Saint JHN
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00:00It's Wild 94, Wild 94, Wild 94.1, wild94.1.com.
00:04This is easily the most interesting man in the world, St. John.
00:07It's a pleasure finally meeting you.
00:09I'm a huge fan of your music.
00:10Been for a long time.
00:12You got ghetto love songs out right now.
00:14Well, Lenny's, Lenny's, Lenny's, Lenny's, Lenny's love songs.
00:16Yeah.
00:17My apologies.
00:17I really apologize for that.
00:19It's okay.
00:19That's supposed to mess up things like that.
00:21But check this out.
00:22But listen, I'm really happy for you.
00:23You on your own tour right now.
00:24You on the Ignorant Tour.
00:25Yeah.
00:26I'm on the Ignorant Forever Tour.
00:27Ignorant Forever Tour.
00:28I'm messing up today.
00:29What's going on?
00:30That's why I'm here.
00:31I can't.
00:31Yeah.
00:31I'm a great supporting player.
00:34But listen, man.
00:35This is one hell of a moment.
00:37You're out here in Orlando.
00:38For the first time, I'm in Orlando.
00:40For the first time?
00:40I've never been here before.
00:41I feel like a lot of up-north cats always come to Orlando for some reason.
00:44Really?
00:44I'm from Connecticut.
00:45Oh, okay.
00:46So I moved down here.
00:48I live in Tampa.
00:49I do radio in Tampa now.
00:50But I feel like ever since I came here, like Jersey, New York, everybody's kind of scattered
00:55around either here, Tampa.
00:57So this must be where all the trap niggas come wash up their money.
01:00That's probably it.
01:01I probably shouldn't have said that.
01:03Listen, it's a lie.
01:03I made it up.
01:04That ain't happened.
01:04That's not true.
01:06So tell me, man.
01:07The album's out right now, which is honestly, in my opinion, I feel like is easily top five,
01:12top one of the year.
01:14You know what?
01:14I like that correction.
01:15I didn't even have to say nothing.
01:16No, I know it.
01:16Actually, what's in the top five for the albums this year?
01:20I'm going to put YBN Cordae in there.
01:25Who else did I like this year?
01:27I don't know, because honestly, I've literally been bumping Ghetto Lenny's love songs for
01:31the most part of the year, the entire year.
01:34But give a nice little nod to Cordae for a little reason for his efforts.
01:39Absolutely.
01:39Super talented.
01:41He about to go.
01:42He going.
01:42Oh, no.
01:42I'm going to say Gashi.
01:44Yeah, yeah.
01:45So Gashi.
01:45That's my dog.
01:46And I told him I was coming over here to talk to you.
01:49So he's like, that's my brother.
01:50And I was like, look, man, I need somewhere down the line a St. John-Gashi collab.
01:55At some point, seeing BK's prodigal children come together.
02:00Yeah, he's from Flatbush.
02:01I'm from East New York.
02:02That's so wild, man.
02:02So tell me, what's that relationship with y'all?
02:04How did y'all link up?
02:05How did we first meet?
02:06I don't remember, actually, the very first time we meet.
02:09Let us know we have similar paths, and we come from a similar place, and we're trying
02:12to go somewhere extraordinaire.
02:14So when that happens, and you meet somebody, no matter how long ago you met or when you
02:19met, everything seems to line up.
02:21It feels like you've known them for quite some time.
02:23Right.
02:23So I don't remember when we first met.
02:25But I know the last time I saw him, his album just came out, and we went to get breakfast.
02:30I just wanted to tell him, congrats.
02:31I know how hard it is to put out a body of work.
02:34I'm on my second collection, and there was nobody to take me to breakfast when it came
02:39out, the first one.
02:40I'm not saying that in no type of way.
02:42It's not like that.
02:43Where would you want breakfast, though?
02:44With strippers.
02:45Okay, copy.
02:46Yeah.
02:46So I get why nobody took me.
02:47They ain't know.
02:48They just didn't know the rules, right?
02:49Yeah, so I went and said, yo, fam, congrats on all the hard work.
02:54Not on the accolade or the success, just the work.
02:57It's hard enough just getting it done.
02:59Niggas don't know how hard it is to get it done, right?
