“Roses, I walked in the corner with my body screaming dolo” – Does this line ring a bell?
What about “Turn up baby, turn up when I turn it on”? It might be a bit hard for people from other parts of the world to figure out. However, TikTokers from the UK and US can easily relate because these are lines from the famous “Roses” song. Roses, the song that blew TikTok.
Today, on another episode of TikTok famous, we bring you the story of Saint Jhn, the musician behind the beautiful Roses song. And how TikTok made him one of the most-streamed musicians on Spotify with his song, Roses leading all single charts in the US and the UK.
Here’s another story, aside from Khaby Lame’s and Nathan Evan’s , proving that TikTok is currently the most powerful social media platform. And one that all digital content creators must be active on to become the next big thing.
Let’s start by knowing the superstar of the hour.
Who’s Saint Jhn?
Carlos St. John Phillips, popularly known as Saint Jhn, is a Guyanese-American rapper, songwriter, singer and music producer. His mother is from the city of Georgetown in Guyana, but he was born in New York City in the United States. He split his growing up living in both countries, and for this reason, he has a good grip on their hip-hop music styles.
He started his career in battle rapping. Actually, battle rapping was his inspiration. Saint Jhn cannot stop talking about the day he witnessed his brother battle rapping, surrounded by other kids. He was inspired by the show he saw that day and made his mind to become great through singing and music production.
At first, he thought rapping would take him to stardom, and so did a lot of it. But Saint Jhn began to get attractions for himself the day he recorded the chorus part for his friend Azeem’s 2011 track titled Hurricanes and Tornadoes. These songs caught the attention of music executives, including Zack Katz at BMG, who invited the pair to New York to write some songs together.
Saint Jhn did great as a songwriter and even used the period to develop his composing skills. But he never felt satisfied; he wanted more. So, he began pitching songs to big musicians in the game like Rihanna, most of which were rejected. Even his song, Roses, was rejected by Beyoncé. But all thanks to Imanbek and TikTok, today, the song has over 900 million streams on Spotify. Imanbek who?
Roses remix and TikTok
Saint Jhn released the Roses song in 2016, but it didn’t get popular until September 2019, when Kazakh producer, Imanbek released the song remix. Imanbek was a 19 years old train station worker when he remixed the song.
Despite not getting a reply from Saint Jhn after pitching him about the remix on Instagram, he went ahead to release the song, which ended up taking the UK and the US by storm. And with the help of TikTok, the song has landed both Imanbek and Saint Jhn notable awards and nominations.
Although there have been other remix versions of Roses, none made a big hit like Imanbek’s version, not even the one with Future. The song has the same lyrics as the original but takes a different tune. Unlike Roses original that came out with the manly Saint Jhn voice, the remix is kinda chipmunk or Emo white girl, as described in a YouTube comment.
The song hit differently and became viral on TikTok. People made videos using the song as the background music. Some danced to it, lip-synced to it, and millions of contents were created using the song, which caused many people to stream it on Spotify and YouTube. Even Charlie D’Amelio, the current most-followed TikToker, joined the trend. Amelio used the song as the background music for the video she made while celebrating 39 million followers in 2020.
TikTok gave Roses the popularity it deserves and made it rank first on the UK singles chart and fourth on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also tops the charts in Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Imanbak got a Grammy award for the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical in 2021 for Roses. And the song was also nominated for the Song of the Summer Award at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.
Saint Jhn maintained his fame on TikTok.
As a hustler, Saint Jhn is seizing the opportunity presented to him by TikTok. Ever since the Roses remix, he’s been actively involved on TikTok, posting nearly every week. He’s using the platform to keep his fans updated about new music releases and also share his live performances.
The TikTok account, which now has more than 626,000 followers and over 3.7 million, contains many videos shared by the superstar. He also reposts Roses videos made by other TikTokers to appreciate them and share their creativity.
He keeps the grind and has released several other songs after Roses. His “While the world was burning” album, released in 2021, was another hit. Saint Jhn collaborated with Kanye to produce the “Lord I need” song, one of the songs in Donda 1 album. The hustling spirit is not going down; not anytime soon, and he still has a lot to achieve.
Conclusion
Saint Jhn is another testimony to the fact that TikTok could do a lot in your journey to becoming the next beauty influencer or musician. The algorithm favors both new users and growing users. Everyone has the chance to achieve their dreams using the platform to promote their content.
I hope the story motivates you to sign up on TikTok. If you enjoy this article, please share it on your social media platforms. Thanks in advance.
