Somebody call 911. Shawty fire burning on the dance floor. What up, Juan? Hey guys, Audrey Cleo here for Young Hollywood hanging out in the recording studio with Sean Kingston. Turn up. Kingston. Let's go. Hanging out with the one, the only Sean Kingston. Hello. How you doing, sweet?

Good. How are you doing?

I'm excellent. It's been a minute. It's been a minute and thank you for letting us hang out with you in the recording studio. This is where it all happened.

This is where, you know, this is where I did most of my work, my brand new album Back To Life. So you're in this really exclusive behind the scenes man.

I kind of wanted to take you back to an interview that we did a little while ago. So I'm gonna show you some footage from when you were a little, little bit younger. All right. Hopefully it won't. brought this reggae sound that was like a root sound and you combined it with all different genres. How do you like to describe your sound? Because it's a little bit different. I mean, I call it hip-hop. It's it's not hip-hop, it pops.

crazy. Look how you. You know what I'm saying, reggae. Gotta go back to the roots, man. We from Jamaica. You know what I'm saying? I'm just carrying it on now.

we just traveled back in time a little bit. Yep. How have you evolved since then as an artist?

Well, since then it's just you know, I've matured, I've matured as far as as an artist, as a businessman. I know, I know the business more. I get it now. I've been around, you know, the world like three times since then. Yeah. Um, really just, you know, know what it is as an artist and what it really takes and get and know, you know, I found myself basically, you know, when you're young and you got success, you get to get, you know, you you get caught up in things and you know, the fun life. But before, before all that it's really a lot of work that goes into it. And when you're older and you get it, and you you're really more tuned in about the work, you know what I'm saying? So really and truly since then, I just been focused and you know, getting this album ready, getting making the best quality music I can for my fans. And that's what I've been doing.

Now, before you blew up and became the Sean Kingston that we know now today, what was the one thing that you wanted to buy when you were like, when I make it big, this is what I want to buy.

When I make it big, I wanted to buy my mom a house.

Wow.

That was the first thing I wanted to buy was my mom a house. So I did. That was the first thing I bought was my mom a house. Then I bought my house. Speaking of my mom, shout out to my mom Kingston. Mama Kingston. She got the best oxtails, best jerk chicken, best brown stew chicken, the best curry goat, the best lobster, the best curry. Um,

When am I coming over to Mama Kingston's for dinner, lunch, whatever.

You're invited. You're invited. I said, You heard me on natural TV, you know, you can natural internet TV, you broadcast all over. You hear me right now, Sean Kingston invites her. She can come through. You gotta call, you gotta call me though, before.

Okay. Yeah. Back To Life. Let's talk about this a little bit now, further. Um, now, you said that this is the most organic album that you've done. Why?

It's the most organic album, meaning as far as just like everything is was natural. It wasn't forced, it wasn't, it wasn't pressure, it wasn't processed. I mean like, when, when you get caught up in the industry, sometimes it can be like, oh, you know, we want you to do this. You know, the person from the label say, Man, say, we want you to do this. And sometimes artists are like, Man, but I want to be original. I want to have my own style. This is what I really want to go with. But I don't want to make the label mad. So you you tend to cruise the line, but you're trying to please everybody else. It doesn't feel organic to the fans now. You know what I'm saying? Now they're like, I love Sean Kingston, but this is not what, this is not what we know, this is not what we're used to. You know what I'm saying? So this album is back to being organic. It's back to being me doing me, me doing writing the songs that I want to write, me actually being 100% true to Sean Kingston and saying, you know what, I don't care what Sony says. I'm gonna do Sean Kingston. And it's been working, you know what I'm saying?

Have you run into any fights with people from the label or music execs where you've had to really fight for what you want on this album, or has it been pretty They're letting you do your thing?

Yes. That's the best thing about it. Epic Records is a completely great label. They let me do my thing. And they get, you know, L. A. Reid, thankfully blessed to L. A. Reid came in the building. L. A. Reid now is now the president. So he's like, he's a music guy. You know what I'm saying? Everybody that knows him knows L. A. Reid is a musician and he loves it. And he, he understands music first. So.

Right.

Now when I'm playing him the songs, I'm like, yo, check this out. He's like, oh, I get why this should be on the album or I get why, you know what I'm saying? He's not sending me away from the, you know, what I want to do. So.

Let's talk about the single Beat It. Turn up. with Chris Brown, with Wiz Khalifa. And you guys look like you're having a terrible time in the video. Just horrible. A bad day at the office.

I wish. Actually, completely the opposite.

Opposite, right?

Yo, I had the best time of my life shooting that video. Actually, that was one of the best.

Really? I couldn't tell.

