In the early 1980s, Baker moved to New York and worked with Ruza Blue, a British expat and music promoter, who brought him to Disco Fever, an important early hip hop club in the Bronx. The two started a popular hip hop night at NYC's Club Negril. When Negril proved too small a venue, the two promoted an important and very popular Friday night hip hop party at The Roxy. During this era, Baker also ran Jon Baker Productions, a small booking agency that brought well known club nights from London and Berlin to New York'sDanceteria, and British design collectives to New York and produced fashion shows for nightclubs like Danceteria, the Roxy, the Peppermint Lounge, and The Ritz.
Baker returned to London in 1984. In 1985, Baker organized Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick's first UK tour. That year, he met Rob Birch and Nick Hallam of the Stereo MCs and together, they began to produce and distribute white label records to London dance shops. He also met his future wife Ziggi Golding, an agent who ran the progressive "Z" modeling agency, with whom he established Gee Street Records. Among the artists, Gee Street signed and/or promoted were Jon King/King Butcher, Funtopia, Gail Ann Dorsey, Queen Latifah, Jungle Brothers, the Stereo MCs, and P.M. Dawn. Gee Street's first major success was the release of Straight out the Jungle by Jungle Brothers; their single "I'll House You" went top 5 in the UK national charts. Then, in 1988, he signed the Stereo MCs to a licensing deal with Island Records. In 1989, he brought P.M. Dawn to England to record.
In 1990, Chris Blackwell signed P.M. Dawn, and proposed a joint venture with Island/PolyGram that secured Gee Street's roster for Island. Back in the US, Baker became a senior A&R man on the Island Records team and head of Blackwell's newly formed Island Jamaica label for North America, which included Luciano, Chaka Demus and Pliars, and Beenie Man, among others. In 1996, Blackwell left Island and the Polygram group. With this, Baker bought Gee Street and resold 75% of it to Richard Branson. In the deal, Baker retained control of Gee Street's marketing, promotion and A&R, while Branson made Gee Street the cornerstone of V2 Records in North America and named Baker co-President.
Geejam, 2000s
Baker sold his shares of Gee Street to Richard Branson in 2000. In 2002, he moved to Jamaica, became a Jamaican citizen. That year, he also produced the albumAdelante, featuring Ky-Mani Marley and Alberto D'Ascola In 2004, Baker produced Two Culture Clash in collaboration with producer Mark Jones in the UK. In 2004 and again in 2005, he became a consultant for New Reality TV's Digicel Rising Stars talent competition on Jamaica's TVJtelevision station in 2004. In 2006, Baker worked with Steve Beaver of the Hong Kong-based Beaver Music on the Singerz Collection album series through Universal Music Japan; it featured contemporary songs interpreted in a reggae style. Later that year, however, Baker and Beaver went into a more formal partnership and agreed to develop Geejam into a luxury private hotel. To this point, Baker had devoted a great deal of his energy to make Geejam an exclusive residential recording studio. The studio's resources had earned a strong reputation among industry insiders and attracted several top artists including Gorillaz, No Doubt, India Arie, Dru Hill, Gondwana, Les Nubians, Wyclef Jean, and Björk. Geejam opened to the general public in 2008 and is part of the Island Outpost brand. Since 2008, Geejam has been rated Jamaica's number-one hotel by travel review website TripAdvisor.com in March 2010. Over this time, Drake, Santigold, Major Lazer, and Amy Winehouse have all worked on recording projects there. The Geejam Group's most recent project involved the Jamaican mento band The Jolly Boys. Their album Great Expectation was released in the UK on 13 September 2010, and was received well by critics in Europe.
