Santogold by Santigold

Santogold, the debut album from Santi White, came out on Downtown Records on April 29, 2008, when she was still going by that name rather than Santigold. She wrote and produced it mostly with John Hill, her old bandmate from Stiffed, with Diplo, Switch and Disco D adding production and Spank Rock and Trouble Andrew stopping by on the mic. The whole thing was knocked out inside eight weeks at Schoolhouse and Pitch Black Studios in New York City.

It refuses to sit still: new wave jitter, punk snot, electro pulse, reggae bounce and deep dub bass, all colliding in the same set of songs. "L.E.S. Artistes" is the calling card, a wiry, anthemic chant that cracked the top 40 in Britain, and "Creator", "Lights Out" and "Say Aha" followed it as singles. Critics loved the genre-busting, and it landed on year-end and decade-end best-of lists.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.