That's, you know, what's so crazy like me, Chris, we hang out every day. Like Chris is my, like one of my closest friends. You know what I'm saying? And like we hang out and, you know, it's the same as well as Wiz. Like that's what we really do. When we hang out, we say, hey, sure. Like we might do it at my house. You know what I'm saying? Like we didn't do it at Chris's house. We do it at my house like, oh, hey. Hey, costume guys over, you know, they always wreck my house. They pick my house. Hey, let's have a, let's have a, let's have a party at your house. Next thing you know it's like 60, 50 people at my house, right?

And you're in there with a trash bag just like, you guys, recycling in here. They don't have no respect.

Well when you do stuff at your house, I learned that. I'm gonna start renting some places. You don't do. So anyways, uh, everybody comes to your house and now they're like, okay, uh, you know, this is the party. This is the vibes. So it's like if I'm chilling with Chris, I'm chilling with Wiz and we're doing that stuff at my house. I want to show the world what we do that in real life. What, you know what I'm saying? And that's what Beat It was. Was like, what we, you know, we naturally do that. We hang out by the pool with beautiful girls. So.

And talking about your friends, you know, before we started the interview, you were talking about being a good influence and almost like a role model for the people around you. I mean, do you, do you actively take that role on?

Um, I think so. Since, um, since being in the industry since 17.

And that's young.

Yeah, exactly. Like that is so young. Exactly. I think being in the industry at 17, being now 23, there's nothing you can find on my record. You could go to TMZ, there's nothing you can see. You probably gonna see me with some girls, but you're not gonna see me you know what I'm saying? There's nothing I'm not you're not gonna see me disrespecting nobody. You're not gonna see.

Frank. We're gonna see you with your green juice.

Exactly. My green juice. You know what I'm saying? I'm juicing now. You know what I'm saying? Getting back on my diet. That's what you're gonna see. You're not gonna see me because I, you know, I was raised a certain way. I know how to conduct myself. I know how to right from wrong. I'm not, you know what I'm saying?

But there are people who have come from rough backgrounds, who don't necessarily evolve and say, you know what, I want to be a role model. I want to be a good influence. I don't want to fall into the trappings of being young and famous and successful.

But here's the thing. I just feel like when you get, when you get a shot at something, you don't take advantage of it. So if I got a shot at being the one that got blessed to to make music and to to get it out there to the world, there's a thousand, there's millions of musicians. There's a lot of them we don't hear about that are so talented. I'm just saying. There's great ball players that play better than Jordan that we don't hear about, but you know, it's because God chooses, God chooses the right one and he's in a selective one. So for me to be a selective one that God chose, I'm not gonna take advantage of it. That's how I see it. You know, there's many people that want to take my position. So while I'm in it, let me cherish it to, you know.

Seasonal Love. Seasonal Love, my brand new single. Talk to me about that.

Yeah, my brand new single. It's just, it's just real fun. You know what I'm saying? It's just real one of them, it's just like summertime, like you can see yourself by the beach with a piña colada type, you know what I'm saying? It's really just like. That's like a running theme in this album. A lot of bikinis. You know, cuz I recorded this, I recorded this album in spring break. Yeah. And I recorded the album in the summer. So spring break and summer is like the same type of feel, right? It's like beaches and. So the album has that feel naturally. Has that, you know what I'm saying? Plus I recorded some of it in Jamaica. A lot of it in Jamaica. So yeah.

Your home.

Yeah. I recorded here and I recorded half the rap here in this studio and I recorded half in Jamaica, my hometown. So I, I got kinda both vibe, which that's another thing that I feel Back To Life is going to be so special about because I never recorded anywhere in Jamaica ever. This is my first time recording in Jamaica.

What was that like? It was dope. The reggae is, I think just an inherent part of your DNA, but you include a lot of other genres in there. So what can we expect on Back To Life?

It's I call it hip-pop. So it's still hip-hop, like we saw. Yeah. It's still hip-hop, but it's, it's, it's a little twist now cuz I'm older. So you're getting, you're getting like more, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, more love songs, like deeply, like, you know what I'm saying? Like I've, you know, I've been around the world so I got different. I've seen different things now. So it's I mean, I like to let the music speak for itself. Right. But it's a great song. Seasonal Love about a girl. About a girlfriend. Yeah, about a girlfriend who, who's she's great for all seasons. I never met, I never met a woman that I want to love all season. Like if you want to love a woman all season and you can see it like like Fall, you're thinking about her like, uh, you know, the, like all through seasons, different, different seasons then that's the one.

Not just a summer fling.

No. No. Not just a spring break fling. No. Not just a Christmas. Not just a Christmas.

Big winter vacation romance.

Exactly.