Biography

Introduction

Santi White (born September 25, 1976), better known by her stage name Santigold (formerly Santogold), is an American songwriter, producer, and singer. Her then 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. She worked for Epic Records as an A&R representative, but left the position to write and executive produce How I Do, the debut album from the singer Res.

Santigold was the singer of the Philadelphia-based punk rock band Stiffed, whose 2003 album, Sex Sells, and 2005 album, Burned Again, were produced by Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer. While in this group, she was offered a solo contract by Martin Heath of Lizard King Records. Her initial singles "Creator" and "L.E.S. Artistes" received attention from Internet media in 2007.

In February 2009, Santogold changed her stage name to Santigold, as a result of infomercial jeweller Santo Gold threatening legal action.

As Santogold

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, but was pushed back to April 2008. The album (including its B-sides and remixes) features appearances or production work from Chuck Treece, Clifford "Moonie" Pusey of Steel Pulse, Diplo, Freq Nasty, Naeem Juwan of Spank Rock, Radioclit, Sinden, Switch, Trouble Andrew, and XXXchange. Rolling Stone, Spin, and BBC all named Santogold an artist to watch in 2008. The album's first singles, "Creator" and "L.E.S. Artistes", were both well received. "L.E.S. Artistes" placed at number two on Rolling Stone's Singles of the Year, behind Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", while the album Santogold was sixth on their albums of the year list. "Creator", along with "Lights Out", has appeared in commercials for Bud Light Lime in the United States, 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 and "Creator" featured in NBA 08. Her songs can also be heard 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. 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. Santogold embarked on her first headlining tour in September and October 2008. The Goldrush Tour featured dates across North America. After the tour's completion, Santogold supported Jay-Z and Kanye West on a number of their shows. Additionally, Santogold supported The Streets at BBC's Electric Proms, and she performed at certain dates of Beastie Boys' Get Out and Vote '08 tour.

Collaborations

Santi White co-wrote the title track for GZA's 1999 album Beneath the Surface, which featured Res. Santi went on to co-write and produce a majority of Res' album How I Do in 2001. White later appeared on the song "Stay in Line" on GZA's 2002 album, Legend of the Liquid Sword.

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. She also co-wrote songs for Ashlee Simpson with Kenna, including the lead single "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)".

Santigold recorded a song with N.E.R.D's Pharrell Williams and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas for Converse. 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." The song, "My Drive Thru", was available for free on Converse's website.

In the future, Santigold will be working with Beastie Boys and David Byrne. White revealed to NME that she "may also do something with Jay-Z, it's kind of secret - it's not for anything, it's just 'cause we want to." The collaboration, "Brooklyn Go Hard", was produced by Kanye West and contains a sample of Santigold's track "Shove It"; she also contributes a new verse. It appears on the soundtrack to The Notorious B.I.G. biopic Notorious. The song was also released as a download via subscription to (RED)Wire, with a portion of the profits going towards Bono's Product Red organization. "Brooklyn Go Hard" debuted on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at number 62.

She also appears on a song entitled "Whachadoin?" with M.I.A., Nick Zinner, and Spank Rock for DJ collective N.A.S.A.'s debut album, The Spirit of Apollo, as well as a song entitled "Gifted" with Kanye West and Lykke Li. Basement Jaxx's Scars also features vocals from Santi on the song "Saga".

Artistry

White's style has been compared often to that of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, M.I.A. and Missing Persons. White said of the M.I.A. comparison that they are both "women who have similar influences and have 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." Some of Santigold's material has been compared to that of Pixies, who Santigold herself has cited as an influence. Santigold 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." White also stated her liking for New Wave and added that "My Superman" is based on a Siouxsie & the Banshees' song, "Red Light". The singer also cites Blondie, Grace Jones, Devo whom she describes as her "ultimate favorite band", Fela Kuti, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and reggae music as influences.

In a May 2008 interview, White stated that critics and online music vendors were labeling her music as hip hop, rap and R&B because she is black, saying that that was racist. "Everyone is just so shocked that I don't like R&B. Are you shocked that Good Charlotte isn't into R&B? 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."