J. R. Rotem

J. R. Rotem (born Jonathan Reuven Rotem in 1975 in Johannesburg, South Africa)^[1] is an American record producer, born to Jewish parents. He wanted to be a musician and started playing the piano at the age of 2. Jonathan's parents quickly saw that he was talented and supported him in his dream of becoming a musician. He played classical music until junior high school when he became fascinated by hip hop music.

He has produced tracks for artists such as The Game, Destiny's Child, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Jennifer Lopez, LeToya, Mýa, The Cheetah Girls, Usher, Ashley Tisdale, Fabolous, Chamillionare, Prima J and Lindsay Lohan among others. He has also sold a single beat, thump, to Dr. Dre. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he creates most of his music.

In 2006, Rotem started his own record label, Beluga Heights, along with manager Zach Katz, inking a joint deal with Epic and Koch. Sean Kingston, a young Miami-based rapper, was their first signing. Rotem and Katz also started a publishing company under the Beluga Heights umbrella, signing "SOS" co-writer Evan "Kidd" Bogart and UK artist writer 'Lolene'. Beluga Heights' newest signee is 18-year old R&B singer Auburn from St. Paul, Minnesota^[2]

Early life

As a youngster, J.R.'s parents insisted that his musical interest be honed in a strict, disciplined way. This meant hours of private piano sessions daily where he developed a passion for classical music. On the contemporary front, he found artists like The Beatles, Sting and Abba inspiring, but at a very young age, when he first heard Run DMC's Raising Hell album, he became mesmerized by hip hop. While he loved what he heard musically, he wasn't interested in becoming a hip hop musician himself at that point.

After graduating from Campolindo High School in Moraga, California, J.R. entered the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston where he majored in piano performance with aspirations of scoring films professionally. However, it was only the release of two seminal CDs - Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" and Snoop Dogg's "Doggystyle" - that unleashed J.R.'s inspiration to undertake music production.

As an accomplished and well-versed jazz pianist, J.R. instantly recognized the jazz influences of the samples used in these two hip hop masterpieces, but did not instantly recognize the samples themselves because he was never exposed to the music of Funkadelic, Parliament, James Brown and other 70's Rock/Soul pioneers whose music was now weaving and growing into the evolving and flowing soundtrack of hip hop.

However, he did instantly recognize that the music made people feel jazzy and react with happiness. In fact, J.R. analogizes the cross over of hip hop to the mainstream in the same way jazz must have felt to the earlier generation of mainstream youths: "I started using the hyper-hot hip hop beats of the day in my jazz setz and bought some studio equipment to beat with." With his passion for hip hop and a new home studio, J.R. instantly combined the discipline honed from years of formal study into beating on a full-time basis.

Producer

J.R.'s first big break came when a CD of his beats landed in the hands of veteran Bay Area producers who planned on using J.R.'s talents for an upcoming En Vogue album. Eventually though, the CD ended up with producer Dwayne Wiggins of Tony, Toni, Tone fame who thought the beats better suited Beyonce and eventually, Destiny's Child. The song "Fancy" made it on to the Survivor CD and a second track, "My Song", eventually ended up on a special issue Destiny's Child CD entitled Love Destiny. J.R.'s second break came when Dr. Dre heard one of the songs J.R. had produced.

In the year that followed, J.R. produced cuts on over 2 records for A-listers such as Teairra Mari, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Christina Milian, Mobb Deep, Lil' Kim, Mýa, Young Buck, Fabolous, Busta Rhymes, Trick Daddy, Talib Kweli, Lil' Flip, Ashley Tisdale, Jesse McCartney, Paula DeAnda to name a few.

Throughout 2007, Rotem has been spotted with pop superstar Britney Spears. Spears and Rotem first met while Rotem was producing for Spears' husband at the time, Kevin Federline. Rotem went on to produce several tracks for Spears but they didn't make the final cut for her new album Blackout. Only "Everybody" was used as a bonus track on iTunes and the Japanese edition of the disc.

He is currently working on Lindsay Lohan's third studio album to be released in mid 2008. JR has been seen a couple of times with Lindsay out and about in a Los Angeles recording studio in December 2007.

Towards Fame

JR Rotem formed his label Beluga Heights. He signed Sean Kingston to his label. He executive produced Sean Kingston's self-titled debut album. His first three singles became hits, leading Sean Kingston & JR Rotem to fame. JR Rotem produced Baby Bash's "What is It", Rick Ross's "The Boss", Plies's "Bust It Baby Pt 2", & Bun B's "That's Gangsta". His signature production style is at the beginning of a song, a low voice says "JR".