Joey Negro

Joey Negro wove his deep affinity for disco into house productions and remixes alike, prompting many observers to label the resulting sound disco-house. Across the 1990s and into the following decades he issued material under a wide range of aliases on numerous imprints, while also assembling landmark anthologies that spotlighted overlooked dance tracks from the 1970s and 1980s.

Born Dave Lee on England’s Isle of Wight, he began amassing disco, soul, and funk records in the late 1970s, initiating a lifelong engagement with dance music. After relocating to London in 1986 he took a position at the Smithers & Leigh record shop; when that store shuttered the next year he joined Rough Trade Distribution, where he established its dance division, Demix, and collaborated with imprints such as Rhythm King. In 1988 he founded Republic Records and issued his debut production credit, M.D.EMM’s “Get Busy,” with most of his subsequent early work appearing on the same label.

His inaugural Joey Negro release, “Do It Believe It,” surfaced on Nu Groove in 1991, followed by “Do What You Feel” on Z Records, another of his own outlets. Virgin later licensed the latter track, which registered both club and mainstream success and secured him an album contract with the major. For the balance of the decade he maintained an active release schedule under multiple pseudonyms, earned further recognition through remix work, and maintained a parallel DJ career. Among the compilations he assembled are Jumpin’ (two volumes on Harmless), The Soul of Disco (three volumes on Z), Disco Spectrum (three volumes on BBE), Disco Not Disco (the first two volumes, for Strut), Destination: Boogie (Z), and Backstreet Brit Funk (Z). In 2017 he issued Produced with Love on Z, pairing fresh disco-inflected material with selected highlights from his earlier productions and remixes.