Sean Kingston (born Kisean Jamal Anderson; February 3, 1990) is an American reggae fusion singer and rapper.
Music career
2007–2008: Sean Kingston
Kingston was discovered through MySpace by A&R at Beluga Heights, Tommy Rotem, and signed to the label in a partnership deal with Epic Sony. Beluga is a label notable for its focus on discovering and developing artists. In an interview with HitQuarters label head and producer J.R. Rotem described this process with regards to Kingston:
"Sean Kingston was a rapper when we found him and it was a development process to get him more melodic. He is a tight dawg who rocks. At Beluga we essentially refine the talent so that it's more of a marketable product."
In a venture between Epic Records and Koch Records, Kingston recorded and released the single "Beautiful Girls" in May 2007. The single, based on the bass line and lyrical "association" of the 1961 hit "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and topped the UK Singles Chart along with many other international charts. Similarly, the song "Me Love" samples the main hook out Led Zeppelin's "D'yer Mak'er", from their 1973 album Houses of the Holy. The song also debuted at number one in Australia, where it knocked off Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry", which had been at number one for nine weeks. The song stayed on the Canadian Hot 100 number one spot for over six weeks before getting knocked down to third place by the Plain White T's. "Beautiful Girls" remained at number one in Canada longer than any other song in 2007. In 2007, Kingston was the opening act for Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape Tour and for select dates on Beyoncé's The Beyoncé Experience Tour.
2009–2010: Tomorrow
The album Tomorrow was released on September 22, 2009. Big-name producers involved in the album included former Fugee Wyclef Jean; RedOne (of recent Lady GaGa fame); plus Sean's original mentor, J.R. Rotem. So far, the singles "Fire Burning", and "Face Drop" have been released. Additionally, five promotional digital singles were released leading up to the album.
Kingston co-wrote Jason Derulo's number one hit "Whatcha Say". He also found the R&B-reggae singer Iyaz on MySpace and signed him to his record label.
He also recorded the track "Miss Everything" for the UK girl-group Sugababes studio album Sweet 7 which was released March 15, 2010 in the UK.
Kingston and DJ Khaled are being featured on Bow Wow's New Single "For My Hood" From the upcoming movie, The Lottery Ticket.
In a September, 2009 performance at The George Washington University, Kingston was essentially booed off stage less than 30 minutes into his set, for what the audience apparently believed to be a sub-par performance. At Bowdoin College, in reference to a sub-par performance by Kingston in May 2009, students will repeat "Kingston... Kingston... Kingston" after any bad joke or song.
2010–present: Untitled Third Album
According to Sean Kingston, he is already working on his next album. The lead single was rumored to be "Dumb Love" featuring Lil Wayne, but Lil Wayne is serving a prison sentence and a music video has not been filmed. It is still possibly a future single to be released with a music video shot after Lil Wayne is released from prison. The album will also feature T-Pain and Kanye West . The first single from the album is "Eenie Meenie" featuring Justin Bieber, released on March 23, 2010, which is also included on Bieber's My World 2.0 album. Sean Kingston's new song "She Moves" is a cover of Irena Cara's "What a Feeling" from the film Flashdance.
For his 18th birthday, Sean appeared on the US TV show "My Super Sweet 16." The show was memorable for Sean's elaborate entrance to his party, which involved Sean arriving at his party on a private yacht, wearing his own personalized white suit.
