Man-Child in the Promised Land

Kingston spends the day with friends and family. Everywhere he goes, a crowd gathers. People call his name and whip out camera phones. Traffic slows. When he visits his grandfather's famous studio, the streets are blocked off. He stops to eat fried chicken and is flanked by photographers from the local paper.

Kingston spends much of his time at the party dancing, posing for pictures with cute girls, toasting on the mic, and just clowning around. At midnight, he disappears for several hours, out of view of the cameras. Rumors circulate of an afterparty, the real party, where MTV won't be filming.

Around 3:30 a.m., the birthday boy reappears at Ocean's Eleven, a nightclub where girls wearing next to nothing are grinding on men and thick ganja smoke wafts through the air. Outside, the parking lot is packed with people burning spliffs and grilling jerk chicken, Ochi's rudeboys and dancehall queens, a much rougher element, from the looks of them, than anyone in the United States associates with Sean Kingston. Yet he seems at home milling through this crowd.

Inside, Black Chiney's newest selector, Dinero, is in the DJ booth. Mirror, one of the most talented artists on Time Is Money, is on a mic putting out a few of his dancehall bangers as dancers from different crews compete. Dinero, who lives in Coral Springs, keeps the crowd amped with "bumbaclaat" this and "bloodclaat" that, leading the club's angry-looking owner to tell him to keep it clean. So Dinero picks up the mic again and says, "All right, all right, no more bloodclaat swearwords, people. Watch ya bloodclaat language!" This has the crowd in stitches.

Just before 5 a.m., Kingston makes his way back outside, which draws most of the party outside with him. They all still want a piece of him, and no one knows when or if he'll be back this way. Some want photos, some try to hand him CDs, some try to get him to agree to make music with them at some later date. A few look thuggish and jealous, which is understandable as their women gravitate toward him. Kingston has to be careful as he makes his next move, but as he breaks away from a few ladies, he says, "This whole thing is like a dream come true."