JT: “At any hotel with a good shower, I could write a good song”  

“I need to be inside of a comfortable hotel, in a comfortable space, and in the proper temperatures. Quiet all the time,” says Miami rapper Jatavia “JT” Johnson.  

At first glance, her serene vision for a perfect hotel stay might seem at odds with her bold, quick-quipping hip-hop persona. After all, music fans have come to know her through her videos like No Bars or her previous duo City Girls’ Twerkulator, with its video directed by Missy Elliott. Her need for quiet might also seem to contradict the raw energy she brought to mainstream audiences through a feature on Drake’s 2018 In My Feelings. But when the cameras stop rolling and it’s time to check in, JT just wants some peace—and some space to indulge her five senses for a while.  

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Taste. “My favorite thing about staying in a hotel is room service; 24-hour room service, to be exact—the ones they have chicken wings and chicken sandwiches 24 hours a day,” says JT, whose debut solo mixtape City Cinderella drops July 19th. “I plan on being inside the bed with my bra off, crumbs, chicken tenders everywhere, phone charged, and gossiping. Nobody’s bothering me.”

For a more refined meal, JT stays close to home, dining at Los Fuegos or Pao at the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach. “I always be there with my boyfriend so I get all I can eat,” she says. “Also, my second album [with City Girls] was shot there.”

Moving on to the sense of touch, she says, “What I like about a hotel is good living. I want a spa all the time and The Equinox in New York has the best one, and the best hospitality. They’ve got the best massages. Killer, killer.” And when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep after getting hyped up at a show, the feel of the bedding makes all the difference. “What I need from a hotel is fluffy covers, a soft mattress, soft pillows—I just need to feel like I’m sleeping on a cloud.” 

In terms of sight: “One of my first tour experiences was the 1 Hotel Nashville—it was really cute,” she recalls. “I love the nature-like feel of it. I love when they have plants and trees in the lobby.” Besides greenery, JT appreciates a little good, old-fashioned opulence, too. When she heads to Paris for Fashion Week, the style star—whom Vogue called a “rising fashion fixture”—has one hotel in mind: “My perfect Fashion Week hotel is Shangri-La Paris because it’s fancy; the feeling in the hotel is rich,” says JT.

Scent is important, too. “I want my hotel to smell good, especially if I’m staying for a long time—I stayed in a hotel for, like, a month before, so it’s home, basically,” she says. “I like when it smells good; sometimes I’ve got a [scented] spray.” 

Most importantly, of course, is the sound. “I wrote music in a hotel before. Anywhere with a good shower, I really could write a good song—I think it’s the relaxation that the running water put my mind in,” says JT. “All of my thoughts just flow.” When she’s not getting creative inspiration from the white noise of water, she prefers silence. “Don’t come to my room—don’t knock, don’t call.” 

But there’s nothing antisocial about JT’s need for quiet. “I just carry the songs in my head. I just need to rest my brain sometimes. So I like anywhere that I’m comfortable in, where nobody is talking in my ear.” 

Martina Sheehan

Writer

Martina Sheehan is a Chicago-based travel writer-editor who has written for the New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Budget Travel, Forbes Travel Guides, and Time Out guidebooks, among others. She has traveled to 38 countries and 46 states, and never leaves home without a good map app, a themed playlist, and her daughter.