Jonathan Hay

Jonathan Hay (born December 16, 1975) is an American publicist and record producer. He is based in Brooklyn, New York. His music career started from his hometown of St. Matthews in Louisville, Kentucky. Hay is most known for his work with "Pon de Replay", the debut single from Rihanna. He has produced six albums and a single that topped the Billboard charts in multiple genres including hip hop and jazz. Hay's Follow the Leader (Reimagined As Jazz), a collaboration album with Eric B. & Rakim ended Michael Bublé's 38 week reign at the top of the Billboard charts and remained for 11 consecutive weeks.

Publicist career

Starting out in the music business as a publicist, Jonathan Hay worked with established recording artists and record labels alike. His first professional project was with Quo, the short lived hip-hip duo that was signed to Michael Jackson's MJJ Productions.

Hay's first success was achieved with Days of the New, the multi-platinum rock band who had four hit singles; most notably "Touch, Peel and Stand" that Billboard awarded "All-Time Greatest Mainstream Rock Song". In 2003, Travis Meeks, the lead singer of the group slammed the publicist for making unauthorized and premature disclosures, which the musician felt "actually damaged his chances" to advance his career with Guns N' Roses. After the purported conflict, Hay still worked with Meeks years later.

Hay worked as a publicist for Suge Knight's Death Row Records and announced its catalog was being sold to Hasbro. In 2012, Hay was part of a guardianship case involving teen actress Ariel Winter, a star on the TV series Modern Family, and her mother, Chrisoula "Crystal" Workman. Workman sent a cease and desist to Hay in which he responded to TMZ, "I feel terrible that a 14-year-old child has to suffer the consequences of her own mother's unfortunate decisions." Hay testified in court and signed a declaration for Ariel Winter in favor of her staying with her sister Shanelle Workman Gray.

Hay was in both Vogue and Vanity Fair for a philanthropy project in Florida. Hay spoke out in Rolling Stone on March 24, 2016 (Issue 1257) to publicly support Kesha during her sexual assault lawsuit against Dr. Luke. The magazine called Hay a "crisis management expert". Hay told The Sun that his frequent collaborator Cyhi The Prynce wrote the lyrics to "Famous", the song that caused the public battle between Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. According to Hollywood Life, a source close to West said, "Cyhi is a creative contributor on the song, in which he has been credited accordingly. However, the specific Taylor lyrics were written by Kanye himself."

Hay had involvement with the Drake and Sophie Brussaux pregnancy scandal. He told People Magazine "I've seen the text messages and they do exist" in reference to conversations purportedly from Drake, urging Brussaux to undergo an abortion. Hay has spoken out about this situation with Perez Hilton, Glamour Magazine (in the Netherlands), Hollywood Life and Public Magazine (in France). Hay stated to The Huffington Post that the Kathy Griffin and Donald Trump photo scandal was "flat-out gross". He explained to HuffPost, "From a PR perspective, she did do the right thing, by apologizing … but still that isn't enough. Not even close." From the viewpoint of a crisis publicist, Hay was quoted in The New York Times about XXXTentacion's posthumous album release Skins. During October 2022, Hay defended Ye, previously known as Kanye West in SOHH, and said he's “profoundly misunderstood by the media,” and that Ye was “grossly misconstrued and taken way out of context.”

In November 2023, The Hindustan Times reported that Jonathan Hay worked an event for the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris.

Pon de Replay

Jonathan Hay met Kevin Skinner while working with Whitney Houston through her father's John Houston Entertainment company. In late 2004, Skinner introduced Hay to one of the co-producers of Rihanna's debut single "Pon de Replay." Hay was hired to promote the single and write her first press release that became a MTV News item on March 17, 2005. The mention on MTV News failed to drum up enough attention, so he started the "Jay-Z affair rumor." Hay tried to promote Rihanna's debut single by "fabricat[ing] stories of Rihanna and Jay-Z, leaking false rumors to tabloids, working with Internet message boards, etc." The story that Jay-Z was in a love triangle with Rihanna and Beyoncé gained widespread attention. Hay reiterated to Us Weekly that he was hired specifically for that song, not by Rihanna, but for the producer who co-wrote it.

In 2015, Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story by J. Randy Taraborrelli, an author on The New York Times Best Seller list was released, and it revealed the love scandal as a "desperate, publicity stunt" by Hay. Hay appeared on the CBS national television show Inside Edition and publicly apologized to Beyoncé for his story in the unauthorized biography Becoming Beyoncé. Hay confessed that he started those rumors during a difficult time. "The PR stunt that I did was out of desperation to help break 'Pon de Replay,'" Hay said. "It was reckless and I didn't think it was going to work. I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick." Neither Rihanna or Jay Z was aware of his machinations Hay told Newsday. Hay said in an interview with HipHopDX:

"The rumor was just a pitch to try and get people talking about Rihanna. It was never intended to be a big ordeal, it was just intended to get people asking, Who’s Rihanna? It was just gossip. If anything, I thought that it might trigger some interest about this new artist, just enough to give her single a boost and then the rumor would quickly dissipate. I never imagined 10 years later that it would be added to a Beyoncé book that is going to be a New York Times Bestseller. It was never meant to be malicious."