03:01It's some shit you see in your head, and you got to actually do it.
03:04It's a lot of work.
03:04And one thing I admire about both of y'all, you guys really speak things into existence
03:10and really know that you're supposed to be here.
03:14Yeah.
03:14You know what I'm saying?
03:15I've seen a previous interview with you where you just like the confidence, and I love it
03:19because it motivates me because sometimes I second guess myself about a lot of things.
03:24And it's like watching an interview with you was like, man, I'm supposed to be here.
03:29This was supposed to happen.
03:30Absolutely.
03:30Like the Rihanna writing camp that you were in, that was supposed to happen.
03:34You were supposed to be in that room in whatever type of movie mansion you were in.
03:39Shit was a movie mansion for sure.
03:41Shit was the wildest thing I'd ever seen, yeah.
03:45You're supposed to be anywhere you're at.
03:47That's where you're supposed to be, at least for that fragment of time.
03:50So if you're here, nigga, you got here, you're going to question yourself when you got here?
03:53You're already here.
03:55Look where you're at.
03:56Look around.
03:57The movie's starring you with all the extras in it.
04:00If you're right here, then you're where you're supposed to be as long as you're smiling, even if you're not.
04:05All those things are temporary anyway.
04:07And I respect that, man, a lot.
04:09And it shows definitely on this new album, man.
04:12I don't even call it an album because I see that you call them collections.
04:15Yeah, I make collections.
04:16So the first one to now, what did you want people to get the second time around on this collection as opposed to the first one?
04:23Well, the first one, what I wanted to do was imagine me walking into a bar, my blue mink, and she's sitting there by the bar.
04:30And I never introduced myself.
04:31I walk over, hand her a drink, and I smell as good as I've ever smelled in my life.
04:35And she doesn't know who I am, but she knows exactly who I am and what I am.
04:39And I leave.
04:40That's collection one.
04:41The second time I came back to the bar, I sat down.
04:44And I told her my name.
04:46Wow.
04:47This is awesome.
04:48And then the collection, too.
04:50That's an amazing way to put it.
04:51That's what it is, though.
04:51I see the vision now.
04:52Yeah.
04:53And this time around, you put this album together in a sense where as if you and the stripper were getting married.
04:58Yeah, that's how I felt.
04:59Where is the stripper coming from?
05:00What club?
05:01What is your favorite strip club?
05:02I don't know if I have one yet.
05:04I don't got one yet.
05:05Is there at least a top three in your mind?
05:07There's places I like to frequent, but nowhere has created the type of fantasy, and I'm like, oh, that's it.
05:11That fantasy feels real.
05:13I need all my fantasies to feel real.
05:15Ah, I respect that.
05:16Yeah, that way my real life and my dreams all happen in the same day at the same time.
05:22This has made me appreciate the strip club scene a lot more now.
05:26Now I'm going into a strip club in a whole different mindset.
05:29Absolutely.
05:30Look, as long as you know what you want when you're in there, you might want to know that your skin's smoother, so fuck it.
05:36You don't see the skin, girl?
05:40You get to be whoever you want to be.
05:42But fortunately, I'm the same guy inside the strip club than I am outside the strip club.
05:46Maybe unfortunately.
05:47I don't know.
05:48I don't really know.
05:49So that inspired the album.
05:52One thing I want to talk about the album was the selection.
05:54I think it was a very eclectic selection of people that you had involved in it.
05:58You had Lil Baby, obviously, on a single trap.
06:01You had Anything That Happened with Meek Mill.
06:04What I want to talk about, specifically, obviously, you already know what I'm getting to, is Lenny Kravitz being on the album.
06:09And it being called, you know, Ghetto Lenny's Love Songs and actually having Lenny Kravitz on there.
06:14Like, explain to me that feeling and that chemistry y'all had.
06:17Because apparently, like, what, he just caught wind of the record and just said, y'all just like this.
06:21Yeah, I mean, yo, that's fate.
06:22First of all, when you say, so when you use a word like eclectic, niggas don't know what that means.
06:27And that shit sound like some fancy shit for hipsters, right?
06:29Yeah, just try to sound cool for a second, my bad.
06:31No, no, no, it's a, look, it's a great word.
