\n Santi White, aka Santogold, is the genre-bending sensation on the tip of every urban hipster’s wagging tongue. In stride with her buddy MIA and an acolyte of the new school of globalized, ADD pop, Santogold deconstructs the role of the black female solo artist and serves up some hot beats on her debut
Santogold’s influences are as diverse as the world is wide, and all flawlessly hip to boot. Dub bass is at home on this album as reverby synths straight outta Soft Cell’s "Tainted Love." She glitters and shines when she rolls out 80’s beats with "My Superman," or her Caribbean influences with most other songs, but, unfortunately, sounds like a No Doubt throwback on her ska tracks such as "Say Aha."
Reggae anthem "Shove It" is the first song to reveal Santogold’s sassy indignation, a most crucial aspect of her persona. She flatly declares with patois-inspired diction, "We think you’re a joke/shove your hope where it don’t shine." Is this condemnation of hope a ballsy dismissal of America’s golden boy, Barack Obama? Santogold sings with enough ferocious conviction that I wouldn’t be surprised.
Her voice is an instrument she uses for various ends—crooning, hip hopping, defiantly declaring—but with uniform success. As she reminds us on "Creator," the thesis of the album: "Me I’m a creator/ thrill is to make it up/the rules I break got me a place/ up on the radar." With a pop landscape dominated by genre-redefining oddballs Timbaland and Pharrell, and left-field MCs like Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, pop is ready and waiting for a lady like her.
But so far Santi has enjoyed more attention from the British press, being associated with the likes of MIA and Lily Allen. English pop, at this point, knows what to do with a woman artist who does not blend seamlessly into a genre or notions of artistic and racial identity.
The Philly native said in an interview, "The industry has to get used to a black girl who doesn’t sing R&B." Her debut is the right step towards breaking down these expectations.
So she’s conquered the hipster base. Next up: the world.
