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Brooklyn-born, Grammy-winning SAINt JHN has written music for Rihanna, Kanye West, and Usher. He’s collaborated with Beyonce, Future, and Lil Uzi Vert (among many others). And just today, he released his long-awaited new album, Festival Season. When I tell him I’ve been a fan since 2016, he immediately shoots back, “Which songs are your favorites?” When I tell him I love the obvious “Roses” and “Trap,” but also deep cuts like “Borders” featuring Lenny Kravitz, he proudly tells me, “Nothing on my new album sounds like those.”
SAINt grew up going back and forth between East New York and Guyana. “I went to five high schools in New York,” he says chuckling. “I was one of those delinquent kids. Any of the kids that went to mad high schools is because they was getting kicked out and was just doing wild stuff.” Below, he and I discuss how he fell in love with the art of rap and the cypher, growing up on music videos, lessons from writing music for other artists, his philosophy of personal style evolution, and plenty more.
Fit One
Jacket by Christian Sex Club, shirt by Walter Van Beirendonck, overalls by Carhartt, bag by Rimowa, glasses by Maison Margiela, and shoes by Timberland x Louis Vuitton.
When did you first find a passion for music?
When I was 12, my brother was rapping and I just followed him down that rabbit hole. I saw him in a cypher and I fell in love with the idea of it. I didn’t really know what it was about, but I liked the excitement around it. I liked his control. He was like a ringmaster of a circus and I fell in love with that. It was the performative aspect long before it [was about] the music. At first I was stealing his raps. When I got back to Guyana, because he wasn’t with me that trip, I couldn’t steal his raps. I had to learn to write my own.
Was there a point where you realized you could make a career out of it?
I always knew I could make a career out of it. There were other examples of success. When I was in Guyana at 12, 13, I was watching MTV, BET, and VH1 on my homeboy Mikey’s TV. He lived right around the corner from me and we’d be watching Bow Wow with Jay or DMX. I knew it was possible. I saw other people with faces that looked like mine from places like where I was from. When I fell in love with it, I started to chase it immediately. But at first it was for my own selfish pleasures because after I finished stealing my brother’s raps and then I had to learn how to write my own raps, I started battle rapping. I fell in love with another component of it, even though I was watching on TV. I was paying attention to Jadakiss and Dipset and Fab and everybody else. Battle rap, just the bite… they had a different bite in their approach. I fell in love with that. I’d be in high school battle rapping. That’s what I was known for actually.
Fit Two
Puffer jacket by Romeo Hunte, trucker jacket and jeans by Levi’s, shirt by Ami, glasses by Gentle Monster, and boots by Gucci.
You’ve written music for some huge artists. I’m curious about your process. What have you learned in writing music for others?
What I learned from writing for other people is that I can’t write for other people. I don’t have the ability or the skill set to pretend to be a 27-year-old woman from Idaho. I’m not that talented that I could imagine what it’s like to be in her life. But what I can tell is a true story and I can tell a true story that’s so true, that it’s about all true stories. That when she sings it and the pronouns change from he to she, the feeling is still the same because the truth is still the truth. That’s what I learned. I learned to stop trying to put myself in somebody else’s shoes when I didn’t have enough information on the mirror that they were looking in the morning.
How do you continue to write new material and stay inspired?
I have so much to say. I have so many things that bother me. I have so many things I dream about. I have so many fabrics I’m still trying to stitch together. There are pieces of myself that are still broken that I’m still looking to heal. Life is still a mystery and a puzzle for me. I don’t have it figured out. I’m asking myself these enormous questions and solving these riddles in real time. And it happens to come together while words are rhyming and melodies are harmonizing and the world is watching at the same time. But I’m just really solving all my own personal mysteries and that’s what I’m inspired by.
