2 months ago
23
In February, Jamaican-American rapper Sean Kingston was celebrating his first Grammy win.
He was one of the writers on Sensational, the hit song on 11:11, Chris Brown’s Grammy Award-winning Best RnB album. The song, which Billboard described as a “sugary anthem,” was written by Chris Brown, Kingston, Davido and Lojay.
Sean Kingston, whose real name is Kisean Anderson, told The Gleaner in an interview shortly after he received the nomination at the end of 2024 that it was “a blessing”.
“With all I’ve been through this year [2024] and to now be a songwriter on a Grammy-nominated project is sensational,” Kingston said at the time. “It also feels great to know that the song has crossed the globe … to be nominated in the Grammy for Best African Music Performance is really amazing.”
And when he actually won the Grammy last month, Kingston told The Gleaner that “it was amazing”.
He added, “Especially after all the trials and tribulations I went through in 2024, when a lot of people tried to tarnish my name ... a lot of blogs ran a lot of stories ... but when you know the truth, the truth shall set you free. I call this God’s plan. I know Chris was working on his album and he said to me ‘Send me some Afrobeats stuff’. Shoutout to the team. It’s a victory for everybody.”
Fast-forward to the end of March and Sean Kingston was no longer in celebration mode. He was instead making headlines for other reasons — being found guilty of fraud, crying in court and asking for his mother, Janice Turner, to “be protected”.
The headline of an article on yahoo.com blared ‘Rapper Sean Kingston cries in court as he and his mother are found guilty of over $1M fraud’, and other media houses reported stories echoing similar sentiments.
VERDICT
Last week — from March 24 to 28 — Sean Kingston and his mother were on trial in a Broward County, Florida courthouse. Reports are that the jury reached their guilty verdict on Friday after three and a half hours of deliberation “which then saw the rapper breaking down in tears and crying out for protection for his mother, Janice Turner”.
The Mirror reported that “ the 35-year-old rapper was reportedly crying with his hands clasped as the jury read its verdict inside the Fort Lauderdale federal court”.
The Beautiful Girls singer and his mother were convicted on four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, The Washington Times reported.
Last year, they were arraigned on fraud and theft charges in the US. They both pleaded not guilty to organised fraud and charges of defrauding multiple businesses of more than US$1 million in a Broward County court in Florida last August. Details of the accusations, as outlined on the arrest warrants, reportedly included defrauding a jewellery business, a luxury bed company, a used luxury and exotic car dealership, and a luxury microLED TV company since October 2023.
Sean Kingston broke into the music scene in 2007 with the hit Beautiful Girls, which peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The then 17-year-old released his début album, titled Sean Kingston, that same year. It peaked at number six on the Billboard 200, and spawned the top 40 single, Take You There.
Tomorrow, his sophomore album, also made a lasting impression with the top five single Fire Burning. Kingston subsequently released his top 20 duet, Eenie Meenie, with Justin Bieber. His 2013 Back to Life did not make the charts; however, the single Beat It, featuring Chris Brown and Wiz Khalifa, enjoyed some success.
Sean Kingston is one of the artistes scheduled to appear on producer Contractor’s Billboard Album Series, Tropical House Cruises to Jamaica: The Middle East Edition. The single, titled Show Me, is a collaboration with UK rapper Lady Marga Mc and American rapper Kali Ranks.
“Disturbing,” was the only comment to The Gleaner from producer Sean ‘Contractor’ Edwards after hearing about the entertainer’s guilty verdict.
Sean Kingston and his mother could face up to 20 years in prison. They are set to be sentenced on July 11. Kingston is reportedly under house arrest, but his mother was taken into custody immediately following the guilty verdict last Friday.
English (US) ·