Santi White AKA Santogold grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and went to college at Wesleyan University, where she double-majored in Music and African-American studies. The Santogold moniker came from a friend's nickname for her in the 1980s. Her experience in the music industry was anchored via a stint at Epic Records as an A&R representative, but left the position to write and produce How I Do (2001), the debut album from the singer Res.
Santogold then put herself in the foreground by becoming lead singer of the Philadelphia-based punk rock/ska band Stiffed, whose 2003 album, Sex Sells, and 2005 album, Burned Again, were produced by bassist Darryl Jenifer of the punk pioneering group Bad Brains. While there, she was offered a solo contract by Martin Heath of Lizard King Records. Her first few salvos Creator and L.E.S. Artistes received attention from Internet media in 2007 and were well received. In the same year White also appeared on Mark Ronson's 2007 album Version, performing on a cover of The Jam's Pretty Green.
Working with fellow Stiffed member John Hill as co-producer, she recorded her debut album, Santogold, which was originally set for release on Downtown Records in January 2008, but was pushed back to April 2008. The album (including its B-sides and remixes) features appearances or production work from Cliffored Pusey of Steel Pulse, Diplo, Freq Nasty, Naeem Juwan of Spank Rock, Radioclit, Chuck Treece and Switch
Rolling Stone, Spin and BBC all named Santogold an artist to watch in 2008 and so do we. Creator, along with Lights Out, has appeared in commercials for Bud Light Lime in the United States and VO5 hair products in the United Kingdom. You'll Find A Way made its way in to the EA Sports video game, FIFA 08, and L.E.S. Artistes featured in some versions of its sister game NHL 08. Her song Say Aha was featured in a Zune-Arts video. Santi has also toured with M.I.A., Björk, and Architecture in Helsinki. In addition to her own material, White has worked with Lily Allen and Ashlee Simpson.
Recently Santogold has been at work recording with N.E.R.D's Pharrell Williams and The Strokes' Julian Casablancas for Converse. In June 2008, Coldplay announced that Santogold would be their opening act for most of the stops on their North American tour. With such a wide scope of influences and commercial exposure, it is no telling what this lady can’t accomplish in the future.
