Before SAINt JHN would become one of the most unique new artists with his genre bending
sound and honest lyrics
Before SAINt JHN would write songs for DVSN, Usher, Jidenna and collab with Lil Baby for
his most recent single “Trap”
Before SAINt JHN would have over 134,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 172k followers on Instagram
Before hip-hop legend Kareem ‘Biggs’ Burke would make his return to the music business
after close to a 15-year hiatus just to sign SAINt JHN to a management deal off of pure
belief in his talent
Saint Jhn’s rise in the rap game was not a traditional path. In fact, he started behind
the scenes as a songwriter before ever getting notice for his skills on the mic. And even
his BEHIND the scenes process took a long time. He spent 2 months writing for Rihanna,
and not one of his songs ended up getting used. In between that he dabbled in hotel
management and even modeling. Can you guess which major brand he modeled for? Stick around
until the end of the video to find out. But Saint JHN built himself up and found a way
into the mainstream through his own voice. Like he wrote on Facebook back in 2010:
“Progress is a slow process, but I ain’t got nothing but time”
This is the story of Saint JHN.
What’s going on good people in the comment section? I hope you’re having one Hecht
of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht, here for you today on Before They Were Famous as we
take you through the life and career of Saint JHN prior to fame. This is the show where
we document the journey of your favorite entertainers in hopes of inspiring you and showing you
that you can reach your goals too. If you’re new here, I’m the LA host for the channel,
so good to meet you! Somebody called me Jeremy Corny Jokes Hecht in a comment and said they
were getting used to me, so I’ll it. And if you’re familiar, then you know I’ve
covered other artists on this channel like Lil TJay and Polo G so be sure to check those
out after you finish watching this one! Also let us know who to cover next in the comments
down below! Now let’s get into
the show!
Carlos St. John was born in Brooklyn, New York and is of Guyanese decent, even splitting
his time in three-year intervals between Brooklyn and Georgetown, Guyana, where his dad lived.
He doesn’t talk about his age, because he believes it’s only a concept. So in other
words, he still hasn’t said how old he is, but I did some digging and I actually found
out his birthday. But I won’t go against his wishes, I’ll just say he’s not 40,
but he’s also not 20.
Alright, In Guyana, he didn’t grow up with much but says that he was unaware of his poor
circumstances. He would run around the neighborhood barefoot and bathe in the rain. At 7 or 8
years old he was even riding on his father’s motorcycle scooter to get around. As for his
home in Brooklyn:
His mother later became a minister having her own church but when Carlos was a child,
she worked as a nurses’ aid and wasn’t making much money. She couldn’t afford to
keep him and his siblings around so she would send them back and forth to live with their
father every three years. His mother always made him read a lot of books growing up so
he was always very good with words. His mother would listen to church music but it wasn’t
what Jhn wanted to hear at the time. He also grew up listening to a lot of Caribbean music,
later getting into Jay Z during the volume 3 era while living in Guyana. That was the
album that changed his perspective on a lot of things. The first show he ever saw live
was Supercat and Beanie Man in Guyana, which he can still vividly imagine to this day.
But when he was 12 years old he was inspired by his older brother to begin creating music.
His older brother would rap in their neighbourhood to his friends and after Carlos saw what his
big bro could do with words, he knew he had to try it out for himself. He told XXL:
“My brother was the only older representative as a male. So if he was a rapper, I was a
rapper. If he was a fisherman, I was a fisherman. If he was a cop, I was a cop. I just followed
him down any dark path. I came home one day and I saw him rapping in the corner of a
cypher. I didn’t even know what a cypher was, and that was it.”
In junior high he would literally just rap his brother’s bars. The middle school kids
thought he was a genius because of how clever they were. Ironic that he started off rapping
someone else’s words and gradually became the dude who wrote verses for other people,
but we’ll get to that. Carlos realized that he should probably start writing his own lyrics.
Plus, he moved back to Guyana and his brother stayed in New York so he didn’t have a new
supply of his bro’s raps. So he sat down and wrote his first song during his freshman
year of high school while living in Guyana. At first, he was actually writing and recording
using his given name of Carlos St. John.
And while illegal activity was surrounding him in Brooklyn, and was even in his family,
Carlos stayed away from a life of hustling. He told The Fader:
“I tried my hand at it but I didn't like it. It didn't fit me quite the same. My teeth
are too straight, my skin is too smooth. It just didn't work for me the same way, but
for everyone around me, that's what was normal.”
In terms of actual jobs, he was a manager of a hotel at one point. But after his freshman
year, Carlos moved back to Brooklyn and attended high school there.
In 2010, he dropped The St. John Portfolio as well a new song every week for 8 straight
weeks that became the “In Association” mixtape using his real name. He was also calling
himself the Black James Bond at the time. He described his early sound as angry and
much less musical than his current stuff. Some of his music got early placements on
HipHopDX and Pigeon’s and Planes. There was one song he made to send over to his friend
and only uploaded the demo version on soundcloud to show him. When he refreshed the page, the
song had a couple hundred plays.
