You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. These days, the Los Angeles-based and South African born producer is using his Beluga Heights Records vehicle to help steer the careers of Sean Kingston, Jason Derulo and more fledgling talent. The latest is primarily focusing on the artists on my label. We have an artist named Auburn, and a couple other things. How would you describe him? Mann is a rapper from West L. He takes influences that put you in a nostalgic kind of mind frame…but putting a new spin on it.

How do you decide who you bring into your label? What kind of qualifications does an artist need to have?

Jonathan ‘J.R.’ Rotem Interview

I started off as a Jazz pianist, and I grew up listening to a lot of Pop music and Beatles, Classical and Jazz, and Hip Hop as well. I love different types of music, and I believe that you can find true talent and creativity in any genre. You can find someone amazing on an island kind of vibe, Reggae kind of vibe, more Pop, more edgy, or more Hip Hop. For instance, with Sean Kingston , when he came in, he started off just trying to rap, but he was singing his verses.

There was a Jamaican identity there, there was a Jamaican accent. It started off from one genre, but we figured out a way to make it worldwide.

The same thing with Jason Derulo. The artist can come from whatever. The longer they take, the unhappier the artist is, and he ends up getting shelved. How are you able to take something raw but not industry-ready, but craft it to getting that way?

It depends on the artist.

Different artists have varying degrees, or might be in the mood for that one day and might not another day. I think we do our best work when we focus on one artist at a time, and figure out a formula. When we signed Sean Kingston, he was the only artist that we had, and no other real responsibilities.

Only time I was giving up to Sean was outside artists, and at that time, I was inspired by doing that.

Producer's Corner: JR Rotem | HipHopDX

You might do a song that sounds really generic. The only way you can make them spend their hard-earned money is if you make them feel something. What you just said is interesting, considering the people you work with. Was any of your work with them, or others who are more established, difficult to combine what each of you do best to make a cohesive final product?

For instance, when I work with Game. I was just making music I thought he would feel, and he took the reigns and wrote the type of song that he felt to it. With Rick Ross , I was lucky. Two of the songs I did with him ended up being singles: I made a beat that was felt by him and everything like that.

I did the best I could with what was given, and somehow, there was sort of a magic on that. It just ended up that way. What is it like for you to have songs with them early on, and then see them develop not into stars, but into stars with their own sounds?

I just think it was amazing, it was fun to have made those songs with him, and what he becomes and where he grows. I just look at it like it was amazing to have worked with her at that time, and I would like to work with her again. Everybody has their own path. You sign somebody from the beginning, and you see them blow up, and then you had a really big part of their career, because you worked on a whole thing together.

Those attitudes never lead to anything positive; they only lead to pain, when you take too much credit or too much pride in someone else. At the end of the day, you work hard and put out positive energy, and a lot of it is luck. But I just try to take it day by day. My philosophy is to figure out who this artist is, and how to make them shine as bright as possible.

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R Rotem please check out Beluga Heights TV at BelugaHeights. Money B Goes From Sharing Stage With Tupac To Playing Himself In "All Eyez On Me" Biopic. Money B remembers making Tupac's "I Get Around " video, "Brenda's Got a Baby" and why "All Eyez on Me" is worth your two hours.

May 13, 8: First off, what have you been working on? Subscribe to DX Newsletter Get The Most Important Stories Of The Day Straight To Your Inbox. More interviews on HipHopDX.

Jonathan ‘J.R.’ Rotem Interview

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