Monday, June 23, 2008
Shake It, Sister
No, that's not a coded message to Deena. :-) It's applause for Santogold, aka Santi White, a 32-year-old artist from Philadelphia who's a triple threat: singer, songwriter, and producer. Santogold, whose stage name is her nickname, channels an astonishing array of influences, mixing rock, punk, ska, reggae, and experimentalism into hooky but unpredictable songs. She strident, confident, and dislikes being considered r&b or rap, just because she's black. She provides today's Song of the Week, the lilting, midtempo 'I'm A Lady.'She could almost be an American M.I.A., more tuneful and minus the politics. Her influences run the gamut from James Brown to Fela Kuti to the Pixies. I even hear the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Tegan & Sara in there...
Santogold has a resumé! She double-majored in Music and African-American studies at Wesleyan, and actually worked for Epic records as an A&R representative. A&R stands for 'artists and repertoire,' the division of a record label responsible for finding and developing talent. She spent 2003-2007 as lead singer of rock/ska band, Stiffed.
And now, I'll let the music speak for itself. There's no clip for 'I'm A Lady,' since it's not a single. Enjoy instead her breaktrhough song, 'L.E.S. Artistes.'
Her other single is the off-beat slow stomp of 'Creator,' which includes - sorry, Santogold, r&b and rap... :-) Here Santogold shakes it live at FADER....
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