Hollywood Stories: Sean Kingston

(upbeat hip-hop music) Yo, what up gwaan? It's your boy, Sean Kingston. Yuh dun know what it is, right? Tonight is about to be crazy, you're gonna go on a tour with me. Board it up! (upbeat hip-hop music) (horn blares) Right now we're on Hollywood Boulevard, Legendary street, Hollywood and Highland. It don't get no bigger than this. This is the intersection where a lot of people come. When I hear the word Hollywood, bright lights, the city, everybody's just turned up, high energy. So I think it's a beautiful thing, man. When you come into a place like this and it's just so much high energy, and people walking around everywhere, reminds me of New York City.

And that's crazy because we're in California. So, it's real dope. Yeah, Hollywood taught me a lot, you know? Just to be on my Ps and Qs. And to really, you know, go hard, full-fledged, 'cause, you know, you see people coming up every day out here. You know what I'm saying? So, you can't get tricked off your position. You gotta go hard and stay ten toes down. You know? You know, me being a song writer who writes all my music, I wrote Beautiful Girls towards the end of my album. And we stumbled up on Beautiful Girls, because I told them to sample Ben E. King, Stand By Me. I knew it was gonna be big, but I didn't know it was gonna be that big. I just heard the beat.

I was like yo this is a smash. So I did it. I did it like maybe, you know, two hours, an hour and a half, we did the whole record. Carl got everything. And everybody that heard the record that night, just was like, yo I'm getting goosebumps, this is it, this is chill, this is gonna change radio. It's a blessing, because I feel like, you know, being in Hollywood also probably inspired that. Because, I was out here living for a whole, you know, a year at that time. So when it really, actually, like took off, it was like, yo, this is crazy. And here's where the first, this was the first place that played it. You know? POWER106LA. So, shout out. (upbeat hip-hop music) Kingston!

Don't know a thing though. Right now we on our way to Supper Club. Supper Club is shut down, but it was a crazy club in Hollywood. So like, me and Chris Brown we would go here like every Tuesday, and it was lit, man. I remember like, the first time I went. I was like, what is this? Like, they had all the VIP tables were like couches. For me, it was always about experience to go to a club, not just to say you wanna pop bottles, you wanna do this, you wanna do that. But more, go to a club to see what's working, as far as all the music there. To see what people are reacting to. You know what I'm saying? What beat they... Like, a lot of people don't know, all that counts into a hit record.

So like, if we're trying to make a club record, you gotta go to a club atmosphere to see what the vibe is like, and to hear these different, you know, EDMs, different synthenizers, and different production of sounds, and see how the crowd are reacting to it, and then go to the studio and use that to make a hit record. You know what I'm saying? So it plays a good part in it, a huge part actually. I feel like, you know, being from Jamaica man, that's my roots. The dance-hall culture is so huge down there, because it's so melodic.

Like their melodies, the concepts, just everything about them, the way they party, the lifestyle, you know, what we're used to in our culture, it's like totally just, you know, music by the bar. It could be two, three people. Always music, music, music, music. And it plays a huge part for me because it's like, you know what? I can apply that to the R&B side of it, or the rap side of it, and create my own little sauce, rather than everybody that's trying to sound like that person, that person, that person. I call it island pop, you know, which is just like, okay, it's the Caribbean mix with the pop fusion, and the R&B in it. So it's always gonna be the island in there.

It's gonna always have a little spice. It's gonna always be sipping, you know, a piña colada, like just enjoying life and really relaxing. It's always gonna be that, because that's what I call feel-good music. (upbeat pop music) Right now we are on Sunset and Sunset Plaza Drive. But this apartment is like when I first came here. Man, I remember, I literally came here with like a hundred dollars in my pocket. Being here helped me grind, because it was like okay, you know what? I'm seeing all these Ferraris, these Lamborghinis, pass by on Sunset, and I'm like, you know what? One day that's gonna be me. I'm gonna put in the work, and I'm gonna grind, and I'm gonna grind.

There's a lotta memories right here, man. Lotta hard work, dedication, writing a lotta music, you know, four or five songs a day. Putting up that hope, and then, you know, keeping that faith, getting that deal. Trying to get my music heard and get to the next step. Every single day you got like, you know, we're losing more people, rest in peace Nipsey, Hustle. We lost Nipsey the other day. It's a shame man. It's like, you know, a lotta senseless killing, a lotta stuff people, you know, that's really going down. And at the end of the day you gotta think about it like, who can really set the example as far as... We lost a lotta kings. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X.

So it's like with the music, it's very important. What up gwaan means what's going on. Bad man means gangster. Ting means things. Yuh dun know means like, yuh dun know, Saun Kingston in the building, yuh dun know. Sean Kingston, I'm in the building, you know. Like, you already know. If you know Sean, you know I know, you know I love my jewelry and stuff like that. So it's like I always, and automatically, being Jamaican that's another thing too. We love our gold, and we love our little Cuban links(mumbles), but that side of it is from Miami. You know Miami is known for Cuban links and stuff. So you gotta learn the ice game, you know what I'm saying?

But, you know, once you get it, it's like, okay, you know what, it's always, you don't lose no value no more. Now it's more like, you know what, I'm still icy, I'm so icy, but it's also an investment. You know? (hums) Young Hollywood, let's go! Young Hollywood is amazing. It's the youth. You know, it's about people that's just, you know what I'm saying, y'all out here with goals and that's handling business, but at a very young age, We're not wasting time. We out here, we're young, but we in Hollywood, and we're making moves happen, you know? So, that's what it's about. (upbeat hip-hop music) (screams)