Santi White, known professionally as Santigold, is an American singer and songwriter. Her debut studio album, Santogold (2008), was released by Atlantic Records and met with widespread critical praise for its cross-genre blending of dub, new wave, and hip hop music.
Its second single, "L.E.S. Artistes", peaked within the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.
real name: Santi White
labels: Roc Nation
genres: pop music, hip hop culture
influenced by: James Brown
plays: voice
member of: Stiffed
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Santi White was born on September 25, 1976, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Ron White, an advisor to mayor John F. Street, and Aruby Odom-White, a psychiatrist. She attended Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, and later attended college at Wesleyan University, where she double-majored in music and African-American studies. Santi has described herself as “super-social and a connector of people” in her youth, growing up in Philadelphia.
Beyoncé gave a shout-out to Santigold in the 2022 track of "Break My Soul (The Queens Remix)", citing her among 29 legendary Black women in music. In the song, Beyoncé name-dropped her creative heroes, and she opened with "Rosetta Tharpe, Santigold/ Bessie Smith, Nina Simone", next to Grace Jones. W magazine wrote that it was "the pop cultural equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award".
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Disparate Youth" is a song from American musician Santigold. The track was released in the United States on 14 February 2012 as the lead single from the artist's second studio album, Master of My Make-Believe (2012).
In March 2012, The Guardian heralded "Disparate Youth" as part of their 'New Music' feature. Reviewer Michael Cragg hailed it as "an absolute corker, all sleek new-wave keyboards mixed with frantic bursts of guitar and Santigold's intriguingly emotionless delivery."
Santigold and filmmaker Sam Fleischner co-directed a "Disparate Youth" music video shot in Portland Parish, Jamaica, which released in March 2012. The video, shot on a shoestring budget, shows Santigold riding a motorcycle through a colonial-era town, riding a speedboat off the coast, and entering a jungle with some young Jamaican locals. Fleischner has revealed that this was the second video shot for the song, following "a Clockwork Orange-inspired video that the label spent a lot of money on" which Santigold decided not to release.
"L.E.S. Artistes" is the second single by American artist Santigold, and along with "Creator", the first to be taken from her self-titled debut Santogold.
"L.E.S. Artistes" was written after Santi White moved to New York City. The song "is playing on the fact that everyone tries to make things fancy and it's really pretentious" and "about being accosted by the New York scene and the scenesters and hipsters, who are really not artists and are just pretending to be. They're all about just being seen." The title stands for New York's Lower East Side. "It's not a French thing," White stated in an interview with PopJustice. On MTV's FNMTV, Santigold stated that the title literally meant Lower East Side Artists.
The single's first commercial release was via the US iTunes Store on March 25, 2008, as a joint single with "Creator". It was released as the b-side to "Creator" through a limited edition 12" vinyl in January 2008, before receiving a full release on May 5. The XXXChange remix was also released. "L.E.S. Artistes" was featured as iTunes' Discovery Download for the week of April 28. The song has received heavy radio play in the UK and was on Radio 1's B List,.
The music video, directed by Nima Nourizadeh and shot by director of photography Adam Frisch, is an homage to the film The Holy Mountain. Rolling Stone placed the music video at number four on their bi-weekly Hot List. The video received attention after it was praised by Kanye West on his blog.
"Lights Out" is a song by American musician Santigold. It was released on August 11, 2008, through Downtown, Lizard King and Atlantic Records as the third single from her debut studio album, Santogold (2008).
On July 4, 2008, "Light Out" was announced to be released on August 11 as the third single from Santogold. The song, as well as an exclusive remix, was used to promote Bud Light Lime, with the remix being available as a free download from the brand's official website. Santi promoted the song on BBC Radio 1's popular Live Lounge programme, hosted by Jo Whiley. She performed "Lights Out" and a cover of Adele's "Hometown Glory". Lights Out also appeared in hit TV show Grey's Anatomy.
The "Lights Out" music video was directed by Kim Gehrig. The music video premiered via Pitchfork on August 11, 2008. It features Santigold performing in front of various colored walls and patterns — zebra print, black-and-yellow gingham, a tropical theme, cheetah and tiger prints, flamingoes, feathers, and others.
The song is featured in Nirvana the Band the Show in the Web Series during Episode 9 - The Band