In July 2024, Trap Lore Ross released the documentary The Disturbing Death of Jay-Z's 'Mistress' that was streamed by DJ Akademiks on his show. Hay was mentioned in the doc, so he spoke out on his Instagram and in an interview with AllHipHop through journalist Kyle Eustice:

"I started to get desperate and I was so angry at Jay-Z as he was more focused on Teairra Marí and there was all this talk that he was pursuing a rapper named Lady Sovereign, who he ended up signing months later. Not to mention, Jay-Z was constantly dissing Amil, who had quit the music industry and was living in North Carolina at the time raising her children. “So I was like f### Jay-Z, since he won’t give us any attention and he’s being disrespectful to Amil, who was a single mother. I’m going to get his attention and be disrespectful back to Jay-Z, as Rihanna was the best thing on Def Jam by far. I thought Jay-Z was a dirtbag, so I put out the story that Jay-Z was in a love triangle with Rihanna and Beyoncé—and that caught fire, sparked conversation, increased radio airplay, press coverage and other forms of attention. I was in an unapologetic ‘by any means necessary’ state of mind."

Production career

Jonathan Hay's first notable collaboration was Prince and Audio Stepchild's "When Will We Be Paid", a cover song originally performed by The Staple Singers. The song was released through Prince's independent label NPG Records in April 2001 as part of a four-song extended play that peaked at No. 59 on the US Charts.

Hip-Hop Releases (2013–2018)

Hay and Mike Smith co-founded SMH Records; a Charlotte, North Carolina based record label. HipHopDX and The Source reported that Hay and Smith offered Jay-Z 15 Million dollars to produce his next album. Hay and Smith produced "These Walls Revisited" for Nappy Roots and got into a public dispute with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian over the song and a charity auction involving an original painting of West. On June 20, 2013, Kardashian West's attorney issued a cease and desist. Hay was executive producer and one of several musical producers on Sex, Money and Hip-Hop by Crooked I of Shady Records group Slaughterhouse. Hay executive produced an album featuring Kentucky artists and film star Johnny Depp. Depp also appeared on the SMH Records album Fear of a Pink Planet by Pink Grenade, released in July 2014, containing 18 hip-hop songs written by Hay.

Hay was a music producer on the TV show "One Shot" with T.I., RZA, DJ Khaled, Tech N9ne, Sway Calloway and others. The show debuted on BET on August 23, 2016. Hay, Smith and King Tech (Sway & Tech) released When Music Worlds Collide that features many popular rap artists from several different eras. It was released as a streaming-only album with a "Spotify vs. TIDAL" challenge, receiving national coverage on Fox News, Billboard, and Business Insider. Hay produced "Don't Close Your Eyes (Ashamed)", a song about suicide and alcohol abuse as a tribute to the late Keith Whitley released on what would have been his 60th birthday. The video for "Don't Close Your Eyes (Ashamed)" premiered on MTV News. Hay and Kxng Crooked produced "Too Ashamed", a sequel song to "Don't Close Your Eyes (Ashamed)" and explained to Billboard Magazine that "working on 'Too Ashamed' was a very emotional recording experience for everyone involved."

In June 2016, Hay produced a single for Snoop Dogg's relaunched record label Doggy Style Records. In August, Hay took a stand against Afrika Bambaataa with a remix featuring Ron "Bee Stinger" Savage. In the diss track, Jonathan replays the notes from Bambaataa's song "Planet Rock" while Savage speaks out about child molestation In September, Hay released albums with Kxng Crooked and Cyhi The Prynce that didn't chart. In April 2017, Hay was a producer on a song about Kylie Jenner and 21 Savage that debuted on TMZ. In November, Hay collaborated with both Conway The Machine and Riff Raff. In December, Hay produced singles with Kxng Crooked and Twista. In February 2018, Hay produced another song for Riff Raff. In May The Whoodlum Ball with DJ Whoo Kid was released and it hit multiple Billboard Charts. On September 15, Smith and Hay peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Charts (and #5 Billboard Christian Streaming Chart) with the single "Beautiful Day" featuring Bubba Sparxxx. Hay was one of the producers of Juicy J's "Don't You Wanna" and "Message in the Bottle by Yung Bleu.

Jazz Releases (2018–2019)

Hay produced three consecutive No. 1 Billboard Jazz Albums. In January 2018, Hay's jazz debut release Jazz (Deluxe) landed at No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz Charts. In July 2019 Jazz Part Two hit No.1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Charts. On July 26, Hay produced Follow the Leader, a cover of Eric B. & Rakim's album in the style of jazz with Benny Reid that scored also scored a No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz Charts and was up for Grammy consideration. Peaking at No. 1, the album remained on the Billboard Charts for 11 weeks.

