Jon Baker is back on the front lines in Portland Jamaica, after a brief visit to the U.K to catch the Premiere of James Bond, No Time To Die where he is also setting up a new Headquarters for his company.
He and his business partner Steve Beaver played host to Daniel Craig at the Cocosan Villa for weeks after he wrapped James Bond’s Jamaican scenes.
Steve, he says is “the host with the most”, but Jon seems settled into his passion as a hotelier and together they are really good at it. The majestic Geejam Hotel is synonymous with the music industry and artists worldwide.
Beyonce, Jay Z, Rihanna, Drake, Diplo, Wiz Kid and Amy Winehouse, have all used Geejam hotel and studio as their exclusive playground and inspiration for their smash hits. Even with that reputation Jon is not satisfied.
“(The Hotel) just gone through Covid and had a massive expansion at Geejam”.
An expansion marked by full service, delicately decorated “Rumba Rooms” donned with fluffy fresh white sheets, a 360 degree shower and images of some of Jamaica’s musical greats in every room.
Jon’s tenacity for details may have started in the music industry, which dates back to the 1980s promoting shows for Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick in the U.K.
Rising through the ranks, at his peak, he sold Gee Street records to Chris Blackwell of Island Records, then regained it, only to sell it again to the Richard Bronson owned V2 Records in 1996. Gee Street Records was a British hip hop record label that he started in 1985.
As he set up shop in Jamaica, he worked at the sharp end of the industry, helping a few Jamaican artist’s and along the way developed and toured the “Jolly Boys”, even lending his hand to the “Rising Stars” Tv talent show.
Although it is now obvious that he has moved on from the unpredictable music business, record company executives who have an interest in reggae/dancehall use him as their frame of reference.
“I am continually being contacted by majors in the last 9 months by big companies that are well funded and that does suggest to me that all eyes are on Jamaica again,” He said.
The impact of Jamaica’s music is global. It is through this cultural legacy that newer names like Protoje and Skillibeng manage to snag production and distribution deals with RCA Records.
Interscope hinge their bets on Shenseea who is signed through Rich Immigrants and her on again off again nemisis Jada Kingdom announced that she signed the biggest contract by a Jamaican artist with Republic Records. The outlier among them all, with a well known hit is Koffee, who is signed directly to RCA Records.
Collectively these artists are expected (by the fans at least), to make dancehall and reggae music popular again.
As Jon enjoys the beautiful uplands of his sunscape villas, I mentioned to him that there is a sales problem with Jamaican music. Even with the ground hype around their careers, newer artists are finding it difficult to tap into the market’s that matter most for sales and streams.
With the Billboard Charts as their anti-hero, the weekly returns pale even by the lowest comparisons.
Buju Banton who had a sold out tour in 2019, latest album Upside Down 2020, released under the Island Records/Roc-nation label debuted at number 2 on the Reggae Billboard Chart after combined streaming and sales of over 2900 units, according to Nielsen/MRC Data. Skillibeng recently clocked 627 total units in his first week for the Crocodile Teeth album.
Unsigned artist Vybz Kartel and Alkaline’s latest projects did less than 4000 units of consumption in their first week.
Still, it might be unfair to assess the value of reggae/dancehall music based on artist’s sales alone, and that’s one reason why labels continute to scout for talent, per Rolling Stones Magazine.
“The motive often for an artist to be signed to a production company is they will do all of the initial development for an artist. Most likely they will do all of the development, record the album and may co-own all the rights to that album with their artist. It’s from that point they may go out and shop a deal or license that through a major or record company.” Jon says.
“With a record label they have the in-house A&R to do the development and then the artist signs directly to the record label.” He continues.
By that analysis, if an artist finds it difficult to sell or stream music, yet they have a musical presence on the ground, as is the case with Skillibeng then record labels might need to get creative so they can work with artists or find other ways to monetize the music.
What if the record doesn’t sell?
“The economy of the music business is; 99% of the time none of the money put into the artist, whether recording, advances, promotion or marketing is recoverable” Jon reasoned.
“In the music industry it’s recoupable but only specifically recoupable against certain revenue streams in. So if you are a record company its record sales, if it’s a publishing company it’s through your publishing revenue.” As he takes a breath to accompany his fulls-some thoughts.
“Lots of money is just written off if the artist doesn’t become successful and that’s not always because of the artist’s talent or the music they make, there could be a hundred and one other variables that cause that.” He reflects.
Labels have other safeguards that allow them to write off their financial losses and retain an interest in the music come what may. This is how they build their catalogue and make investment packages.
“If they (the label) haven’t recouped their investment, they may find other ways to make it part of their catalogue, but let’s be honest in this day and age you can have a thousand songs in your catalogue and only five songs create 90% of the revenue in that catalogue.” Jon infers.
Creative control and investment are what most reggae and dancehall artists need and record companies are the biggest investors in music. With production deals, labels are able to give the artists the independence they desire most, and still do good business.
“The artist can say they have creative control because they tend to deliver a finished product to the record label by way of a license.” He says.
A bonafide Portlander, Jon is still impressed with the music.
“I am passionate about those genres of music(dancehall and reggae). I love Chronixx when he was just starting out, I am loving some of the newer artists, Jesse Royal, Blvck H3ro, Royal Blu and there is a new wave coming after them now. I like it that it goes real abstract because when it starts to come back again this is when you start to hear some really interesting innovation in music.”
He makes no predictions on the future of Jamaican music, but he speculates there will be bigger songs coming soon.
“That’s what everyone is waiting on, that one tune.” He says with certainty.
His words echoed through the beautiful symphomy of night insects playing in the background at Geejam’s poolside.
“Hopefully next year we will be talking specifically about what we are doing with Geejam as a record label”.
