Just ahead of the highly-anticipated Roc Nation Brunch, rapper Saint Jhn stopped by Baller Alert to discuss his musical journey, from his life in Guyana to a superstar cosign from Hip-Hop legend, Biggs Burke.
Born with the love of music, Jhn began creating at the tender age of 11, pulling inspiration from his family members, who also displayed a love for the art. However, given the limited resources in Guyana, where he spent some time growing up- splitting between Guyana and Brooklyn, Jhn built a career in the states, using his birth name, Carlos St. John.
“I started making records for myself, I put out some records, saw very very minimal success and then opportunity came, and I started songwriting,” Jhn said, providing a list of writing credits, which include the likes of Usher, Jidenna, Nico & Vinz, Kiesza and more.
A few years later, with a couple writer credits under his belt, Jhn redirected his energy to his own craft. So, he switched things up, and instead, began performing under the stage name, Saint Jhn.
“I just went from the background to the foreground,” Jhn said of his return to creating music for himself. “I’ve always been this guy, whoever I am, I’ve always been this. It was hard to hide whatever this is, and I don’t know what this is. So when I stop writing for people, I wanted to go back to being the person that already knew my own story.”
Despite his work for others, he maintained true to himself, writing his own story and experiences for others. But, “there’s parts of all of our stories that sound similar,” he said, which helped create a connecting theme in the music he created for others.
Like most, Jhn has a story to tell, but unlike many others, his originated in South America.
“I just grew up super poor, like a barefoot kid in Guyana, running around,” he said. “We ain’t have no money so we got really creative. When you don’t have a lot. For whatever reason, it forces your mind to go create those circumstances or the environments that you want to live in or that you want to see in the world.”
“So I was poor in New York and I was poor in Guyana, but it was different degrees of poverty. Cause poverty in America is food stamps and it’s still opportunity to one degree or the next, there’s section 8, there’s food stamps, if you’re really really progressive or in your mind in the way that you behave. You can potentially, if the stars line up, you can escape poverty in America,” he explained. “Third world poverty is a whole other thing. Not just the system, it’s the mentality and everything around it. There’s no infrastructure to give you any kind of growth.”
As the interview continued, Jhn opened up about his mother’s religious background, which he claimed sparked his rebellion.
“This is the natural result of what happens when you force your children to go to church,” Jhn said. “They end up in the strip club like me.”
He also discussed his nickname Ghetto Lenny, which came from his aesthetic, his pain in his music, dating preference, and how he teamed up with Biggs Burke, which started with a photo at a fashion show. In addition, Jhn opened up about his expenses, his skin care routine and more.
Check out the full interview below:
