J. R. Rotem

Vorlage:Unreferenced Vorlage:Nofootnote Vorlage:Cleanup Vorlage:Infobox musical artist J. R. Rotem is an American record producer. He was born Jonathan Reuven Rotem in South Africa to Jewish parents in 1975. 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 and groups such as The Game, Destiny's Child, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, The Cheetah Girls, Ashley Tisdale and Chamillionare 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. 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.

In December 2006, Rotem was romantically linked with pop icon Britney Spears. He has been spotted with Britney Spears throughout 2007. He is rumored to be featured on Extra TV's, Americas Most Eligible Bachelors.

On November 29, 2007, gossip blogs claimed that Britney Spears was pregnant with Rotem's child.

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 never thought hip hop would become a way of life for him.

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 semenal 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.

J.R.'s first big break came when a CD of him beating 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, this CD instantly ended up with producer Dwayne Wiggins of Tony, Toni, Tone' fame who thought the beating better suited Beyonce and eventually, Destiny's Child. Instantly, the song "Fancy" made it on to the "Survivor" CD and a second song "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 like 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Fabolous, Rihanna, Britney Spears,Christina Milian, Mobb Deep, Lil' Kim, Dr. Dre, Mýa, Young Buck, Obie Trice, Foxy Brown, Busta Rhymes, Trick Daddy, Trey Songz, Talib Kweli,Lil' Flip, Ashley Tisdale, Jesse McCartney 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.