You may know Jonathan Blake “Jabee” Williams as a local, EMMY award-winning hip-hop artist, but his passion to build community isn’t conveyed in his music alone.
Jabee recognizes the power of food to bring people together, and he uses food to enrich lives in his community. His Instagram food account, @JabeeLikesFood, is popular amongst foodies. He doesn’t consider himself a food critic; he simply likes to highlight food that he likes.
His focus is local, new restaurants. However, being on tour often presents the opportunity for him to experience new places, observe current concepts and try new food.
In the past, he has organized local brunch events and competitions and donated the proceeds to the Clara Luper Legacy Committee.
Jabee explains, “That was me trying to bring people together.”
When the grocery store in his neighborhood closed, he recognized a need in his area. Jabee stepped up to meet this need, and he opened Eastside Pizza House.
“We needed food in the community,” he explains. “These conditions are manmade, not a natural occurrence. I didn’t want to sit around and wait for ‘them’ and ‘they’ to fix it when I have the means to do it. That’s the motivation and drive behind it.”
He adds, “If we see things that are wrong… we see issues… we jump in and help fix them if we can.”
Jabee decided to go with pizza first because he worked for a pizza restaurant chain in high school and had some experience. Over a year and a half later, Eastside Pizza House continues to serve their city, and his proprietorships are expanding.
He and his childhood friend, Cordell Love, are co-owners of Scrambl’d, a breakfast and brunch restaurant located at 1742 NE 23rd (peach cobbler biscuit, anyone?).
Again, building community is what he’s about, so his hip-hop career continues to evolve. Jabee is a busy man, so his creative process has changed throughout the years.
As a younger artist he used to fill notebooks with pages and pages of rhymes and lyrics. Now, he is much more intentional. If he decides to work on a project, he determines what the theme will be first, and then he creates. It may take him a year before he gets to the point of recording.
He explains his creative process: “It could be me in the studio listening to beats. It could be me at home listening to music. It could be me, as I’m going through the day, jotting down thoughts and words and things that I’m thinking or something that happened.”
The inspiration comes in different ways.
His most recent album release, Am I Good Enough, was released this past summer. Am I Good Enough is a four EP (short albums) project. The first EP, Am, was produced. Then, I was produced, and Good and Enough followed. The EPs were all produced by separate producers and released separately as a series. In the end, the projects were combined to make one vinyl.
He deliberately chose a four-word phrase, and his inspiration for the project came from a documentary on Whitney Houston, one of his favorite musicians. As Kevin Costner spoke at her funeral, he recalled a time when Houston was emotional and asked, “Am I good enough?” When he heard this, he knew that was it, and this planted the seed for Jabee’s project.
“I started planning the project according to that theme. Her life was tragic but real,” he says.
Jabee says his creative work on his music is often inspired by life’s experiences, and that mindset is evident in his food business, as well. Eastside Pizza House has a hip-hop style, and that design is intentional.
Jake Beeson, of Tulsa, created a large mural in the restaurant that pays homage to civil rights leaders such as Clara Luper and Dr. Martin Luther King. Jabee finds it important to honor and celebrate past community leaders, and he serves on the Clara Luper Legacy Committee.
“If it weren’t for people like her, I wouldn’t have the means to open up a restaurant. Theirs' are the shoulders that we stand on.”
He says, “I look around the city and I look around places on this [Eastside] side of town where I know there were thriving Black communities and businesses, like Deep Deuce; there’s no way to know we were ever there.” He seeks to preserve the history of those who sacrificed and fought for change in the community. He does not want the people who have come before him to be forgotten.
“I know with Eastside Pizza House, you’re going to know this is where we were at.”
Jabee says, “We’re only given so much time on earth. This life isn’t for practice; it’s the only one. I just want to do as much as I can while I’m here and leave a real legacy behind.”
He doesn’t want his legacy to be that of a person who is simply cool or a talented hip-hop artist. He wants to be remembered as someone who helped change lives.
“With this community and with this [23rd] street, I know things are changing. I know I’ll be here,” he says.
For more information on the pizzeria, visit EastsidePizzaHouse.com. Open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. 10 p.m. weekends.
Learn more about this EMMY Award-winner, entrepreneur and community activist who is passionate about using his music, and restaurants, to help change lives at MyNameIsJabee.com.
“I look around the city and I look around places on this [Eastside] side of town where I know there were thriving black communities and businesses, like Deep Deuce; there’s no way to know we were ever there.”
“We’re only given so much time on earth. This life isn’t for practice; it’s the only one. I just want to do as much as I can while I’m here and leave a real legacy behind.”