Sean Kingston is the debut studio album by Jamaican-American singer Sean Kingston, released on July 31, 2007. The album was produced by J. R. Rotem. Sean Kingston, with help from Evan Bogart, wrote the songs which range from the self-deprecating-schoolboy tale of lost love in the album's most successful single "Beautiful Girls" to the much deeper "Dry Your Eyes", in which he visits the hardship of watching his mother and sister being sent to prison at the age of 15. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA as of February 2008 with an excess of 500,000 copies. The album entered the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at #6 and fell to #13 the following week. The album reached #2 on RIANZ in its second week.

Background

Record executive E. Kidd Bogart talked about the making of the album in a 2024 interview: “A rapper named ‘Franchise’ wrote this chorus called "Beautiful Girls", it was actually called "Suicidal" at the time (...) and overnight they decided to change the entire Franchise rap album into a singing album, because this dude sang and they didn't realize he could sing. They changed Franchise name to Sean Kingston. (...) We went in and we started re-writing the entire Sean Kingston album”. In an interview with HitQuarters, producer J. R. Rotem described this process with regard to Kingston: “Sean Kingston was a rapper when we found him and it was a development process to get him more melodic. At Beluga we essentially refine the talent so that it's more of a marketable product.”

Singles

Sean Kingston was firstly anticipated by the promotional single "Colors 2007". The album's lead single, "Beautiful Girls", was released on May 26, 2007. It became a major hit internationally, topping the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and several other charts, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom. In the latter country, the song spent four weeks at the summit of the UK Singles Chart. The second single "Me Love" was released on July 31, 2007, and entered in the top twenty of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The third single "Take You There" was released on October 23, 2007. In the week of November 17, 2007, the single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 81, and later peaked at number 7. "There's Nothin" was released as the album's final single on March 13, 2008.

Critical reception

AllMusic gave the album a slightly positive review, commenting that it “loads up on enough gimmicks, high-profile samples, hooks, and ridiculous lyrics that it's the textbook definition of love it or hate it and shouldn't be approached by anyone who considers themselves "hardcore."” Entertainment Weekly expressed a mixed opinion: “At its best, Kingston’s debut CD, Sean Kingston, keeps turning familiar riffs into dancehall cotton candy. (...) Unfortunately, a few unconvincingly tough hip-hop tracks seem like vestiges of a plot to present Kingston as a pudgy thug, before ”Girls” made him a star softie”. BBC Music argued that “JR Rotem’s production is clean and shiny, while Sean’s voice sounds a bit like Collie Buddz - although that may be because they’ve both been processed into oblivion.” The New York Times gave Sean Kingston a negative review “this is a surprisingly awkward album, with too many underbaked love songs and unmenacing threats”.

Track listing

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications