SAINt JHN and How His Tastefully Unique Fusion of Styles Will Propel Him to Stardom in 2019
SAINt JHN is a superstar, he’s just waiting for the rest of the world to notice. Carlos St. John was born in Brooklyn New York but spent an equal amount of his childhood in Guyana. JHN is the product of a hustler for a father and preacher for a mother. His childhood was split between being dirt poor in America and some kind of rich in Guyana. In 2016 JHN spoke on the music scene (or lack thereof) in Guyana. While he made sure to let it be known there was plenty of talent in Guyana, he said there was no real economy for music, limiting its accessibility. With that being said, as a kid, he was always around reggae and dancehall in Guyana and Jay-Z in Brooklyn. These influences come through strongly and his unique upbringing is almost palpable in his current music.
JHN’s music career began in 2010 when he started writing songs for local artists. In 2010 he wrote the hook to Hoodie Allen’s breakout hit “No Interruptions” and shortly after his career began to take off. Over the next four years, he wrote songs for the likes of Joey Bada$$, Chris Brown, and others. Although JHN was making money and gaining respect as a songwriter he was tired of living through the success of others. In 2016 he decided to put all bets on himself and began releasing music as SAINt JHN.
After a few hot singles and some intriguing music videos, JHN released his debut project in 2018. Collection One is smooth, sexy, and extremely tasteful. During an interview with Billboard JHN was asked how it came together:
“Collection One is a selfish project. I make music that I want to hear. If someone made the music I wanted to hear, I probably wouldn’t be doing music. If there was someone to cover the spectrum of all of the things I wanted to hear, then I would have nothing to contribute to the conversation.”
There isn’t a bad track on the 44-minute project and the whole tape truly occupies its own lane. The production is some of the best of 2018 and JHN creates a deeply immersive and absorbing vibe. His unique fusion of influences and life experiences leads Collection One to be one of the most captivating albums of 2018. The whole project is definitely worth a listen but an easy stand out is the catchy bop, “N***a Sh*t (Swoosh).” Stream Collection One here:
As good as Collection One was, JHN wasn’t ready to be done for 2018. He continued to model for Gucci’s Guilty campaign and was a part of an extremely passionate and modern project with his ex-lover (read about it here). While it was cool to see JHN in this context, music fans were more interested in the two, high-energy singles released at the end of the year. “McDonalds Rich” and “White Parents Are Gonna Hate This” were two head-banging cuts and with similar cover art, the chances we get a new SAINt JHN album in the very near future is high. Listen to “White Parents Are Gonna Hate This” below:
This article is for my “Artists Up Next” series and while I will admit that SAINt JHN is already “up” (1.75 million monthly listeners on Spotify) I thought it fit here because of the 2019 I expect JHN to have. I firmly believe we are months away from the explosion of SAINt JHN. He has a unique enough sound where his next release could propel him to true stardom and he is in his own lane meaning there is no ceiling on his potential. When it’s all said and done SAINt JHN could be one of the top recording artists of 2019.
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