April 14, 2009

Category: Grooves

Santigold: Authentic & Real

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Santigold is the new evolution or should say revolution of Stiffed. It’s Santi White remixed and renewed and right on time. I’ve known Sant for awhile now– at least 10 years. We even lived together for a minute in ’96 and during that time, especially on weekends when we were both around, I really got to know and love her. She’s mad ambitious and passionate and always has a ton of things on her plate. Authentic, outspoken and mad funny, this Philly grrrl loves hard, but will also waste no time in letting you know when you have effed up. Just ask some of her homies or a certain rapper/actor ex.

When I heard she was writing songs for Res I wasn’t surprised. She’s always had a gift for telling great stories and is always following her mind and intuition like during the Internet boom of the 90’s when she launched 2GEE Ltd, a virtual boutique filled with the flyest goodies and wears. Then sensing, errr… knowing that she could rock the mic just as fiercely as the singers she was writing for she decided to put a band together and like that Stiffed was born. I guess in dealing with the death of her father and finding true love and then moving back to BK she got that itch again and now she’s blowing wigs back as Santogold (now Santigold)– her solo persona non grata. Her eponymous debut is a disc dipped in delicious eclecticism and edge. My favorite track is Creator. I just love the sultry, playful, boasting attitude she emits in her vocals.  It’s so damn fresh!

“Brooklyn Go Hard” her collabo with Jay-Z and tribute of sorts to The Notorius B.I.G. is another one of my faves. I guess I kinda prefer when she steps a lil more into her dub-ska-hiphop zone than her pop-retro niche (although L.E.S. Artistes is a banger). I can’t wait to see what Santi pulls out of her proverbial bag of tricks next. I know she’ll be touring the US again this summer and I hear she’ll be working with Kanye (who produced “Brooklyn…”), the Beastie Boys and David Byrne on new material.

I still love this lil’ tidbit which really sums up Santi’s outspoken, smart and non-conventional stance. 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.

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