His song made its way to the ears of BMG music exec Zach Katz, who flew Carlos out to LA
to meet. He loved his writing style and thought that he could be a good fit as a songwriter
for some of his artists. Zach asked JHN a question with a serious look on his face.
He asked:
“Do you want to rap or do you want to make a million dollars?”
Carlos answered with the latter, and Katz put him to work writing for his artists. One
of them being none other than Bad Gal RiRi. So Carlos wrote songs for Rihanna for two
months straight in hopes of catching his big break as a writer. But unfortunately, not
even one of his songs were accepted. He returned home empty handed and no further along in
his career.
But his first real break would come after co-writing the song “No Interruption”
for rapper Hoodie Allen, who if you don’t know who he is, I’ve gotten it my whole
life. Everyone says that we look alike…. Actually one time I went to a Hoodie Allen
concert in Minneapolis and someone saw me in a Chipotle and thought I was him.
Anyways, “No Interruption” debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 chart and the song
currently has over 35 million views on YouTube. That kickstarted a career in songwriting for
Carlos who wrote songs for other big name artists. His first major mainstream artist
credit was for Usher on the songs “Crash” and “Rivals” for his album Hard II Love.
On songwriting, he told HipHopDX:
“I started out making music for myself, and I fell into song writing … I took the
opportunity because I wanted to see what it’s like to be like to be selfless… You never get
to a place where you’re completely selfless, because… you’re introducing your story
to someone, and then you’re giving up the voice to sing it.”
But he still felt a void in his purpose. Writing for other people allowed him a shot, but it
didn’t allow him the same opportunity to put his all into the work. He couldn’t give
the same intensity and emotion to someone else’s songs as he would be able to do for
his own. After pitching his work to more than 40 artists as demo songs, managers and A&R’s
would all come back telling him the same thing. “I can’t pitch this to my artist, this
sounds like you.” But that was when JHN knew that he had stumbled upon his sound.
So, in 2016, Carlos released his first song under the new rap moniker “Saint JHN”
titled “1999.” He shot a video for the song in Coney Island and the eerie instrumental
mixed with the distorted vocals delivered by JHN struck a chord with listeners. The
video has now grown to over 700k views on YouTube at the time of this recording.
He released two more songs under his new name called “Reflex” and his single “Roses,”
with the dark yet original video premiering on The Fader. The song is now sitting at more
than 5 million plays on soundcloud. And then he got a call from Post Malone’s team to
open up for him on the West Coast run of his “Hollywood Dreams” tour. But he was basically
the opener to the opener to the opener so not many people were at the show during his
performances.
And while his solo artistry was starting to bubble, his songwriting run continued, appearing
as a credited writer for Jidenna’s album “The Chief” in 2017. As well as writing
the song “Can’t Wait” for DVSN’s 2017 Album “Morning After.” He credits his
songwriting experiences as a confidence booster saying:
“They taught me that I was good enough. Imagine you’re standing next to a hero of
yours — someone you’ve been admiring for two decades, or a decade, or 10 days, or five
minutes — and you’re there because of something that you crafted for yourself. It
tells you that you deserve to be in the room.”
He also performed at some festivals including Rolling Loud, where he made waves for his
live performance abilities. 2 years after opening for Post, at certain venues, he was
headlining his own tour at some of those venues.
His debut album “Collection One” dropped in March of 2018 and prior to the album dropping,
his streaming numbers had reached 50 million stream combined on all digital platforms.
He was also hired by Gucci as a model for their “Guilty” campaign. But his modeling
career was short-lived and he decided he had already done enough to complete other people’s
vision, it was time to focus solely on his own.
He accumulated over 150 million streams on all platforms combined and ended up signing
a partnership deal with LA Reid’s Hitco record. And more recently, Kareem ‘Biggs’
Burke would make his return to the music business after close to a 15-year hiatus just to sign
SAINt JHN to a management deal off of pure belief in his talent.
Biggs was previously a staple in the Roc-A-Fella Dynasty with Jay Z and Dame Dash, selling
more than 60 million albums combined and executive producing all of Jay’s albums up until “The
Black Album,” before selling his shares and leaving the company. He said that he had
lost his passion for music and while he was glad they created history, he wasn’t trying
to recreate it.
All of that changed when Biggs heard SAINt JHN’s music. Roc Nation co-founder Tyran
Smith had played a snippet for him of JHN’s album and after driving home listening to
“Collection One,” he immediately connected. Biggs and JHN became friends after meeting
at a fashion show and after playing some more new music for him, Biggs was convinced. Biggs
told Billboard:
"He will be the next biggest artist and brand in the world."
As for the rest of the story, well you know the story because this is Before They Were
Famous. Let me know who to cover next as always in the comments down below, follow me on Insta
@jeremy_hecht, Dream Good, Live Better, I hope you have one Hecht of a Day, and I’ll
see you in the next video.