Sean Kingston attends the 2013 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom on August 22, 2013 in New York City.
The Source Magazine recently caught up with Sean Kingston at his “Back 2 Life” album release at No. 8 and then we spoke with him about the album at the 2013 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards.
Congrats on the success of “Beat It” featuring Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa. How did that collaboration come about?
Kingston: Originally when I wrote the record I only had a few people in mind. Chris was one of’them. Chris has been a close friend of mine so when I played him the record he fell in love with it and he was down. And then, you know, I played Wiz the record and he fell in love with it, too. It’s written by me, produced by Nic Nac and now we have a record that’s almost gold and I wanna thank everybody for supporting the record, whoever downloaded the record. It’s just a fun feel good record, you know.
Q: You have Wale on your new album on the song ”Seasonal Love.” What was it like collaborating with him?
Kingston: Collaborating with Wale was pretty dope. Wale is a great artist, he works hard, he’s talented. He knows his music. I like working with artists that’s a real musician and that get it. So we’re in the studio, we were working so he did like three records and that was the one, “Seasonal Love,” that really stood out so shout out to Wale.
Q: Also, you have T.I. on the album on the opening track “Back 2 Life (Live It Up),” which samples Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life. Can you talk about working with him?
Kingston: Yeah we got “Back 2 Life” which is the intro featuring T.I. It’s a record about me just talking about my accident, what I’ve been through, everything that’s going on. It’s talking about T.I., T.I. came on it and talking about what he’d been through with him as far as being in jail, coming out of jail, that kind of stuff. It’s a good track, it’s the intro to my album.
Q: Another fun track you have is ”Hold That” featuring Yo Gotti. Can you tell us about working with him?
Kingston: Yo Gotti was amazing. You know what I’m sayin, Yo Gotti is the turn up that’s like… he’s got the streets so I needed that stamp, you know what I’m sayin. Just to let people know that just because I’m a pop artist I’m still here with it. It’s dope.
Q: Why is this project your most personal project to date?
Kingston: Just because you know… everything that I did… I make music from my heart. Everything I did came from my heart, honestly. And I worked hard on it, I spent a lot of time. I could have rushed the album but I wanted to give people quality music.
Sean Kingston’s new album also features Busta Rhymes on “How We Survive” and 2 Chainz on “Shotta Luv.” We had the opportunity to listen to album at Sean’s listening event, which was presented by Flips Audio. Sean gave every guest at the event a pair of headphones and there was even a graffiti artist on hand to personalize the black or white headphones.
L.A. Reid and Sean Kingston celebrate Sean Kingston’ s Back 2 Life album listening party sponsored by Flips Audio at No. 8 on August 21, 2013 in New York City.
”Back 2 Life” hits stores on September 10.