06:34But niggas that don't know, that just sound like some hipster shit.
06:37So, on the collection, the features are super dynamic because those are the worlds I live in.
06:42That's where I come from.
06:43So, you got Meek Mill, you got A-Buggy, you got Lenny Kravitz, of course, right?
06:50And you got Lil Baby.
06:51So, it's just this, that's the world I come from.
06:53I live in a space where all the things that I dream about are just new in real life.
06:56If I listen to these types of music, these types of sounds, these philosophies, these ideas, I believe in them.
07:03When Lenny heard Borders, like early, early stages, and he just liked it.
07:09And I didn't know he would like it.
07:11It was an idea I had.
07:12I was like, yo, Lenny Kravitz should be on this.
07:14That's rare when you say, yo, this should be like this.
07:16He's just new in your head.
07:17Absolutely.
07:17It sounds like Lenny deserves, or needs to be on this.
07:20Yeah.
07:22It's like saying anything else that's ignorant as fuck.
07:24Like anything that's ridiculous on the planet.
07:26You know what?
07:27Jay-Z should hear this.
07:27He probably love it.
07:28And Jay-Z hears it and loves it.
07:30That's baffling.
07:31I was like, mind-blowing.
07:32You don't get that too often.
07:33Right.
07:33So, Lenny heard the record, and I ran into him.
07:36Fam, it couldn't have been any more perfect.
07:39I ran into him at a Chrome Hearts party in Paris.
07:42First of all, all that shit sound real cool.
07:45It sounded super cool.
07:46Every time I say it, I say it out loud.
07:47I think a lot of things you say, it sounds really cool when you say it.
07:50But it's my real, it's really what I'm living transparently.
07:53It's just my life.
07:54I ran into him at a Chrome Hearts party, and I didn't know what to say to the nigga.
07:58The nigga was dancing in the middle of the room.
08:00Me and Biggs was there.
08:01I was like, yo, I looked at Biggs.
08:02I was like, my nigga, you're going to have to figure this out.
08:06And he went and said, what's up?
08:07And then he introduced us.
08:10And we just hit it off.
08:13We connected because I think we come from a similar space.
08:17He's from Brooklyn.
08:18I didn't even know that.
08:19I didn't know that.
08:20He's from the Bahamas.
08:20I'm from Guyana.
08:21I didn't know that.
08:22That's right.
08:24He's a real nigga.
08:24He's just a real nigga.
08:26He's just cooler than anybody else.
08:29So, he's like, I like this record.
08:31And he said, these were his terms.
08:32If I do a record with you, it got to be real.
08:36I said, nigga, your terms are my terms.
08:37Done.
08:38The collaboration got to be real.
08:39It got to be sincere.
08:40It got to be an actual collaboration.
08:43Not like I'm going to send you a verse and you send me a verse back.
08:47I've always been a fan.
08:48Not to cut you off.
08:49I've always been a fan of two people or a collective just being together in one room.
08:54Just creating.
08:55Yeah, I think it creates something else.
08:56Was that your whole album process?
08:58Not to cut off the whole Lenny story, but.
08:59No, no, no.
09:00Different things happen in different ways.
09:02So, me and Boogie did.
09:03The only song that wasn't done that way was Trap.
09:06Okay.
09:06The only record that wasn't done that way.
09:08Me and Meek, we were in the studio.
09:10I was in the studio when he was recording his verse.
09:12I was right there.
09:14Hey, Boogie, we were in Vegas.
09:15I was in the studio right there.
09:16It was me, him.
09:17I won't even tell you who else was in the room.
09:19Oh, man.
09:20Because then I don't spoil the fun in the future.
09:22Okay.
09:23And we made it right there.
09:25And Lenny, we were in Paris.
09:27That's a hell of a vibe, man.
09:29Yeah.
09:29At his house, checkered floors, drapery.
09:33Drapery.
09:34The sun coming up in the morning.
09:35Did it smell of rich mahogany?
09:36Listen.
09:37The smell of luxury lit nigga forever, ever, ever, and ever after.
09:41That's the type of living I want.
09:43Damn.
09:44Absolutely.
09:44It smelled like Brooklyn.
09:47But Brooklyn just got a whole lot more money than it used to have.
