Santigold is the stage name of Philadelphia-born Santi White, who is probably best known for 'Disparate Youth' (2012) and her genre-blending debut album Santogold (2008). While her fans are undoubtedly waiting for the release of her third album next year, 99¢, I wanted to draw attention to the strongest single from her debut album, 'L.E.S. Artistes', which epitomizes the strengths of her breakout album: "At its best, her album's cross-genre confidence is dazzling, combining dub, new wave, and hip-hop to create some of the year's freshest pop." (Tom Ewing for Pitchfork, 2008).
As White revealed in an interview with PopJustice.com, the title is a reference to all the 'wannabe artists/hipsters of New York's Lower East Side:
"Well, it’s ‘L-E-S Artistes’ and it stands for Lower East Side. It’s not a French thing, it is playing on the fact that everyone tries to make things fancy and it’s really pretentious. The song is about me moving back to New York, feeling really vulnerable, wanting to be an artist soaking up all simulation creatively but at the same time staying introverted and in my own mind. At the same time, it’s 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."
But the amateur posers are just a starting point for the track; White swiftly cuts down to size in a single rap verse:
"If you see me, keep goingBe a pass-by waverBuild me up, bring me downJust leave me out, you name-dropperStop trying to catch my eyeI see you good, you forced fakerJust make it easyYou're my enemy, you fast-talker"
Its her reaction to this 'scene' of over-hyped, self-indulgent, attention-whoring creativity that's the core of the song. The other verses and the track's skyrocketing chorus focus on White's defiantly poignant reflection on the kind of artistic integrity that she aims to achieve with her music:
"What I'm searching forTo tell it straight, I'm trying to build a wallWalking by myselfDown avenues that reek of time to kill...
Chorus: I can say I'll hope it will be worth what I give up/ If I could stand up mean for the things that I believeI can say I'll hope it will be worth what I give up/ If I could stand up mean for the things that I believeWhat am I here for?I left my home to disappear is allI'm here for myselfNot to know you, I don't need no one else"
White's preoccupation with creating 'true art' is an age-old problem, of course, and she herself has noted the strong temptation for artists like herself to 'sell-out' to record labels:
"It’s just money. I go into the studio, everything you order comes on a silver platter – and I’m not kidding. They bring you chocolate chip cookies on a silver platter. A REAL silver platter. On the business side of things and from an experience side of things, you’re not going to turn down situations like that. It’s a formula, for all that type of music you hire the same producers and you get a certain level of quality because you pay for it. But it’s a different thing entirely – it’s not the same as artistic music. That’s not the sort of pop music I talk about. It’s a different world and it’s for different people and for me the experience of doing that is very important."
(PopJustice.com, 2008)
It will be exciting to see if her third album does manage to 'stand up mean for the things' that she set out to achieve with her debut album. Her fans can only hope that everything she sacrificed for artistic integrity was worth it in the end.
