Geejam Resort, situated just below Jamaica’s Blue Mountains has been part of the zen recipe for record labels and their hitmakers for more than two decades.
Entering the plush lands on the north side of San San of Portland is like entering the gates of creative heaven. At a standard rate of US$6000 per night for the upscale Villas to more exquisite and tailored accommodations, it’s the place where Rihanna, Drake, Harry Styles, Coldplay, Wizkid, Alicia Keys and Kanye West go to make some of their biggest hits.
The masterpiece is co-owned by Jon Baker and Steve Beaver and even if there are other top-quality villas in Portland, its difficult to duplicate an evergreen rainforest resort overlooking the sea with personal services and organic food decked with three recording studios.
“I used to just use it (the studio) for my use” Jon tells WMV “to record Jungle Brothers, PM Dawn and my other acts, but we then opened it up.”
A former record label executive, the consummate host details a second hand story of a coincidence on his Instagram account about how Jamaica became the backdrop for the last James Bond flick ‘No Time To Die’.
“Steve in his ‘host with the most’ fashion organized with local location scouts..to take them on a full tour of the environs, villas and local area…Portland ticked all the boxes they were looking for and we made sure they saw it,” Baker quipped.
“The whole of the Rock Steady album was recorded at Geejam, Sly and Robbie came down,” he remembers.” “In the early 2000s India.Arie recorded her second album at Geejam, then, No Doubt had multiple hits from their Rocksteady album and the Gorillaz debut album (was recorded at Geejam) which sold over 7 million copies,” Jon explains.
In a March 2021 interview with DJ Khaled on his Amazon podcast “The First One,” Gwen Stefani explained what a wonderful time she had recording the album in Jamaica. Calling it “one of the most incredible experiences of my life.”
Bounty Killer said in an interview that Hey Baby is his biggest commercial hit to date and is the song that pays him the most royalties.
Hey Baby and Underneath It All(with Lady Saw) were released in 2002 and were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 8, 2021 when both tracks sold over 500,000 units.
Sam Smith took the sojourn to Geejam at the height of the pandemic to make his Billboard No. 1 hit Unholy.
“He came in September 2021 and spent around 3 weeks at Geejam,” Baker told WMV. Sam’s crew of writers include Geejam repeat guests super producer duo Stargate who wrote and produced Unholy and 4 more hits on that trip.
Sam didn’t relegate his time spent in San San, Port Antonio to Geejam, he was out and about Jamaica’s first tourist town.
“Not only very talented but down to earth, charming and engaging. The Geejam team loved him,” Jon said.
He is a man of detail and Jon takes pride in being the pop culture’s most sought after host for more than twenty years.
“When they rent the property, we curate the right creative environment for them to record or write in. We propose the best environment which could be the main studio or one of our villa studios, Panorama or Cocosan.”
-Jon Baker
A major part of being hospitable is being a connector and Jon keeps his ears to the ground.
“Often, clients will ask us if there are any upcoming singers or DJs, or they require bass players or musicians and we have on many occasions supplied some great musicians from the creative talent of Jamaica,” Jon explained. “An example of that is when Che Pope was producing for Kanye and that’s when we recommended Assassin (Agent Sasco) and he guested on one of Kanye’s tracks.”
Jon B
The Kanye, Assassin(Agent Sasco) collaboration he orchestrated is I’m In It from Ye’s sixth studio album Yeezus released in 2013 by Def Jam Recordings. The song peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and No. 43 on the US R&B/Hip Hop songs chart.
One of the recent prestigious guests to take the pilgrimage was Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.
“The Rolling Stones recorded at Panorama, because they weren’t looking for a traditional studio set up, they were looking for more of a ‘loungy’ environment surrounded by nature and the great environment that was very natural and secluded,” Jon tells World Music Views.
As for the creative support and tools artists work with at Geejam the hotel mogul says,
“Often we will supply an in-house engineer, and they provide a producer, but when Dale Virgo is here he has a special magic in the whole vibe.”
A playlist on Spotify with all the Jams recorded at Geejam run down hits from Harry Styles, Rihanna, Drake, Kanye, Alicia Keys.
“Brown Skin Girl by Beyonce was written here, Speak To A Girl by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Harry Styles’ Sign of The Times and the No. 1 single This Girl Is On Fire by Alicia Keys to name but a few.”
As night falls and he adds to the list from the uplands of Geejam he explains why guest keep coming back year after year:
“these villas in particular allow creatives to enjoy the green energy of Portland and the laid back, chilled out vibes of Portlanders. Music is an integral part of Geejam Hotel’s DNA so wherever our guests stay, it’s an experience in itself.”
“We have also created a fantastic niche here where the record labels will put together the best songwriters, producers and we arrange an exclusive retreat where they have the run of the whole hotel and we convert different spaces into writing rooms as well as the existing recording studios and they’d come down and write songs for future release,” Jon further explains.
“This can be a music publisher who commissions a writer’s camp, an example of that was Due Lipa who had an extensive writing camp about three years ago,” he concluded.
Dua’s Future Nostalgia is her first Billboard 200 top ten and it is the 10th most successful album globally of 2020 and number 6 in 2021 according to IFPI. The Guinness Book of World Record places it at number 6 on the list of most streamed albums on Spotify with more than 10 billion streams.