09:50And a lot more silk, leather, and fur.
09:53Sheesh.
09:54Yeah, it was incredible.
09:54Three o'clock in the morning.
09:55You made a hell of a picture.
09:56I mean, it's just a true story.
09:57I didn't make it up.
09:58I'm just recapping it for you.
09:59The highlights.
10:00Yeah.
10:02Now, at what point does it be like, yo, you know, I got a song with Lenny, and I've worked
10:08with Beyonce.
10:09At what point, it'd be like, yo, look, I don't want to do no more interviews.
10:12Don't talk to me nigga.
10:13Like, unless you got something else to say to me, like, that's above that.
10:19Yesterday afternoon.
10:19At that point, at yesterday afternoon in 2019, my whole name is Carlos St. John, just so
10:28you know.
10:29It's my real name.
10:29I didn't make that up.
10:31In 2019, as of yesterday afternoon, Carlos St. John did a record with Beyonce, Blue Ivy,
10:36and Lenny Kravitz all in the same year.
10:38I think that's fucking epic.
10:40Who knows what the fuck 2020, 2021, and every other day of my life after with that hoes?
10:45But damn, you don't get it like this.
10:46This don't happen to anybody like this.
10:51We're on a sold-out tour.
10:53We're on a sold-out tour.
10:55This ain't my first tour, nigga.
10:56This is my third headlining tour.
10:59And the world's seeing me for the first time.
11:01I'm in Orlando for the first time.
11:02Everything's selling out.
11:03It's the coolest moment of my life.
11:07It don't get no better than this.
11:08And I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt.
11:09Niggas can't wear sleeveless shirts.
11:11That's not normal.
11:11I need to lose a couple more pounds before I do a sleeveless shirt thing, man.
11:14Believe in yourself.
11:14What is your routine, by the way, man?
11:17I'm not going to, you know, no homo or anything like that.
11:19But, yo, respect, bro.
11:21I appreciate it.
11:21You carry yourself very well, my man.
11:23Thank you, bro.
11:23Like, that's some G shit.
11:25Even when I, before we even did this interview, like, skin care products, all this stuff.
11:29Like, is this your normal routine?
11:31Yeah, I care about myself.
11:32I think when you love yourself, I almost got to slow down when I say it.
11:37When you love yourself, you do things for yourself.
11:43I'm taking a lot of time to say that, so niggas get it.
11:48Doing things for yourself.
11:49This is you, right?
11:50Like, you want to go to Popeye's and you eat that.
11:52That's because you just did that for you.
11:55Right.
11:55But then there's things that you do really for you, like going and eating that avocados,
12:02drinking that avocado smoothie.
12:03That's actually for you.
12:04That's a choice that you made for your body so that you could feel better, so that you
12:08could be the type of nigga you really want to be.
12:09Right.
12:10Skin care, health care, fitness, fashion, taste, relationships, friendships, all, everything
12:19in my life, my philosophy is as simple as this.
12:22Because if I only surround myself by the things I love, I'll only be surrounded by things
12:26that I love.
12:29Ain't rocket science.
12:31I only eat the shit I want to eat.
12:33I only look at the bitches I want to look at.
12:35I only have the niggas around me that I want to be around.
12:37I only wake up in the beds that I want to sleep in.
12:40I only wear the silks that I want to be seen in photographs with.
12:44I only wear the leathers that feel the type of comfort I want to feel when I'm jumping
12:47six feet in the air on stage.
12:48Like, I'm just doing it the way I want to do it.
12:50Right.
12:50I figure if I got the right, if I have the opportunity in my life to finally paint the
12:56room the color I want it to be, nigga, this shit going to be pink.
13:01Because you're never going to miss it.
13:03Yeah.
13:04That's it.
13:05Respect that, man.
13:06Like, listen, for those that's going to listen to this, like, if you ain't moved by the shit
13:11that he's saying right now, St. John, like, dog, that gives me chills, like, hearing stuff
13:17like that.
13:17You know what I mean?
13:18Like, that's a real, like, that's self-love, man.
13:22Yeah, that's self-love.
13:23That's real self-love.
13:25Yeah, taking care of yourself is self-love.