There are still things that escape me. I still haven’t made people dance and I want that. Not for the purpose of just writing a jingle, but there’s something enormously emotive about something that makes you move your body involuntarily. I’ve created songs that make people sit down and do something, or go wake up and want to do something. But to make people stand up and dance to your pain, that still escapes me. There are still things I’m figuring out how to do. I still only speak one language mostly, and that’s English. Imagine when I can color with paint in French and Spanish. It’d be like if I became a master of a color theory and I really know how to paint with blue and I know how to paint with red and I’m incredible with charcoal black. What happens when I get to yellow and green? I’m still stuck on the colors that are my founding colors. I have so much more to get through in the spectrum.
Fit Three
Clothing and shoes by Rick Owens, and glasses by Gentle Monster.
When did you first become interested in clothing and style?
High school. It was earlier than that, but I didn’t have any money. When I was in junior high school, I didn’t have no money. You can’t be stylish when you are on food stamps and you getting all of your money from your mom and she’s giving you the Monopoly money I remember my mom had me in these green corduroy Tommy Hilfiger pants that were indestructible. When you were a poor kid, your parents bought you clothes that last a lifetime, but they always buy you the ugliest thing that lasts the longest. I remember I had these Tims, not the butters or the beef and broccoli. I didn’t have the ones that you really wanted to wear. I had the ugly ones. They were indestructible.
When I got to high school, that’s when I really got on demon time. That’s when I really figured out I could finesse somebody into buying something for me. I got real fly. I remember my first Pelle jacket. I know who bought it too. I remember my first pair of Pradas. I remember I used to have this Louis Vuitton Speedy. It was fake too, but nobody knew it because at that time I was so fly that I could convince anybody of anything. I had the Canal Street Speedy that droops. It has the same droopy leather as the new Pharrell collection because he’s inspired by the Canal Street stuff.
Are there any recent brands you’re loving or all-time favorites?
Willy Chavarria is one of the brands that I love presently. All-time favorites. And I still love a Vanson.
Fit Four
Jacket, trousers, and shoes by Gucci; and glasses by Oakley.
Can you remember your first significant clothing purchase?
I remember the first luxury item I got. It still wasn’t me buying it. I didn’t have money. I didn’t get money for a long time. The first time I got something that was substantial was this Gucci duffel bag. It was black with a black monogram, black leather handle. It was soft denim. I remember taking it everywhere. I got it from Woodbury Commons. I wish I knew where that bag was.
But do you remember what your first was when you bought something for yourself?
My first real big purchase was this viscose shirt from Dries Van Noten. This is when I’d arrived at a different point in fashion. There are tiers. There are obvious fashion choices, and then there’s obvious luxury, and then there’s interior luxury. And I don’t mean furnishings. I mean interior luxuries for insider people who care about things that matter. And then there’s going even further within the interior. The first layer was Dries Van Noten. You have to be of a certain taste, of a certain ilk. It’s not obvious. They don’t put the billboards for Dries Van Noten in areas I grew up in or the magazines that I was exposed to as a kid.
Fit Five
Jacket by Christian Sex Club, shirt by Vetements, trousers by Balenciaga, glasses by Gentle Monster, and boots and bag by Louis Vuitton.
Do you remember your most recent purchase?
The Rick outfit [from this shoot]. Not the outerwear and not the shoes, but everything else.
Can you give me your three non-negotiable albums everybody should listen to?
Reasonable Doubt [by Jay-Z], It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot [by DMX] and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [by Kanye West].
If you had to wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?
Oh man, that’s pressure. That means I’d have to be so thoughtful about style that this silhouette is timeless even when the silhouette changes. Timeless silhouettes, even when the style changes, they’ll still be timeless, but they’re not in vogue at that time. This is rolling the dice ballsy. This is how you know I’m a fashion guy. I keep changing it in my head. I could probably wear a Margiela tuxedo for the rest of my life but I don’t want to wear that shit every single day until the end of eternity. Now I’m thinking about practicality. It would really be sweatpants and a hoodie. Silhouette is important and then fabrication is important. It would be a wool cashmere cotton blend and maybe it might be a Fear of God pair of sweats and hoodie.
What about on the feet?
Classically, Jordan 1s.
Which colorway?
It would be the Off-White 1s.
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