Jai Yoko likes to call it fate. It was fate that opened her eyes to the crippling complexities of the music industry. It was fate that put her in a unique position to advocate and educate so that artists could achieve their dreams.
Originally, the Baltimore native thought she would become a music producer. She began studying at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. But a year later, she decided to learn by doing.
“I wound up interning for a gentleman who was kind of the radio guy for a bunch of different labels,” says Yoko. “I went from not knowing anything about the corporate side of music to just experiencing it firsthand.”
After dropping out of college, she moved south to Jacksonville and continued to learn the industry ropes—this time under the tutelage of DJ Dr. Doom, a veteran radio personality, music executive, artist manager and hip-hop concert promoter with whom she landed an internship.
Yoko began to discern a common denominator among local indie artists they encountered. She asked herself: “What’s missing in the community right now?” Then she figured it out. Many artists just didn’t understand the business behind the music.
So Yoko went into self-described “geek” mode and began to get her head around music publishing, royalty administration, and business and brand development. For a while, she gave free advice to artists who visited a family-owned food truck where she worked.
Her foundational road experience began as an integral leader for The Rel Carter Culture Tour starting in 2018. Rel Carter—an A&R (artist and repertoire) executive, music manager and nephew of Jay-Z—created the nationwide platform to discover independent artists.
“You’re literally on the road every other weekend, and you’re just sitting in front of people and giving them information, but you’re watching how their life is changing,” she says. “We’re helping their literal dreams come true.”
Those conversations—from the food truck and later from touring with Carter—became a catalyst for the founding of Jai Yoko Entertainment in 2021. Yoko travels to conferences, visits campuses, serves on panels, conducts webinars and mentors artists one on one. Sometimes she speaks to as many as 60 artists in one night.
As her business grows, Yoko hopes to establish “partnerships with some major community leaders in the music industry to bring more educational resources to different marginalized and underrepresented communities.”
Every path is an avenue to helping Yoko identify more people to help. “I never want it to be about me,” she says. “It’s always about us.” For more information, visit jaiyokoent.com.
