Carlos St. John is a Brooklyn, New York rapper and singer of Guyanese descent who records under the name of Saint Jhn. He started out as a songwriter, co-penning tunes for Kiesza ("Bad Thing," "Sound Of A Woman") and Usher ("Crash" and "Rivals"). In 2019, St. John featured on Beyoncé's The Lion King single "Brown Skin Girl." The Guyanese-American rapper released his first song under the moniker Saint Jhn in 2016. Titled "1999," the rap tune was followed by the more urban-influenced "Roses" that same year.
The song has a dark feel, inspired by the 2000 movie Werckmeister Harmonies, which is set in a desolate, Hungarian small town in Communist times. Saint Jhn explained to Cinema Thread that he had the film on mute in the studio at the same as he was recording. Visually, it caught his attention, and he came up with some music based on the feeling it gave him. Saint Jhn finished up with "Roses," which he said "felt like the perfect record to use as a score to this almost cannibalistic type of visual, and I say cannibalistic because it felt so raw, it felt so f---ing primal and almost so offensive."
In 2019, teenage Kazakh producer Imanbek Zeikenov remixed "Roses" and released it as a single. His version retains the trap feel of the original track but introduces a sturdier bassline and pace. Zeikenov's version initially bloomed in Eastern Europe before gaining traction in the West and charting throughout the continent.
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