Originally written by TheBoyDeadly · 20 May 2008
Santogold** has claimed that anyone labelling her music as hip-hop, rap or R&B is “_totally racist”.
Speaking to DrownedinSound sister site The Lipster, the artist – real name Santi White – confessed she was frustrated by the unnecessary pigeon-holing of what is pretty much a straight-up pop record (review) by online music retailers and hacks.
"It's racist,” she asserted. “_It's totally racist.
“_Everyone is just so shocked that I don't like R&B. Why does R&B keep coming into my interviews? It's pissing me off. I didn't grow up as a big fan of R&B and, like, what is the big shocker? It's stupid.”
While the record does touch on what could be reasonably described as hip-hop – ‘Creator’, surely? – we can see what’s she’s getting at. As Lipster scribe Rebecca Nicholson ably points out, here: “Gwen Stefani is more hip-hop/rap than Santogold, but she is called _[by the online music retailers like iTunes, Tesco and Play.com] pop/rock - and it's because she's white_”.
White picks the thread back up.
“_In the beginning I thought that was funny. I'm an 'MC', I'm a 'soul singer', I'm a 'dance hybrid artist'. And some guy said I looked like Kelly Rowland!"
DiScuss: