Listen to Santogold

Sometimes, it’s OK to believe the hype. Case in point: Santogold.

If you’ve been paying attention at all, it’s been nearly impossible to escape her name, if not her music. From a high-profile cameo on Mark Ronson’s stellar “Version” release to every buzz blog on the planet to no less than two Bud Light commercials, her right-on-time combination of razor-sharp songwriting and hard-earned industry acumen have her poised to be a genuine breakout artist in 2008.

And when I say “Hard earned,” I mean it. The Philly native Santi White has been fighting the good fight for years. There was her outstanding punk-wave band Stiffed, that despite boasting Bad Brains bassist Daryl Jennifer as producer and a clutch of killer tunes (check out the exceptional “What You Gon’ Do” from Stiffed’s “Sex Sells” EP), the band meandered in obscurity until they dissolved. White also famously had a large hand in the sadly overlooked debut album “How I Do” by the criminally underappreciated Res, a record that my man Touré said “sounds more like peak Seventies Pretenders than anyone in Black music history.” (White was even tapped to write for the new Ashlee Simpson CD. Don’t be mad: A girl’s gotta pay the bills!).

White’s reinvention into Santogold is savvy and even calculated, but for all the right reasons. Cozying up with the makers behind the new sound of young America’s dance floor (M.I.A., Switch, Diplo, Ronson), her current incarnation still retains quirky new wave energy and attitude. Her high-pitched yelp can sound uncannily similar to Gwen Stefani, but even that pop hit-maker would kill for a song as effortlessly perfect as “Lights Out.” She even does a convincing Siouxsie Sioux on “Starstruck.” Add extras like the lover’s rock reggae of “Your Voice” (a non-LP b-side being freely distributed on the interwebs) to big beat crowd-pleasers like “Creator” and “L.E.S. Artistes,” and we’re looking at one of the freshest releases in 2008 so far. Stay tuned…

—Scott T. Sterling