Journalist, DJ, music publisher and compere for the likes of the Jamaican Athletics team, Kennedy ‘Prezedent’ Mensah has blazed a trail in the world of reggae. Since arriving on the scene back in 1990, with Ragazine, his weekly reggae column for The Voice Newspaper, Kennedy has worked in most forms of print and broadcast media, including New Nation, Billboard, Pride, Music Week, NME, Untold and Music Business International. He’s also edited a number of titles like Ticketmania, Nexxus and On Air, and contributed to radio and TV stations in London, Gambia, Ghana, Italy and Jamaica, as a pundit and DJ.

In 2000 he became a Reggae Specialist for the publishers, Westbury Music Ltd. By 2008 he rose to the ranks of manager of the Reggae Catalogues and head of Copyright at the company. Their clientele includes living Legends the likes of John Holt, Bunny Lee, Winston Riley, Max Romeo and U Roy, as well as current name brands like Wayne Wonder, Shaggy, T.O.K., Turbulence, Jah Cure & Kiprich. Whilst there he signed the likes of Mad Cobra, Jah Mason, Harry Toddler and Delly Ranx.

When not making power moves in publishing, Kennedy also holds down a weekly London West End DJ residency at Moonlighting and is resident at the monthly Lovers Rock Lounge (Ruby Lo's). He still freelances for various publications/organisations such as Associate Producer on the OBE TV broadcast, Access and a weekly feature on BBC London with Dotun Adebayo called Back 2 Da Future, which is where the blog and company name came from. Prez now have a weekly Saturday evening show on the Award-winning internet station www.playvybz.com.

“It's all about da goodah Reggae Music mate! We start from the dancehall then work our way all the way back to the beginning,” says Prez. With his Back 2 Da Future venture gathering momentum we’d have to say that the future looks bright.

BACK 2 DA FUTURE MUSIC

The company was started in September 2008 and from then till now it has amassed some 80 clients. Present clientele includes the likes of Lloyd Brown, Blak Twang, Dennis Bovell, Katie Pearl, Romain Virgo, Rodney P, Frisco Kid, Ty, Nereus Joseph, Commissioner Gordon, King Jammys and Robert Livingston. We look after some of our clients as writers but others as performers for whom we collect their neighbouring rights royalties – the royalties that PPL payout on.