By Malice Intended

It’s not easy to make songs that touch everyone and manage to move records. Sean Garrett has done that with 17 #1 hits in seven years with everyone from the likes of Beyonce, to Usher and more. Dubbed “The Pen” by no less than Jay-Z, Garrett is looking to make the jump from the ink to the mic, like Keri Hilson and Ne-Yo before him. Will his song writing skills enable his personality and his singing talent to get a spot at the top for himself? We asked him about it. 

Planet Ill: Have you always desired to be a solo artist? As opposed to working behind the scenes?

Sean Garrett: Well, yeah. I started out as a solo artist I signed my first record deal when I was 15 years old. And I came back to the States around eight years ago. I came back to the states to basically do a new deal with Warner Brothers. My deal fell through with them and once my deal fell through I was shopping for a new deal and then people were starting to hear my records and they were like, “Yo, can you do records for other people.” I was like, “Nah, that’s not really what I’m interested in doing. But then I lost my mom and wound up doing a publishing deal after that. Which I had like seven offers on the table but I actually went with Hitco Music Publishing, which is my man L.A. Reid’s publishing company

You know to be honest with you, it was all  intertwined, being a songwriter, producer, artist was just really what  I was destined to do and something and I always wanted to do but God had a different road for me to start off with. Big records like “Yeah” with Usher, “Goodies” and “Soldier” for Destiny’s Child those were my first three #1 records. All hell broke loose after that.

Planet Ill: You produced 17 #1 singles in seven years, is that correct?

Sean Garrett: 17 #1 singers, yessir!

Planet Ill: Did you ever see yourself as being that successful when you started out in the music business?

Sean Garrett: I’mma be honest with you, no. I mean I had dreams of being incredibly successful but to be honest with you man, I never knew that I would wind up being today, Sean Garret “The Pen.” I just kept my head down to the grind and basically not necessarily ever look up at my accomplishments; I just stayed focused on my hustle.

Planet Ill: Is it hard to stay grounded when you’ve accomplished so much at such an early age?

Sean Garrett: I would guess that some people would say it’s difficult to remain humble but if you had a mom like I had,  it’s instilled in you to definitely  know what your boundaries are in regards to how to conduct yourself. 

My mom didn’t play no games; she instilled a whole lot of intricate constructive conduct preservatives inside of me. I just don’t get out of hand doing things that just don’t make no sense. You know like being excited about my success? Yeah I am. But at the same time I still have a way to carry myself that people will always respect and I’ll always have respect for people.

Planet Ill: Do you consider yourself gifted, hard-working, or both?

Sean Garrett: I would probably say both. I’d be lying if I said that I’m not gifted. And I know when I go into the studio things just come from God, you know the way songs come out and the way I’m able to at the drop of a dime do hit records for different people and go work with Enrique Iglesias and then the next day, go work with Beyonce and the next day go work with K Michelle and all of the records be successful. So I know it’s a gift I definitely appreciate and respect the gift that I have. But at the same time, gifted or not gifted you gotta have that hard work, and the drive to accommodate that, to be successful.

Planet Ill: You talked a bit about your upbringing. I know you spent a few years in Europe when you were younger. Did that have any effect on your artistic growth and your style? If so, what was that impact?

Sean Garrett: Yeah I spent most of my life in Europe, yeah it made a big difference. You can see it in my style; you can look at me and tell that there’s something a little different about me versus my peers. And it’s not contrived or something that I’m trying to do; it’s something that’s really organic. Basically you know I enjoy fashion and I’m not scared to try different things.

I pretty much work very hard at just trying to be myself and just give the people the kind of music that I know that they all can love. It doesn’t matter if you black white, blue, green or purple. I’m all about making people dance and making people happy. So as a producer and a song writer, I try to do songs that I think are going to be timeless and that can work in any household.  But at the same time, I definitely feel like that international experience definitely impacted my life in a positive way from a creative perspective.

Planet Ill: Making the transition from writer to singer/ celebrity is a very hard transition to make. What makes you think it’s going to be different for you?

Sean Garrett: It’s not really that hard a transition. It’s just that people try to make it seem like a hard transition. It’s just like doing anything else, man. You just gotta work hard at whatever it is you do and stay grinding. You can’t give up and you can’t listen to what people say. People always got something to say. It doesn’t matter to me what people say to me about what the fans feel because most of the time the fans aint’ the people that’s saying those types of things are people that don’t really buy music. Its people that don’t’ really do it like that, that have opinions about what you should be doing.

If you wasn’t popping then they wouldn’t be interviewing you. Or if you wasn’t popping they wouldn’t be commenting on you. It’s like anything else. I mean a lot of my peers from usher to Chris brown to ..a lot of my peers that they counted out and they came back. And coming back is just like jumping into another lane you got everything against you, you go working your ass off and you prove to these people that you got heart, you got drive and you don’t stop. Look at Diddy man. I mean Puffy is #1 on the Forbes list. He’s had every excuse in the world for people to say he should stop doing what he doing, but the guy is worth $450 Million.  And not to say that money is everything.  It’s not. But we’re talking about success; we’re talking about what you should or shouldn’t do. I don’t even entertain that.

Planet Ill: Your upcoming album is titled Courtesy Of, correct?

Sean Garrett: We’re changing the title of it because the dynamics of the album is coming along in a different way. It’s definitely bigger than Courtesy Of. It’s definitely coming late summer. I’m excited about it. My next single is fitna be a problem in the club and it’s a brand new record featuring Rick Ross. It’ll be a movie.

AUDIO Sean Garrett Interview Part 1

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