Sean Kingston has had a busy year. When we caught up with the 25-year-old, before his recent performance at the opening of the Vii Club over the weekend, the Beautiful Girls singer said he has already chalked up collaborations with heavy hitters including Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Meghan Trainor and Enrique Iglesias. This should set up his upcoming fourth album to be one of the premier pop releases for next year.
You have performed a few times in the UAE. What are your impressions of the country and your fan base here?
I love it here, it feels like it’s my second home. Everyone is really friendly. I love the vibe, the energy is always perfect, I love coming here. It reminds me of Miami. I’ve been to a lot of places in the world but there’s a different type of energy here.
Speaking Tongues is one of the first offerings from your upcoming album. The production is quiet dense and there are a lot of things going on there – how did that song come together?
I wanted to come out with something different, something that would stand out. I worked with my producer trying out different sounds – I wanted to take my craft to another level. I wanted to put my energy into the sound and make a great body of work.
Are there any specific goals you want to achieve with the new album?
I’ve been in the game since I was 17. I’m 25 now. I think Sean Kingston is a big enough brand right now, so it’s all about taking my music to another level, that’s it.
Your previous album, Back 2 Life, was really well put together and critically acclaimed – but didn’t do so well commercially. Why?
To be honest with you, I feel like it was rushed. Not the creative process, but from the label’s side – the promotion of it was rushed. It’s a great label but things like that happen – there’s a lot of politics. I have a lot of big offers on the table and I can’t really speak about it too much, but I have more than 45 songs, with everybody – Chris Brown, Meghan Trainor, Rick Ross – everybody, a lot of people. I have a song with Enrique Iglesias that is 85 per cent done. It’s a pretty good situation – I have a lot of songs and I am stacking them up. Going to do it right this time – I am off my old label.
You began your career as a rapper – what made you move to being a vocalist?
I found out I could do both. I grew up on hip-hop. My mom and my dad used to play a lot of hip-hop – from Nas, Biggie, Tupac, Slick Rick to Ice Cube to everything you could think of. That was my first love, I was into rap. One day I was fooling around and my producer heard me and he said that it was a dope sound.
You were discovered on MySpace, a platform that has faded. What are you thoughts about the internet as a place to be discovered?
The internet is still a powerful tool. You could save up and buy a camera and it’s so much easier to get it through to the right people. It was hard to get your voice out there in the past.
In 2011 you had a near-fatal jet ski accident at Miami Beach. The beautiful thing to come from that terrible incident was all the online well-wishes and prayers from your peers, including Rihanna. What are your thoughts?
Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber and more – that jet ski accident showed me I was really loved. That support meant a lot.
For someone whose life informs his music, did the accident fundamentally change the way you approach your life and craft?
Yes, definitely. I was going down a bad road when I was younger, doing bad things. Then my mom was sent to prison and I decided that I had to change. I was homeless for a week-and-a-half and then I moved to LA. It’s all worked out well. It’s worked out crazy.
• Vii Club is at the Conrad Dubai, 7th floor. For details, email www.viidubai.com
fcampbell@thenational.ae
