American-Guyanese Rapper SAINt JHN Celebrates Two Grammy Wins

American rapper SAINt JHN, who was born in Guyana, is celebrating after songs he contributed to came out big winners at the 63rd Grammy Awards held last Sunday, March 14.

The singer, whose real name is Carlos St. John Phillips, was ecstatic when Kazakhstani musician Imanbek Zeikenov (Imanbek) won the Grammy for Best Remixed Recording for Roses – Imanbek Remix, a remix of SAINT JHN’s 2016 song, Roses.

He also celebrated the fact that the Grammy for Best Music Video went to his collaboration with Beyoncé, Wizkid and Blue Ivy Carter on Brown Skin Girl from The Lion King: The Gift.  He also shares the writer’s credit on the track.

However, while you can hear JHN’s voice harmonizing with Blue Ivy at the beginning of the track, he did not appear in the music video.  For that reason, it appears he was not officially named an awardee in the category which is typically given to the performers, directors, and producers associated with the winning video.

JHN shared the news of his victory on Twitter with his 80,000 followers and also took the time to admonish those who didn’t see his vision a year ago.

“Two songs I wrote won Grammys today in real life. Imagine not believing in me a year ago,” he wrote.

Two songs I wrote won Grammys today 🏆🏆 in real life. Imagine not believing in me a year ago 🖤✝️

— SAINt (@SAINtJHN) March 14, 2021

JHN, who has always been proud of his Guyanese heritage, shot into the limelight following the first album he released under the Saint Jhn moniker, Collection One.

That album dropped in March 2018 and the hit single Roses brought him international fame. The rapper, who began creating music at just 12-years-old split his time between Brooklyn and Guyana when he was growing up. In fact, he wrote his first song in his first year of high school while living in Guyana. He credits his older brother and Guyana as his inspiration for getting into music.

While he waited for his breakthrough in the industry he kept himself busy. Using his songwriting skills he co-wrote Hoodie Allen’s 2012 breakout hit, No Interruption. He also wrote some of the tracks on Kiesza’s major-label debut record in 2014 and can also add Usher to his list of credits as he was instrumental in the writing and producing of Crash from Usher’s Hard II Love in 2016.

In an interview with Billboard Magazine last year he said: “I didn’t know that it was going to be the biggest song in the world. I thought [the original] ‘Roses’ was the biggest song in the world in 2015. I still believe that. I didn’t know this was the mechanism or catalyst for this to be exactly what I thought it was going to be.”

Roses has enjoyed longevity and has been certified platinum three times with over a billion streams on Spotify.

The remix is 1x platinum and has an impressive 145 million views on YouTube.

Riding on his success JHN released his third studio album While the World Was Burning in November 2020.