music producer; songwriter
Personal Information
Born ca. 1978; raised in Pleasantville, NJ; parents: the Rev. Frederick Jerkins, a Pentecostal minister, and Sylvia Jerkins.
Religion: Pentecostal.
Career
Pop producer and songwriter. Began trying to break into industry at age 14; produced songs for group Casserine, 1992; signed to production deal at Mercury Records, 1993; produced five tracks on multiplatinum CD Share My World, by Mary J. Blige, 1995 (released 1997); produced Brandy CD Never S-a-y Never, 1998; album spawned hit "The Boy Is Mine," which topped pop charts for 13 weeks; founded label, Darkchild Records; produced recordings for numerous top pop stars, including Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, LeAnn Rimes, and Michael Jackson, 1998-.
Life's Work
When young people achieve major success in popular music, it is usually as performers, as charismatic figures who win the hearts of their youthful contemporaries. Pop producers and songwriters, who in some sense are the music's real creators, tend to have spent at least a few years mastering the complex crafts of record-making and musical composition. One startling exception to this generalization, however, is Rodney Jerkins. Active as a songwriter since childhood and as a producer since his mid-teens, Jerkins emerged in 1997 with a Midas touch that put him in demand not only in the R&B and gospel styles with which he was most familiar, but also in pop, Latin, and even country music circles.
Jerkins was born in small-town Pleasantville, New Jersey, around 1978; he later opened the headquarters of his burgeoning Darkchild Entertainment company just a short distance from where he grew up--and from the Holiness church where his father is pastor. Jerkins's mother was the church's choir director, and his childhood musical experiences revolved around playing drums in the church and around lessons in classical piano. When Jerkins was 12, his father gave him as a present the basic tools of contemporary musical creation--a keyboard and a drum machine.
Father Had Divine Vision
By the time he was in junior high school, Jerkins had set his sights on becoming a record producer. The Rev. Fred Jerkins was initially dismayed about his son's secular ambitions but agreed to them after receiving a divine vision regarding the success of which Rodney was capable. Jerkins's father continues to serve as his son's manager. When he was 15 Jerkins made a gospel album of his own, and his gospel roots continue to show through in his songwriting and choice of material. Unlike a large majority of his peers in urban music, Jerkins avoids sex and violence in his music. "I kinda want to do things that my mother can hear," he told Time. "If my mother can listen to it, then I'll work on it."
Amassing a stock of demo recordings he had made for local rap acts, Jerkins sought an entry point into the big-time music industry. His breakthrough came in 1992, when he buttonholed and impressed producer Terry Riley, the "new jack swing' pathbreaker who infused tune-based R&B with some of the street intensity and rhythmic edginess of hip-hop. Jerkins made his way to Riley's Virginia studio, five and a half hours from home, and "just waited to see him," he told Billboard. "I owe him a lot of credit because he told a lot of people about me."
The following year Jerkins produced two songs for the female vocalist Casserine, part of the roster of the major Warner Brothers label, and then was signed to a production deal at rival label Mercury. At Mercury he worked on high-profile remixes, including one for former beauty queen Vanessa Williams's "The Way That You Love" single, and produced tracks for vocalist Gina Thompson. All of a sudden the producer prodigy found himself the target of a great deal of attention. Hip-hop mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs (later known as P.Diddy), renowned as a talent spotter in his own right, tried to sign Jerkins to a production deal.
Turned Combs Down
But Jerkins turned him down. "I wanted to prove that I could make it on my own," he told Billboard. And he went on to prove just that: in 1995 he wrote, arranged, and produced five tracks that appeared on Mary J. Blige's 1997 album, Share My World. Blige encountered Jerkins while working next door to a studio in which he was doing remix work on a single by the late singing star Aaliyah, entitled "Everything's Gonna Be Alright." Blige's album went on to sell over two million copies; the single "I Can Love You," written and produced by Jerkins, hit Number Two on Billboard's R&B chart, and Jerkins went from being a young phenomenon with potential to being a proven hitmaker. Numerous production jobs began to flow his way.
One production effort took Jerkins to a higher level still. In 1998 he served as lead producer on teen vocalist Brandy's second album release, Never S-a-y Never, contributing 11 tracks to the album as producer and cowriting "The Boy Is Mine." That song evolved into an entertaining mock-argument duet involving Brandy and fellow teen star Monica; it rose to Number One on Billboard's pop chart, remained there for 13 weeks, and became the top single of 1999. Jerkins has also worked with a roster of stars that reads like a Who's Who of contemporary urban pop, including Whitney Houston ("It's Not Right But It's Okay"), Will Smith, Deborah Cox, and, keeping a hand in gospel music, Kirk Franklin.
Along the way it became clear that Jerkins was offering a sound distinct from that of other producers, one that relied less on digital devices and more on traditional musical instruments, sometimes played by Jerkins himself. "I definitely feel responsible for [the diminished use of] sampling," Jerkins told Entertainment Weekly. "From 1990 to 1997, all you heard was samples. Then I came with 'The Boy Is Mine' and we stayed No. 1 for 13 weeks ... It made people switch their whole style up." "I want to be one of the ones that takes music back to where it was," he added in Billboard. Quincy Jones, Gamble & Huff, those guys made real music; they didn't focus on just drums and basslines. I want to make music that people can cry to and people can dance to." To Time he described his style as "an R.-and-B. pop classical sound."
Started Own Production Studio
After the success of the Brandy-and-Monica duet, Jerkins founded his own production studio, Darkchild Entertainment, and label, Darkchild Records. With the blessing of corporate parent Sony he began to branch out beyond urban contemporary music. He produced a remake of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" for pop megastar Britney Spears, who forecast in conversation with Entertainment Weekly a still-greater future for her collaborator and near-contemporary: "He's so young he still hasn't gotten to show the world what he is capable of doing," Spears said. Jerkins also produced tracks for Latin star, Marc Anthony, and country diva, LeAnn Rimes.
By 2001 Jerkins had notched five Number One pop singles as producer, several of which he also wrote or cowrote: in addition to "The Boy Is Mine," they were: "Say My Name" by the trio Destiny's Child; "If You Had My Love," by the Latina superstar Jennifer Lopez; Monica's "Angel of Mine"; and Toni Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough." "He's the bomb," Destiny's Child vocalist Kelly Rowland told Time, "and he drops nothing but hits." With a strong track record, a coterie of powerful admirers that included Sony CEO Thomas Mottola and veteran songwriter Carole Bayer Sager, and seemingly limitless inspiration, Jerkins seemed poised to dominate pop music in the new decade; he also hoped to break into films. In 2001 he undertook the delicate task of reviving the career of 1980s megastar Michael Jackson. A marker of his growing success was his purchase of a 12,000-square-foot home in an exclusive gated community in Florida.
Awards
Four Grammy award nominations.
Works
Selected discography
- As producer
- "The Boy Is Mine," Brandy and Monica.
- "Say My Name," Destiny's Child.
- "Satisfaction," Britney Spears.
- "If You Had My Love," Jennifer Lopez.
- "Angel of Mine," Monica.
- "He Wasn't Man Enough," Toni Braxton.
Further Reading
Periodicals
- Billboard, April 29, 2000, p. 65; February 27, 1999, p. 12; May 15, 1999, p. 44.
- Entertainment Weekly, June 2, 2000, p. 44.
- Interview, March 2001, p. 90.
- Time, May 22, 2000, p. 132.
- All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com.
- Biography Resource Center Online, Gale Group, 2000.
- http://rodneyjerkins.com.
— James M. Manheim
