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Jonathan ‘J.R.’ Rotem is a producer that’s had placements from Dr Dre to Britney Spears. With his recent smash hit ‘SOS’ by Rihanna dominating charts across the world, The Situation spoke to him about his monstrous success.
A
handful of hip hop producer’s names are valuable commodities; just
look at Dr Dre and Timbaland.
However, some producers prefer to sit back and detach from the media glare
to let their music astound, without having to worry about the spotlight
and the challenges that go with it.
This describes the style of Jonathan ‘J.R’ Rotem, a legend amongst musicians and lyricists; a somewhat unknown entity amongst hip hop fans, creating a masterpiece to then simply move on to his next project.
He’s also a little different to your ‘average’ producer, with a background in classical music attending the prestigious Berkley College of Music in Boston, focusing on classical and jazz piano over the eight bar loops of hip hop music.
He’s a character that considers sticking to one genre a tad restricting, so blesses not only the hip hop junkies with his pinpoint production, but dabbles in R&B and pop too. With production work including Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, Obie Trice, D12, Lil Kim and Fat Joe to name but a few, his CV reads like a game veteran’s, but has been banging out bars for a little over two years - a mere newcomer by any standard.
With placements on tap and a skill that few can surpass, Jonathan Rotem has also taken a step into the business side of the industry, setting up a production company ‘Net Worth Entertainment’ with Zach Katz.
With recent and upcoming projects ranging from The Game to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, The Situation felt it was time to speak to the man who has the production Midas touch…
Firstly,
can you explain how you got into hip hop and your journey into becoming
a top level producer?
Basically, I was a classical and jazz pianist. I studied classical music
when I was very young and went to Berkley College of Music and studied
jazz in Boston. Then I basically, you know, after being a jazz pianist
back in the Bay Area where I’m from, I decided I wanted to start
doing beats and doing production, so I just got into it that way. The
Bay Area is a very small place musically, and I got my beats to Dwayne
Wiggins of Tony Toni Tone
and then that led to a placement on Destiny’s
Child’s ‘Survivor’. Then I decided to
move down to Los Angeles where I tried to do my thing and finally hooked
up with the right people, like my current manager, Zach, and with a lot
of hard work, trial and error, and working with him we started placing
stuff, then Snoop Dogg, Fabolous, D12, Lil’ Kim, 50 Cent and everything
started to follow.
How
did you find the transition from producing classical to hip hop beats?
And how does your knowledge of classical music influence your hip hop
production?
I think the music was there when I first started doing beats, but there
was too much there; too many melodies and harmonies and not enough griminess
and worrying about the drums and that type of stuff so, you know, it definitely
took a while. It’s an artform and it takes a while to really get,
so it kinda went like that, but I definitely think that my background
in classical influences my beats; I mean my musical sensibility comes
from that. Those were my roots and that’s the way I kinda hear music.
I think that that comes through in the production that I do now in some
way; you know, I don’t intentionally try to make it come through,
but it’s just there.
Tell
me about your company, Net Worth Entertainment?
It’s a production company, but right now I’m mainly just producing
music for other people. It’s a company which I established with
Zach. We have a publishing company, and we signed Evan
Bogart, who was the writer of the lyrics of ‘SOS’
and we also have a production company where we are looking for artists;
we haven’t really found one that’s the right fit, so that’s
kinda down the road.
Who
were your main influences on your rise to success?
Dr Dre, as definitely as far as hip hop production is my biggest influence,
and his music is what made me want to be a hip hop producer, so I’d
say he’s the biggest. I mean, I have a lot of other influence besides
that, like classical and jazz, you know? Different people that I listen
to, but as far as production, I would say he is a big influence. Outside
of hip hop, you know, I listened to a lot of The
Beatles, so George Martin,
the producer for them, I just really like the way he added classical music
to that.
Rihanna’s
‘SOS’ is a massive anthem. Why did you decide to use Soft
Cell’s 80’s classic, ‘Tainted Love’ for the beat?
I knew the song, and then I probably just came across it and decided to
flip it. I just wanted to do a beat with it. I bought like a synth that
was around, so that probably influenced me to kind of replay the bassline
and that kinda stuff, because most of the beat is not really a sample,
it’s replayed, like the little vocal things that come in and out.
But yeah, I just kinda decided it would be cool to flip it and then I
kinda sat on the beat for a while, and then when I gave it to Evan Bogart,
the writer. I mean, he really wrote a great song to it, so then we sent
the song to Rihanna at Def Jam and they really liked it, so it just kinda
went like that. It’s just one of those things that happened.
Your
big break came with your first official album placement with the track
‘Fancy’ for Destiny’s Child’s album ‘Survivor’.
How did your career progress after its success?
To be honest with you, not as fast as I thought, you know? That’s
when I thought I’d move to LA and I was very naïve about the
business, so I thought ‘Hey I have this placement, I’m going
to be the next big thing in a matter of months’, but it really didn’t
happen that way. I moved here and it was just a lot of trial and error,
it was working really very hard and it took a while before the doors were
really like open, so it wasn’t as simple as just getting that placement,
but then all of a sudden things started happening.
You
attended the prestigious Berkley College of Music in Boston majoring in
piano performance. How did your education shape your passion for production?
I wouldn’t say it did; I’d say that when I was at Berkley
I was more concentrating on being a jazz pianist and was not really thinking
about production when I was there. I just learnt a lot about jazz and
harmony, and stuff like that, but mostly it was just the environment of
being around a lot of musicians that I decided to practice a lot, on piano.
That’s really what I did there.
What
is it about your production work that you feel is creating such a buzz,
and in particular with G-Unit?
You know, I’ve just been working very hard to try and give people
the best music as possible. I think, coming from a very musical perspective,
taking the time to learn and hone that into making it a more mainstream
sound, I think that that’s what I bring to the table, you know?
It’s not just the fact that I know, there’s a lot of people
that know about classical and jazz music and stuff like that, but not
a lot of those people have the desire and ambition and dedication to bring
that to production.
You
worked on Dre’s ‘Detox’ album; how did that come about
and what was your reaction to him wanting a track from you?
He basically heard this track and he said ‘Wow, I’ve got to
have that for ‘Detox’’ and he bought it on the spot
and laid vocals to it, and it was incredible. It was the most amazing
thing to have someone who I respected so much wanting one of my tracks
to rap on for ‘Detox’, so I was amazed; I was really, really
excited about it.
Can
you exclusively reveal any upcoming production you’re involved with
that will interest the readers of The Situation?
I’ve been in the studio recently with Britney Spears, Paris Hilton,
Mya, Jo-Jo,
The Game, for his new album… Trick
Daddy… Quite a lot of people and those projects
are upcoming and are all gonna come out soon.
Finally,
what does the future hold for you?
One never knows you know, but I’m very happy doing what I’m
doing. I really just wanna continue giving people the best music I can,
getting in with as many artists and writers as possible and just growing;
I’m happy with that. I just wanna keep doing what I’m doing
at an even higher level.
For more information on J.R., please visit: www.jonathanrotem.com or www.myspace.com/jonathanrotem.