13:26Waking up in the morning and doing sit-ups because it's going to help your posture, that's
13:30self-love.
13:31When you think of, you almost think of yourself as, like, two people.
13:35Like, the adult and the parent.
13:36The adult, forgive me, the adult and, like, the child?
13:41Yeah.
13:41The adult's going to do what the fuck you want to do.
13:43You're going to drain, you're going to smoke, you do whatever.
13:45Then you got to take care of your kid.
13:48He got to eat good.
13:49He got to sleep good.
13:51He got to read good.
13:53He got to have good influences.
13:55You see what I'm saying?
13:56Yeah.
13:56If you put yourself in that position and you in a good space, I try to do that on a daily
14:01basis, on a regular basis.
14:02I live my life like that because I don't come from a whole lot and I don't come from a lot
14:05of information or opportunities, so I have to go figure it out, you know?
14:09I respect that.
14:10St. John here.
14:11It's Wild 94.
14:12One with Joey Franchise.
14:13And real quick, I just really want to talk about, you know, having Biggs by your side,
14:18man.
14:18Yeah.
14:19And growing up in Brooklyn, I'm sure you listened to Jay-Z.
14:22Of course.
14:23Religiously.
14:23That's Bible.
14:24So, to have him in your corner, and knowing that, you know, his resume speaks for itself.
14:30Whoa.
14:31It's kind of crazy.
14:32Yeah.
14:33Did it blow your mind at first when he reached out to you and heard Volume 1 or Collection
14:371 and, you know, reached out?
14:40No.
14:40No.
14:42He didn't reach out.
14:43We met.
14:44We met.
14:44Because Tata heard the...
14:45Tata heard.
14:46Tata heard.
14:46So, I mean, Tata was already friends.
14:49When Biggs heard it, I was like, oh, that's cool.
14:52And then we met and our relationship developed.
14:54I'm not surprised.
14:56We live on the internet.
14:58Yeah.
14:58We live on the internet.
15:00Anybody can press play, hear it, get it, and any opportunity.
15:04So, when I know he heard it, I was like, that's cool.
15:08That doesn't change anything for me when somebody's heard it.
15:11It changes something for me when people are impacted and they're willing to wake up and
15:14get up and do something.
15:16So, when I sat down with Biggs and we started developing our own relationship, and I learned
15:20how he thinked.
15:20I learned how he thought.
15:24Knowing his resume is one thing.
15:27Understanding how the machine works is a completely other thing.
15:31Yeah, for sure.
15:31And his machine, his machine works like he just turned 17.
15:39And it's 2096.
15:40You get what I'm saying?
15:41That's wild.
15:41Like, he's in the future and he still gets it.
15:45And to come from a great era, too.
15:48And he comes from a golden era with the ability to adapt.
15:51Like, he's adapting.
15:53I'm a different type of artist.
15:55It's not 2000 and...
15:56It's not any early 2000s anymore.
15:58We about to be...
15:59It's about to be 2020, brother.
16:01Yeah.
16:02Niggas have been dreaming about 2020.
16:03They thought it was going to look like some...
16:05Flying cars and shit.
16:07We're about to be in 2020.
16:08So, for somebody that comes from 90s, from creating a culture of hip-hop music, and then
16:14meet me and then go, that nigga's next.
16:17He gets it.
16:20Not a lot of people on this planet get it.
16:23Oh, I get it.
16:24I'm listening.
16:25Check this out.
16:26St. John.
16:26Now, you gave us what Collection 1 was about and what you wanted people to grab from it.
16:34And obviously, this one, from leaving the girl at the bar, the second collection, you
16:40giving her your name.
16:41Right.
16:41What can we expect from the third collection?
16:44You'll get a lot more details.
16:45It's going to be a full-on date.
16:49It has never been a date before.
16:51We ain't never have a date.
16:52We never sat down and talked.
16:53Got to know each other.
16:55We're going to get to know each other.
16:56There you go.
16:57Be on the lookout, man.
16:58Get all of these love songs out right now.
17:01Tour selling out.
17:03God bless.
17:03Tour sold out.
17:04Sold out.
17:04Blood clots.
17:05Sell out.
17:06Sold out.
17:07We out of here.
17:08This Y-94-1.
17:09Hey.