I Love Specifically

Neurotic Hip-Hop names

Sadlib

JadedKiss

A Tribe Called Stressed

The Notorious D. I. S. appointment

HoldYaBoy Tell ‘em (it’s going to be ok)

Uneasy-E

Belittled Wayne

Kid Cutter

DJ Quixotic

Mood Killer Mike

am.i.will?

My Interview With Santi White (circa 2004?)

I’m not 100% sure of the year (2004?) but I once interviewed Santi White. You may know her better as Santogold or more recently as Santigold. When I interviewed her she was the lead singer of the Philadelphia band Stiffed. I was trying to start a newsletter and wanted to do a story on her. I emailed her lucky for me she actually emailed me back. Years later when the official Santogold album came out I tried to reach her again but by that time she was a star and probably didn’t have time to deal with the likes of me. Seeing as her album Master of My Make-Believe came out today I figured I would post the interview I did with her sometime in the early 00’s. I caught up with her while her new band was recording their EP and we talked about her recording with Darryl Jennifer of Bad Brains, stumbling into becoming a rock star, and convinced me that maybe I should get my kids a Quaker education.

Lee: Why the new band members?

Santi: It was time to regroup. You’ll see…

L: How was it working with Darryl Jennifer and how did you come to work with him?

S: It was great working with Daryl. I have so much respect for him and it was an honor to have him be a part of Stiffed’s evolution. I got involved with Daryl because I opened for Bad Brains in DC, and their manager at the time introduced me to Daryl (I think). After the show, Doc, and Earl spoke to me about producing my project, and Daryl was not feeling well so I never even spoke to him about it. Soon after I did a short tour with HR, and was still in touch with the Brains’ manager, who had been telling Daryl about me. And somehow, we ended up speaking and just making it happen. The new EP is not produced by Daryl, however, although the first EP and the LP were.

L: While we’re on the subject why another EP as opposed to a full album?

S: We’re doing another EP because really, I may as well let the cat out the bag, it’s a new project, no longer called Stiffed, and it’s going to be released on a UK-based indie called Lizard King. So it’s really a means of introducing the project, while I’m working on the full length.

L: Let’s talk about your school days. How long did you go and how was it going to Germantown Friends School in Philly? The idea of a Quaker School kind of weirds me out.

S: I went to Germantown Friends School for 3 years, 10th through 12th grades. It wasn’t that strange really. Half of the private schools in Philly are Quaker because there were loads of Quakers that settled in Pennsylvania. It was an amazing school academically, and the environment was very free. We called all of our teachers by their first names, we had loads of free periods, during which time we could leave campus, or go up in the art room and paint for a couple hours at a time while listening to the radio. It was really advanced I thought, in that way, in that it allowed us the space to be responsible adults. They gave us loads of work and responsibility and the space to figure out an approach to how we learned best individually. We had to go to meeting for worship once a week, where we sat in the meeting house on wooden benches in silence for 45 minutes, and if you were moved to say something, anything that was on your mind, you would just stand up and say it, and everyone would listen. Then you’d sit down, and everyone would silently reflect on what you said until the next person was moved to say something. The idea being that there’s God in everyone, and in effect, God can speak through anyone or anything. That was really as religious as it got.

L: How was it going from Wesleyan University to Howard University?

S: It was a nice change socially, not so great academically. Kind of like going from private school to public school. At private school you have a great education shoved down your throat, at public school you get a great education if you take the initiative to seek it out. It was like that. It was at Howard though, that I realized that I was an artist. It was great to be around so many young black people who took themselves so seriously as artists. I had always been into so many different things, like sports (I played lacrosse at Wesleyan, and field hockey, basketball and lacrosse in high school), and my academics, and even business and entrepreneurial endeavors. But I met a bunch of really interesting people at Howard who helped me claim that part of myself as a central identity. I also stopped painting at Howard. I don’t know if it was because I hated my painting class there, or because I realized that something had to give if I was ever going to be great at any one thing, but that’s when I decided to focus on music. Wesleyan was great too. I had the best classes I could have ever wanted, everything was SO interesting to me. It was just in the middle of nowhere and socially not very stimulating. So together, the two experiences made a great one. I graduated early from Wesleyan though, so I actually spent my senior year in NYC.

L: It seems that early in your career you had a lot of behind the scenes jobs in the industry. What made you decide to want to be an artist?

S: I never wanted to be a performing artist at all. I stumbled into that by default, kind of by narrowing down what I didn’t want, I ended up on stage. It’s kind of backwards, huh?

L: Was there ever a time that you tried to fit into the “Black kid” stereotype and if so when did you decide to do what made you happy?

S: Yup. When I was 12, I worked downtown (in Philly) for the first time, a summer job at my dad’s office (from which I was fired in the end). I went to an all girls private school in Chesnut Hill at the time, a WASPy little neighborhood that had nothing to do with me. And it was so exciting for me to see all the cool black girls with these asymmetrical haircuts and huge gold earrings. So naturally, I hustled up some cash (I don’t know if it’s incriminating to say how) and bought myself some huge gold “Santi” earrings, a new haircut, and a leather trench coat. I went back to 8th grade that fall looking and talking completely different. It was hilarious. The next year I went to public school to pursue my new identity. It was so much fun and a complete mess! All the girls wanted to beat me up, and I didn’t learn a thing (I made no effort to get into any of the good classes). But I met a bunch of lifelong friends and got exposed to everything I wanted to get into that year. Then I went to Germantown Friends the next year, and picked up where I left off.

L: Can you go into your experiences with record labels? For instance, everyone who pays attention knows that you go “burned … again” but what happened exactly? What took the album so long to come out?

S: People are very afraid of new things, and the industry is a mess. It’s the same story over and over, but that’s the bottom line.

L: Being a Black woman fronting a rock band you have a lot of different sets of eyes looking at you. Some are inspired by you and some just want to see what the Hell you’re all about. How does this effect you? Does this inspire, scare, upset, etc… you in anyway?

S:I like it. It’s very important to me to break down some of the barriers that have been placed on black music. And if that means that sometimes I perform in front of a crowd of people looking at me like I’m crazy, so be it. I get loads of positive reinforcement from people who are inspired, and that’s inspiring to me.

L: Ok,lastly, I know you have to listen to hip hop. Is there anyone that interest you these days? I know everyone over 25 claims they don’t listen to anything recent but still…

S: I listen to Spankrock, and I really do like Southern rappers, I always have, there’s a bunch of Lil’ Wayne and B. G., and 3 6 Mafia songs that I like, as far as recent stuff anyway. I’ve always been a fan of pre ‘95 Hip Hop, that list would go on for days.

L: Thanks for your time

S: Thanks Lee, great questions.