In an interview with Billboard Magazine, Hay said:

"This was a magical evening when Benny Reid and I worked on this 'Follow the Leader' remix at the legendary Quad Recording Studios," Hay explains. "I literally met the love of my life that night. It was crazy!"

In interviews with HipHopDX and Billboard Magazine, Eric B. & Rakim talked about their jazz rendition of "Follow the Leader" and were quoted as saying:

"I couldn't have done a better job myself and I created the original album (laughs). It's a great body of work, and all the guys should be so proud of themselves. The simple way to put it is that life imitates art, and art imitates life, and it's all coming around full circle." - Eric B as told to Billboard

"The trajectory of this project is the ultimate blessing. It’s tapping into a divine consciousness and showing how the universe continues to spin full circle. Eric and I were always heavy in our influence from the jazz genre. Then three decades in, we are influencing a jazz album, then that album is coming back around to influence hip-hop production greats. We used to dig through the crates at record stores to pull vinyl instrumentals and sample them for our tracks and now Follow The Leader is on vinyl for another generation to expand on with next level music. It’s breaking new barriers, which is the core of Hip Hop culture." - Rakim as told to HipHopDX

House Music Releases (2020–2024)

Jonathan Hay formed an electronic music label in March 2020 with distribution through Ingrooves (part of Virgin Music Group), the global independent music division of Universal Music Group. Hay co-produced "Big Poppa (House Mix)" with Christopher "C.J." Wallace from Ready to Dance, an album containing reimagined dance renditions of songs from The Notorious B.I.G. The single landed at #76 on the iTunes Charts. Spin called the single "electrifying".

Rolling Stone published Hay's statement to Perez Hilton about the song:

"Our reimagination of ‘Big Poppa’ is laced with style and grace. With the original spirit of the Notorious B.I.G. spun into a new house classic. Dedicated to all the honeys getting money and the ravers dancing to the sounds from house gods like Martinez Brothers and Carl Cox, our aim was to create music that makes you wanna move and honor BIG’s legacy."

Hay released a house music remake of "Hit 'Em Up" featuring Tupac Shakur, activist Daniella Carter and Fat Beats Records. Suge Jacob Knight, son of Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight publicly supported the single. Hay collaborated with Solo Lucci from Love & Hip Hop.

Hay co-produced Nirvana Reimagined as House and Techno a charity album for LGBTQ+, mental health and suicide awareness. The album has collaborations with Fishbone bassist John Norwood Fisher, trumpeter Maurice "Mobetta" Brown, Pink Floyd saxophonist Scott Page, J Patt of the Knocks and drummer Andy Kravitz.

A writer for the GRAMMY's stated:

"And while a fair amount of tomb-raiding has occurred on Kurt Cobain's behalf—Nirvana Reimagined is one of a few tributes that align with his principles. Back in 2014, the surviving members of the band played at St. Vitus in Brooklyn with a succession of female lead singers, from Joan Jett to St. Vincent—which Cobain, an ardent feminist, arguably would have loved."

Home Invasion

On April 20, 2017, Jonathan Hay was a victim in a home invasion where he was held at gunpoint as reported by the New York Daily News. Hay was bound by duct tape during the attack in the Mallard Crossing at St. Matthews apartment complex.

WHAS-TV and WAVE (TV) reported that St. Matthews Police arrested Michael Brooks and Louis Simmons Jr. and they were charged with first degree robbery, two counts of kidnapping, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, receiving stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts fraudulent use of a credit card. Quantez Gibson was the third person arrested. Gibson was sentenced to prison at the Kentucky State Reformatory for the two offenses of "criminal facilitation kidnapping and robbery."

JT Barnett, a collaborator on 'The Tiger King,' played a pivotal role in the inception of House Invasion, the true crime documentary, which was influenced by a violent home invasion incident that occurred while Hay was assisting hip-hop star Drake with a crisis management issue. Netflix star Joe Exotic announced on X (previously named Twitter) that he was an executive producer of Hay's docuseries. The soundtrack album for House Invasion came out in February 2024 and made it to the top spot on the Apple Music/iTunes Albums Chart in South Africa. Taste of Country announced that Hay is an executive producer for Joe Exotic's album containing recordings from federal prison.

Personal life

The media reported that Jonathan Hay and Adele were romantically involved after meeting in a recording studio in New York. Adele and Hay declined to comment on the dating speculation. Hay is a Leesburg, Florida native. He went to Waggener High School but switched to a private school system to play basketball at Christian Academy of Louisville. His uncle is a founding elder of Southeast Christian Church, one of the largest churches in the United States. The Daily Commercial reported that he is currently estranged from his adoptive family. Utilizing 23andMe and DMC of Run-DMC, he successfully located his birth parents and had his first meeting with his biological mother in February 2017. His mom died unexpectedly in February 2021. He has two daughters, Hannah Lynn and Iliana Eve.