Santogold
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Santogold".

Santogold
Santogold performing in Guadalajara, Mexico
Background information
Birth name	Santi White
Born	September 25, 1976 (1976-09-25) (age 32)1 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Origin	Philadelphia
Genre(s)	Indie rock, pop, dub, new wave, punk rock, psychedelic rock, art rock, electronic, synthpop
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, record producer
Years active	2003–present
Label(s)	Marrakesh (2007) Atlantic U.K., Downtown
Associated acts	Stiffed

Santi White (born September 25, 1976), better known by her stage name Santogold, is an American songwriter, producer, and singer. Her eponymous debut album Santogold was released in 2008.

Biography

Santi White attended Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then went to college at Wesleyan University, where she double-majored in Music and African-American studies. The artist got her pseudonym in the 1980s from a friend's nickname for her.² She worked for Epic Records as an A&R representative, but left the position to write and produce How I Do, the debut album from the singer Res.³

Santogold was singer of the Philadelphia-based punk rock band Stiffed,⁴ whose 2003 album, Sex Sells, and 2005 album, Burned Again, were produced by Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer.⁵ While in this group, she was offered a solo contract by Martin Heath of Lizard King Records.⁶ Her initial singles "Creator" and "L.E.S. Artistes" received attention from Internet media in 2007.⁷

Santogold

August 2008 at Koko, London

Brooklyn pop sensation Santogold has emerged as the 2008 musical season's new light.⁸. Working with fellow Stiffed member John Hill as co-producer, she recorded her debut album, Santogold, which was originally slated for release on Downtown Records in January 2008,⁶ but was pushed back to April 2008.⁹¹⁰ The album (including its B-sides and remixes) features appearances or production work from Chuck Treece, Cliffored "Moonie" Pusey of Steel Pulse, Diplo, Freq Nasty, Naeem Juwan of Spank Rock, Radioclit, Sinden, Switch, Trouble Andrew, and XXXchange.¹¹ The album's first singles, "Creator" and "L.E.S. Artistes", were both well received. Rolling Stone, Spin, and BBC all named Santogold an artist to watch in 2008.³¹⁰¹² "Creator", along with "Lights Out",¹³ has appeared in commercials for Bud Light Lime in the United States,¹⁴¹⁵ and VO5 hair products in the United Kingdom. Similarly, "You'll Find A Way" was featured in the EA Sports video game, FIFA 08, with "L.E.S. Artistes" featured in some versions of its sister game NHL 08 as well as in commercials for the Ford Flex. Her song "Say Aha" was featured in a Zune-Arts video.

Santi has toured with M.I.A., Björk, and Architecture in Helsinki.¹⁶ In June 2008, Coldplay announced that Santogold would be their opening act for most of the stops on the North American leg of their Viva la Vida Tour.¹⁷ Santogold embarked on her first headlining tour in September and October 2008.¹⁸ The Goldrush Tour featured dates across North America.¹⁹ After the tour's completion, Santogold supported Jay-Z and Kanye West on a number of their shows.²⁰²¹ Additionally, Santogold supported The Streets at BBC's Electric Proms,²² and she performed at certain dates of Beastie Boys' Get Out and Vote '08 tour.²³

Collaborations

Santi White co-wrote the title track for GZA's 1999 album Beneath the Surface, which featured Res.²⁴ Santi went on to co-write and produce a majority of Res' album How I Do in 2001.³ White later appeared on the song "Stay in Line" on GZA's 2002 album, Legend of the Liquid Sword.²⁵

White also appeared on Mark Ronson's 2007 album Version, performing on a cover of The Jam's "Pretty Green", in her first performance credited as Santogold. Santi co-wrote Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" with Ronson.¹⁵ She also co-wrote songs for Ashlee Simpson with Kenna, including the lead single "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)".²⁶

Santogold recorded a song with N.E.R.D's Pharrell Williams and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas for Converse.²⁷ Santi told Gigwise.com that they recorded the song separately and did "their own separate thing", "so it ends up being just this weird long song with sort of everybody with lots of their own personalities separate."²⁸ The song, "My Drive Thru", was available for free on Converse's website.

In the future, Santogold will be working with Beastie Boys, David Byrne, and Jay-Z.²⁹ She will appear on a song with M.I.A., Nick Zinner, and Spank Rock for N.A.S.A.'s debut album, The Spirit of Apollo.³⁰

Artistry

Santogold at Eurockéennes, July 5, 2008

White's style has been compared often to that of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, M.I.A. and Missing Persons.⁵³¹³² White feels she shares some similar influences with them, pointing out that she and her friend M.I.A. "were women who were not just doing rap or R&B, and who worked with some of the same people," but that her "music is different and she wasn't influenced by what the press was saying", adding "I can't think of anybody who would be a better fit of somebody who I'm like... I think what's accurate about that comparison is that she's an artist who has loads of different influences... and is putting things together in a way that's unexpected and genreless."¹¹³³ Some of Santogold's material has been compared to that of the Pixies,³¹ whom Santogold herself has cited as an influence.¹¹ Santogold has also said that she is inspired by 1980s pop music. "I felt that a lot of pop music from the '80s had a depth to it, and I hope to bring back some more good pop songs."¹¹ White also stated her liking for New Wave¹¹ and critics named Siouxsie Sioux to describe "My Superman".³⁴ The singer also cites Blondie, Grace Jones, Devo, Fela Kuti, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and reggae music as influences.³⁵³⁶

In a May 2008 interview, White stated that critics and online music vendors³⁷ were labeling her music as hip hop, rap and R&B because she is black, saying that that was racist.³⁸ "Everyone is just so shocked that I don't like R&B. Are you shocked that Good Charlotte isn't into R&B? ³⁹ Why does R&B keep coming into my interviews? It's pissing me off. I didn't grow up as a big fan of R&B and, like, what is the big shocker? It's stupid."⁴⁰

Discography

Main article: Santogold discography

Albums

• 2008: Santogold

Singles

• 2008: "Creator"
• 2007: "L.E.S. Artistes"
• 2008: "My Drive Thru"
• 2008: "Lights Out"
• 2008: "Say Aha"⁴¹

Awards

References

Further reading

• Reed, James (2008-09-23). "Sass master Santogold takes it to the limit", The Boston Globe. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Santogold

• Santogold at MySpace
• Santogold Music