.TopDawgEnt president iamstillpunch on SZA, Kendrick Lamar, and the misconceptions about the work he does. A conversation with CraigSJ
Photo: Courtesy of @the7views via Instagram You either respect Terrence “Punch” Henderson, or you hate him, depending on which stage of development your favorite Top Dawg Entertainment artist’s upcoming album is in at the moment. As president of the label that molded the careers of Kendrick Lamar, SZA, ScHoolboy Q, Isaiah Rashad, and so many others, Punch is your line to all the stars on the roster whenever they’re off the grid living their lives and fine-tuning new songs.
You definitely have to take a lot of hits because people don’t understand the inner workings of the music business. They feel you could just record a song and put it out and that’s that, but it is so many different details that go along with it that the general public don’t get. I understand the backlash, and I take that on to make sure the artists have as much peace of mind as possible so they can continue to create and do what they do. I learned when YouStream was popping.
It’s a disconnect sometimes with certain fans, not all fans. It’s a sense of entitlement that comes with it. The artist’s relationship with fans sometimes gets skewed a bit to where certain people feel that they’re owed. I posed the question the other day on Twitter. I asked, “What do you feel artists owe you?” One person responded, “Friendship.” Once the artist creates the work and you buy the work, that’s what you’re owed.
We spoke about doing it a few times. Everything has to be aligned and work out the right way. We don’t want to do something just for the sake of doing it. It really has to make sense with us and with the artists. That’s one thing we pride ourselves on is never jumping into something just because we can do it or it might be hot or whatever. It really has to make sense.
Context is super-important. And you have to know the person, how something that reads online can be different from how somebody said it or meant it; it could be lighthearted. What happens is people put a story into their own narrative and create a situation that’s not really there. I’m not going to say there’s never been contention. There’s always contention, especially when you’re dealing with creative. Difference in opinions, it happens, but that doesn’t mean somebody is unhappy or anything.
But you could’ve heard it early. Interesting. The House Is Burning was one of my favorite albums last year, and I think a lot of labels would be nervous about giving Isaiah Rashad five years to sort things out to get to that record.