up in Harlesden.
We almost never got to see these people, there was no mainstream media coverage, so there was this feeling of mystery. It felt like it was from another planet – but at the same time, because it was rapping and beatboxing, it was also something you could try for yourself. Luckily for everyone, I quickly realized it wasn’t for me.
“It was the start of a new culture and, for me, the start of a lifelong love of hip-hop.”
It was probably a real craze at the time. And in fact, that’s what we were told. But in reality, it was the beginning of a new culture and, for me, the beginning of a lifelong love of hip-hop and rap.
2) Paul Simon, The Boy in the Bubble (1987)
This is the first song of Graceland album, and it really could have been the entire record for me. It was an album that my mother loved.
My mother and father were very aware of African politics and the black experience. Apartheid was a major problem in our house.
As children, we talked about Africa, but that didn’t necessarily mean much. This music brought him viscerally into our home.
Looking back, it was actually a very controversial record, with issues surrounding the cultural boycott, but it’s one of those albums that I always came back to. And the older I get, the more aware I become of the production, the more astonishing I find it.
It’s sophisticated but fun, to the point where a 10 year old could get into it, but I can still listen to it now and hear new things, in the music and the lyrics. It’s getting better and better, and my daughter and I are listening You can call me Al every Sunday morning together.
3) Michael Jackson, Bad (1987)
It’s not his best record, but I remember the event of the video being released for the first time. We all went to my mom’s friend’s house, because she had a bunch of girls who really liked Michael Jackson, and we all watched it together.
I could have chosen something else by Michael Jackson, I could have chosen something by Madonna from the same era, because they were pop records but they had so much groove in them. They felt massive and theatrical, which was so exciting as a kid.
“These artists and these milestone releases seemed to fill your life.”
These people were 20 feet tall. Each new record was an experience on all fronts. There were so few touchpoints in those days, but these artists and milestone releases seemed to fill your life nonetheless.
And when I got the opportunity to work for a major label, I think I had a little bit of that level of ambition with me, to work with records of that caliber. These are the references I have when I think about what I want to achieve in my career.
For me, there’s nothing better that the major label system can do, or that I can be involved in, than records that have groove and soul – but are absolutely huge around the world. Records like Bad And True blue (Madonna, 1986) may be downplayed by people in favor of “cooler” albums or artists, but these are the cream of the crop.
There are so few artists capable of achieving this kind of success. The older I get, the more I realize that these people are special and rare, the more I realize that success on this scale is no accident, and the more I realize how privileged you are to be in their orbit.
4) Lion Conqueror, feat. Super Cat & Reggie Stepper, Code Red (1994)
It was one of the largest pieces of the jungle when the jungle was growing. This represents the time when I started going out with my friends in London, to clubs.
All the (artists) I’ve talked about so far have been American – except for Slick Rick, who was born in London, I’m sure someone would have pointed that out! But the jungle was the United Kingdom. There were plenty of influences, but the mix was very decidedly British. This could only have happened in the UK at that time, and perhaps only in London at that time.
And it was the fashion, it was the lifestyle, it was the driving in all parts of the country. For 10 years after that, I guess I was a raver – which seems funny to say now, but that’s what the scene was. It was also very personal, it felt like it belonged to us.
Even now, when I look at different audiences and fans, trying to fully understand them, I try to remember what jungle music meant to me and how much I identified with it. I didn’t want anything to come between me and my relationship with music, I wanted that connection to be as pure and direct as possible.
If someone ended up on Top of the Pops, for example, it was like a family member had died. Like, what are they doing sharing our music with all these people?! It was the ownership I felt. It was an incredible time in my life and I connected with music in a way that I’m not sure I ever have before or since.
5) Amy Winehouse, Tears Dry Theirself (2006)
This (choice) could easily have been a Lauryn Hill song. Whenever someone asks me what my dream signing would have been in the past, or what my North Star is, I say either Amy Winehouse or Lauryn Hill.
They made records that tapped into a soul heritage, but were also part of it and did it in a way that could only have been done in the era in which they were working. They were classic sounds and at the same time completely contemporary.
I often work on albums where we reference older sounds, but when we do, I also reference these two artists very often, to emphasize that when the greats did it, they did it themselves. appropriate.
“I remember thinking at the time: This is what I’m trying to do; That’s it.”
I was at Universal When Back to black came out, Darcus was upstairs making the album, and we were aware of some of the difficulties that were swirling around.
I heard Rehab, and I thought it was good, but it seemed a little new to me. And then they came with the rest of the album and I was knocked out. I remember thinking at the time: This is what I’m trying to do; That’s it.
6) Jay-Z, Kanye West, N***as in Paris (2011)
I could choose anything from this album (Watch the throne).
I’m a huge fan of Jay-Z, as a human being and as an artist. And that was the great Kanye, before all the nonsense.
The show I saw during the tour for this album remains the best rap concert I have ever attended in my life. This track was rewound seven times (that night), because it’s a highlight on a record that’s full of highlights. These are two greats at the top of their game.
I still smile when I think of the experience of being in the room watching them play – a real privilege.
7) Aretha Franklin, The Dark End of the Street (1970)
I just think he’s hands down the greatest voice that has ever existed in the history of popular music.
You can choose any song of hers – and you should, just to hear the full range of what she can do.
I get goosebumps when I listen to him or watch his live performances.
It’s hard to describe simply in words, but it’s a voice that has the power to be strong even when it’s weak.
You know how when a Porsche is idling, but you can still hear the power, you know that if the driver puts their foot down it can fly? I just want to be with people like that.
My dad had a lot of soul records, but there was actually this Irish kid I went to school with, his dad was an owner – but also a singer. I guess it had a bit of a The Commitments vibe.
Anyway, they had all these soul music cassettes that he lent me. So I discovered Aretha and lots of other soul music thanks to my friend’s father, an Irish publican who sang in a cover band!
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