Santigold
Santogold

This record is dedicated to my dad who once told me that the world wasn't ready yet for the sounds in my head. Has it been time enough?

This is what the American Santi White writes in the booklet of her debut, dated 2008, which, with an original sound, truly different from everything circulating in a musical universe now on the brink, that welcomed with open arms one of the greatest plagues of the new millennium, namely Gaga, managed to carve out a deserved little space on the lips of most of today's music critics.

Yet Santigold was someone who had been around for a long time: a career spanning almost a decade, peppered with flops, first as the leader of a punk-rock band, the Stiffled, which had among its closest collaborators Darryl Jenifer, none other than the bassist of the legendary Bad Brains, without being able to score a single success, not even with two albums to their name, then reduced to being a simple co-writer of demos for other artists under the Epic Records major label.

Well, as in every respectable fairy tale, the appearance of a fairy godmother follows.

And here we’re not talking about just anyone, but Mark Ronson. Known in 2006 just as his two discoveries, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, were making him one of the key producers of the last decade, White found herself in the right place at the very right time, attracting the curious eyes of critics and a public hungry for new Made in Mark talents, as well as those of Atlantic Records, which immediately offered her a contract.

Ironically, there was never time to collaborate with Ronson (except for a fleeting appearance in his "Version" in a cover of "Pretty Green"), so the singer-songwriter managed to put together, under the vigilant eye of Diplo (already a collaborator of M.I.A.) and John Hill, a real piece of herself, without too many frills or gaudiness, a visceral album, with a natural and never predictable sound.

An explosive mix of electronic rock, dub, rock steady, and new wave, which builds its strength on hypnotic ditties, for which many of her colleagues would pay gold, which could be compared to that of a Karen O, particularly in powerful tracks like "You'll Find A Way" or "Say Aha", and which, even if in moments like "Creator" or "Starstruck" is much closer to M.I.A. (with whom, moreover, she will collaborate in 2009), winking at the No Doubt of the golden days throughout the album, manages to make it sound cohesive like a carnival of a hundred-plus genres.

Defined by Rolling Stone as "one of the year's most unique debuts," ranking it as the sixth-best album of the year, along with the single "L.E.S. Artistes," her calling card, which placed second among the 100 singles of the year, and numerous other appearances in rankings of magazines like Q and the famous site Pitchfork.

An excellent debut, which went on to develop into a true phenomenon in hip-hop music, with celebrities like Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Scissor Sisters, and Basement Jaxx lining up today to collaborate with.