Fire-breathing hip hop meets tech
Local artist Dub J, a.k.a. Jonathon Pitman, is a Canadian Bruce Wayne
Talking to local hip-hop artist Dub J — a.k.a. Jonathon Pitman — you get a sense of the strange duality behind Waterloo Region’s most successful hip-hop producer. On one hand, he’s Bruce Wayne, Batman’s soft-spoken alter ego: an innocuous software designer toiling in the recesses of the Region’s tech sector, developing apps for toy companies and one that teaches kids how to save their allowance. On the other hand — and he doesn’t like this comparison — he’s Donald Trump, a selfstyled entrepreneur who has worked with the biggest names in Canadian hip hop, including Maestro Fresh-Wes and Choclair, and isn’t shy about touting his own virtues. “I’M THE PERSON WHO EXCEEDS EVERY GOAL I SET!” he posted on Facebook in 2012, long before the current U.S. president began uttering similar mythmaking declarations. “NO ONE IS AS DEDICATED AS ME!”
On the phone he’s, for lack of a better word, normal — a nice guy who works hard in two industries that have little in common and is smart enough to recognize the need for different personas.
“I don’t let the worlds collide,” he says matter of factly. “I don’t want people on the software side to see the music side. Or people on the urban side to see the software side.
“If it’s not the right audience, I don’t think they would under- stand a lot of things. They’d be like, ‘Who is this? What are you talking about?’ ”
In his office in Kitchener’s Communitech building, he’s “confident but friendly,” a dedicated family man who dresses in business casual and speaks in the soothing tones of a tech industry professional.
In his off hours, he’s Dub J, a fire-breathing hip-hop producer who dresses in Versace, entertains hip-hop royalty at home and talks like a high-rolling urban mogul.
“My kids are shocked,” he says of their recent exposure to Dub J, tucked away during a 10-year hiatus where he focused solely on software. “They hear me getting loud on the phone: ‘We gotta get this video done!’ ‘Why is his percentage so high?’
“But in this industry, you gotta sell yourself really hard to get what you want. You gotta be confident. You gotta own your territory. It can be a shady world if you’re not sharp and aggressive.”
It’s an impressive feat: a whitecollar computer geek who infiltrates the uber cool world of hip hop with enough street cred to win over Canada’s major players and — with their contributions — produce a world- class album, Blame Me.
“I was one of those kids living with a single mom who didn’t like the rules,” says the 39-yearold maverick, who hosted his high school’s first hip-hop radio show in the ’90s.
“I was16 when I got a bachelor apartment.”
Ahigh school co-op position at Kitchener’s Dr. Disc gained him access to the latest hip-hop instrumental tracks, which inspired him to produce mix tapes with local rappers to sell on the streets.
When they sold better than expected, he figured he was on to something and so began the illustrious career of Dub J, a friend of Drake, Kardinal Offishall, Maestro and others.
“I didn’t want to be selling other people’s music,” says the determined father of five, who ran into pre-fame Drake on a reg- ular basis when Canada’s preeminent rapper was part of a group called Wise Guys.
“I wanted to do my own. I’ve always had the drive to get what I want, by any means necessary.”
In 2015, it was building 20 apps for Apple and Google Play that would all turn a profit. Mission accomplished.
In 2016, it was buying a $10,000 Rolex watch. Mission accomplished. Last year, it was earning enough money to take his family to Disneyland. Hello, Mickey. And this year, his kids told him “We want your music on Spotify,” so he produced Blame Me, featuring hip-hop artists he’s worked with for 20 years: JD Era, Bishop Brigante, Choclair, Peter Jackson, Kirk Diamond and Stitch.
“Maestro Fresh-Wes called it ‘a staple in the maple,’ ” says Dub J. “A classic record. It’s the first time a producer has released a single album where he produces every song and gathers together all the top talent in the country.”
Given his penchant for selfpromotion, I take it with a grain of salt. But anyone with an ear for pop/R&B will admit the first single, “Dynamite” — a percolating funk baseline melded with a piercing vocal and irresistible pop hook — is exactly that.
“I think it’s time for someone to shake up the music scene in Canada,” the dual-sided talent wrote on a recent Facebook post. “You can’t ‘blame me’ for what’s going to happen this summer.”
That was his hip-hop personality.
The software guy is in a product lab at Communitech, designing an app to conquer the world in a completely different way.
“In this industry, you gotta sell yourself really hard to get what you want. You gotta be confident.”
DUB J, A.K.A. JONATHAN PITMAN
HIP-HOP ARTIST