Carlos St. John, known professionally as Saint Jhn, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He released his first album under the Saint Jhn moniker, Collection One, in March 2018. He is best known for his single "Roses", initially released in 2016. A 2019 remix of "Roses" by Kazakh DJ Imanbek helped the song become a worldwide hit; it has so far reached the top 5 of the US BillboardHot 100 and topped the charts in Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. Prior, John wrote songs for a number of acts, including Jidenna, Hoodie Allen, Usher, Kiesza, among others. He is a founding member of the Gødd Complexx music collective.
Early life
Carlos St. John was born in Brooklyn, New York and is of Guyanese descent. Growing up, he split his time between Brooklyn and Guyana. He began creating music when he was twelve years old and was inspired by his older brother, who would rap in the neighborhood with friends. He wrote his first song in his first year of high school while living in Guyana.
Career
Prior to adopting the Saint Jhn stage name, he performed and wrote using his birth name, Carlos St. John. In 2010, he released an EP and a mixtape under his birth name. Soon after, he was flown to Los Angeles by music executive, Zach Katz. For two months, he wrote songs for Rihanna, but none of his records were accepted. After returning home, Saint Jhn co-wrote the 2012 Hoodie Allen song, "No Interruption".In the following years, Saint Jhn wrote songs for Kiesza, Gorgon City, and Nico & Vinz, among others. In 2016, he earned a writer credit for the Usher songs, "Crash" and "Rivals", both of which appeared on the Hard II Love album. Also in 2016, he released his first song under the moniker, Saint Jhn, entitled "1999". He followed that with two more songs in 2016, "Roses" and "Reflex". In October 2016, it was announced that Saint Jhn would open up for Post Malone during a run of shows on the West Coast. In February 2017, Jidenna's album, The Chief, was released featuring the song, "Helicopters / Beware" which Jhn co-wrote. The following month, Saint Jhn released another original track, "3 Below". In October of that year, he played at two festivals, Rolling Loud and the Voodoo Experience. He also released another new song, "Hermes Freestyle". In February 2018, Saint Jhn released "I Heard You Got Too Litt Last Night". In early March, he released the song, "Albino Blue", and on March 30, 2018, his debut album was released. At that time, the already-released songs on the album had accrued 50 million total streams on various platforms. In addition to working on music and a tour in support of Collection One, Saint Jhn was hired by Gucci as a model for its "Guilty" campaign alongside Adesuwa Aighewi. In April 2020, Saint Jhn's single "Roses" hit number one the Australian singles chart as well as the UK singles chart.
