Born Kisean Anderson in Miami in 1990, Jamaican-American artist Sean Kingston must be thanking his lucky stars for Ben E. King right now. After all, like most of the new dynasty of young urban stars who forego originality in favour of sampling any well-known song that they can get their grubby little mitts on, Kingston is no exception. His self-titled debut spawned the infinitely irritating uber-hit Beautiful Girls, a track that samples the bassline from King's 'Stand By Me', sounds like a bad holiday song, but subsequently rocketed the 17-year-old to stardom. What's totally baffling is how Kingston (whose singing, rapping and songwriting skills range from 'shockingly bad' to 'non-existent') got a record deal in the first place. From the UB40-sampling Me Love (uncannily similar to Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl) to the hilariously bad Your Sister ("If I'm wrong, I don't wanna be right / I kissed your sister last night") via the embarrassing Dry Your Eyes (supposedly about his mother's incarceration for tax evasion), this album rolls out one cliche after another, sounds like it was recorded on an old version of Pro Tools in someone's bedroom, and is categorically tailor-made for skangers. It's only the Outkast-esque Got No Shorty and optimistic hip-hop-scotch feel of Change that make this album in any way bearable. Kingston's blend of 'tuff rap', reggae, r'n'b and pop will undoubtedly sell by the bucketload, but this is wretched, soulless stuff.
