Santi White (born September 25, 1976), known professionally as Santigold (formerly Santogold), 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.
Her second album, Master of My Make-Believe (2012), was met with continued positive reception and peaked at number 21 on the Billboard 200. It spawned the single "Disparate Youth", which entered the Bubbling Under Hot 100 and moderately entered charts in several countries. Her third album, 99¢ (2016), her second mixtape, I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions (2018), and her fourth album, Spirituals (2022), were each met with continued praise. The latter was described by The Guardian as a "whirlwind album full of feeling and fervour".
Additionally, Santigold has collaborated with artists including Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Drake, Mark Ronson, David Byrne, Karen O, Tyler, the Creator, ASAP Rocky, and Diplo. Her awards include "Best Breakthrough Artist" at the 2008 NME Awards, and the Vanguard Award at 2009 ASCAP Awards.
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.
She obtained her pseudonym in the 1990s after a friend gave it to her as a nickname. She worked for Epic Records as an A&R representative but left the position to co-write and executive produce How I Do, the singer Res's debut album.
She was the singer of Philadelphia-based punk rock band Stiffed, which released the EP Sex Sells (2003) and the album Burned Again (2005). Both records were produced by Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer. While in the band, White was offered a solo contract by Martin Heath of London-based independent label Lizard King Records.
2007–2010: Santogold, tour, and other performances
Her first singles as a soloist ("Creator" and "L.E.S. Artistes") received attention from Internet media outlets in 2007, and her debut album Santogold, conceived with fellow Stiffed member John Hill, was issued in April 2008. The record featured appearances and production work from Chuck Treece, Diplo, Switch, and Jonnie "Most" Davis, among others. Blending a variety of musical genres ranging from new wave to alternative rock and reggae, the album was very well received by critics upon release and was noted for its "cross-genre confidence".
Santogold was critically acclaimed by both Entertainment Weekly and Spin, while "L.E.S. Artistes" made the number 2 position on Rolling Stone's "Singles of the Year" list. Santogold was sixth on the magazine's "Albums of the Year" list. "Creator", along with "Lights Out", appeared in commercials in the US and the UK.
During the summer of 2008, she released a mixtape CD, Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub, that was well received by Pitchfork and NME. To support Santogold, she toured with M.I.A. and Björk, and in June 2008, Coldplay invited her to be their opening act in the US. Her own US tour was called Goldrush Tour, and upon its completion, she supported Jay-Z and Kanye West on a number of their shows and The Streets at BBC's Electric Proms music festival. She finished the tour opening for Beastie Boys for three concerts on their get-out-the-vote Swing State Tour.
In February 2009, she announced that she changed her stage name to Santigold for reasons related to a possible lawsuit from director Santo Victor Rigatuso, who produced the 1985 film Santo Gold's Blood Circus. She finished the second leg of the tour in August 2009 at the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago with Billboard noting that she "delivered a bright set and drew a headliner-sized audience" for a late afternoon concert. Before leaving the stage, she announced she was preparing to write her next album.
2011–2013: Master of My Make-Believe
In 2011, Santigold published the song "Go!", which featured Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The track was produced by Switch, Q-Tip and herself, and NME praised it as a "brittle and brilliant brawler of a track" with "great reverberating militaristic kettle-drum booms".
She announced the follow-up to Santogold would be out in spring 2012. It was recorded in part in Jamaica and co-produced in part with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek. She described Master of My Make-Believe as "sonically eclectic but with some epic curveballs thrown into the mix". She further said, "I want it to be about creating your own reality. I have a song called 'The Keepers': 'We're the keepers, while we sleep in America our house is burning down'." "Big Mouth", the first track and video from the album, was issued in late January as a free download. In February, an animated video for "Disparate Youth" was uploaded to her official YouTube channel as the first single of the album. It was also released on iTunes in the US and later along with several remixes in the UK.
Master of My Make-Believe was released in late April to critical acclaim. "Disparate Youth" was featured in a December 2012 advertisement for the 2013 Honda Civic and a piano version of the song was used in a 2012-13 ad for Direct Line insurance. She then went on tour and opened a few shows on the US leg of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' I'm with You Tour. In May and June, she headlined her own US shows before a summer European tour. On August 15, 2012, she performed on the deck of the USS Intrepid as part of "Stephest Colbchella '012: Rocktaugustfest" on The Colbert Report, and on May 9, 2013, she appeared as herself on The Office episode "A.A.R.M." In 2013, she recorded the song "Girls" for the soundtrack of the series of the same name. She made a special guest appearance as Millie in the Adult Swim original NTSF:SD:SUV::.
2015–2021: 99¢ & I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions
In June 2015, she contributed the song "Radio" to the soundtrack of the film Paper Towns. In November, "Can't Get Enough of Myself", the first single of her forthcoming new album 99¢, was released. In February 2016, Santigold released an interactive music video for the song, which allowed viewers to insert themselves in the video, furthering the song's message about self-absorption and promotion in the social media age. Regarding the song and video, Santigold commented: "We have no illusion that we don’t live in this world where everything is packaged. People’s lives, persona, everything, is deliberate, and mediated. It can be dark and haunting and tricky, and freak us out, but it can also be silly and fun and we can learn to play with it". A second track, "Who Be Lovin Me", which featured iLoveMakonnen, was made available in December.
99¢, her third album, was out in February 2016 on Atlantic. Mojo wrote in a four-star review that 99¢ had "pleasure, sunshine and subversion". Santigold then went on tour in the US from March until May.