Santigold Interview: How Motherhood Influenced Her Creative Process + Industry Obstacles

This is Sway.

Sway.

Sway.

Sway in the morning. In the morning. In the morning. Sway in the morning, Shade 45. Wake your fuck ass up, that crust. Sway in the morning, Shade 45. Have the B.

Talk to me, homie.

There's some things that take place in the music business that we're privy to that not everybody is able to kind of recognize. A lot of it has to do with based on the politics behind music sometimes.

Right.

You can come up with a style of all your own, you come up with a flavor of all your own, you can even come up with a sound of all your own. And you may not be, even if you're the first to do it, you may not be the first to blow up from it.

Hmm.

So you'll see a lot of young artists like M.I.A. who might come out and you, commend her for what she's done and stepped out of a perimeter, stepped out of her box. Or who else we say all the time?

Azealia Banks.

Azealia Banks, you know, and all these artists who go against the grain and create something new, some new energy. And sometimes you give all the credit to them, and not to take anything away from them, right? But there are other artists too that may not, um, fly over the rainbow, so to speak, over the radar, who have been doing it for quite some time, who've been planting those same seeds in the soil. And as the music does not always water those seeds, she still blossoms. Come on. And she's here today, and she stood the test of time and still a young butterfly ready to flap her wings. The one and only Santigold is here, ladies and gentlemen.

What up, Santi?

All right, I'm going to correct you guys in the very beginning.

Oh, Santi?

Yes, Santigold. Okay, my bad. Get on me, girl. Get on me, man. I'm from the West Coast though, you know, sometimes everybody from all over the world says that that's why they say it wrong. Okay, cool.

But it's really, it's really Santi.

Santigold.

Santigold.

But it wasn't always Santigold, right?

It was Santo Gold.

Santo Gold. And then we had the lawsuit and all that. Yeah. Okay.

Yes.

Let's start there. Yeah. So I'm just trying not to get you in trouble. I'm just trying to say it as different as possible.

Oh yeah.

You know, it's so smart. Yeah. Right.

That's great.

I'm thinking of you.

Thank you.

How you been? What have you been up to? What have, what's going on in your life? Um, well, other than this nice jacket you have on this morning.

I bought this as a kid Christmas present in, in It didn't work out, so it became mine. Somebody gave it back! Well, no, I stupidly got two of them because I didn't think it would arrive in time after I ordered it online, so then I just went and got one, and then they couldn't return it.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. But I like it.

It's fly.

Thanks, thanks. Rock it.

Is it real?

No.

Oh, it's not real?

I don't wear real fur.

You wouldn't wear a—

Well, if it's like really vintage or something like that, I would. But I try not to really. But it's just like a Supreme—

go for.

That's nice. Okay, so other than getting Christmas gifts returned, uh, how you been?

I've been good. I had a baby, uh, in between time. It was—

clap, clap! You get applauded for giving birth here.

I like that. So I've been being a mom, I've been making a record, um, I've been directing videos and doing some shows.

Doing some shows. Where do you stay? Are you in, um, what do you live in?

Brooklyn.

Brooklyn. You look— so Brooklyn really goes hard.

Looking really good.

You know what?

I didn't know if it was real or not. So, so, um, I, I have your songs. I'm asking you questions like I don't have your songs.

Okay.

Okay. Um, it's 2016. Okay, you got a new project. Um, how has your sound evolved over the years? Um, I feel like a lot of folks are venturing how you ventured always.

Totally.

Uh, so how does it sound? What— how do you, you know, how do you exist in that?

Um, you know, it's, it's actually easier to exist in that than it was when I started, because before, I don't think people were all the way ready for, um, music that was genreless, first of all, and a Black woman making music that was genreless, especially in my old band Stiffed, who was like a punk rock band. Everyone's like, this will never work. Um, but Now it seems that the, the boundaries are just falling away between all the different genres, and people are ready for it because they've got all this music like at their fingertips. They can just jump around, so everybody's listening to everything. Um, and Santigold has always been, um, like a project for me where anything is game. Like, you can, you can do anything and it will fit.

Mm-hmm.

And so I've just been enjoying that, and each record I just go a little further. And, you know, it's not necessarily that I've always— I grew up listening to every kind of music, you know. Um, but as you know, as music is, I'm— I still listen to current music too. Okay. So that finds its way in. Um, but each record I just get different influences. I got some African music sounds in this record. I got some— a little more rap stuff in here than I had before, just because pop music right now, I mean, as far as production and stuff, I think hip-hop is like the most interesting thing for me lyrically, not as much, but like I'm not really into dance music like that. I know my music is called dance music, but I'm not into like the new like trap shit. No, I like that EDM. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that stuff, you know, and, and some of the like pop pop stuff, it's not as exciting. I'm still into like the drums and bass and hip-hop more than anything, you know.

You said you're more— you're rapping more now again?

No, no, I mean, well, on this record, yeah, maybe there's a little bit more. I've always, I've always— I mean, it's not called rap like the way I do it. It's like, because it's always so melodic. It can be called rap if that's what you want to call it, but like, it's just like this chanty style that I do, and I— and it, and it is rap influence, you know. And, um, and I do it quite a bit on this record, but I also have like, you know, goth style singing and, and some like Nina Simone inspired song, you know. I'm all over the place. Some— I have punk rock song on this record, um, inspired, nothing straight, like anything is all— everything's mixed up.

Mhm. Yeah, see, Santigold, in my opinion, is what's good for music because you, you— she's giving you like 5 different genres or approaches to music, and at the end of the day, all that matters is the end result, right?

Exactly.

If it's good music and what it makes you feel like, right? How you respond to it. Let's play some music. What do we— why don't you pick a song out of the ones, the singles that have come out? What would you like to hear?

Well, why don't we hear Chasing Shadows since that's the one that just came out?

Okay, that's the one I wanted to hear anyway. All right, here's Chasing Shadows.

Santigold is here.

You want to talk with her? 888-742-3345. Take a listen to this. The new album, 99 Cent. Yep, it's coming out the February— February 26th. Yep, February 26th.

Got to make sure myself.

Santigold, new album, 99 Cent. Is that how much we're going to have to pay for it?

I wish.

I think you get that single for 99 cents, possibly.

Yes, that single.

I'm not in charge. They're coming out with all these All these prices that end with 99 cents, I'm like, that's not 99 cents. But they, they, as long as it sounds close to 99 cents.

Yeah.

It feels good. That's a good marketing ploy. Yeah. I get it. You, you work with I Love Makonnen.

Free 99.

Free 99 is better.

I said about free 99. I like that.

Free 99 is better.

But I don't really like it.

How did you choose who you collaborated with? Like I Love Makonnen is someone you, you work with.

Oh, I met Makonnen at a party in LA and we said, I was like, where do you live? Where do you live? Oh, New York? Okay, cool, let's do a song. And then he came, and then he came in the studio, and he's great. Like, he's so much fun. He's such a fun, awesome guy. He came in, and we just ended up playing each other like the most obscure, like, weird things that will never come out that we had done. He's like, oh, he's like, you know, I do stuff that sounds like really weird too, right? And he just starts playing me all this like crazy stuff. He sings so crazy. I love it.

Yeah, right.

And, um, and then we were just, you know, and he just played, he's like, you know, I started this one last night. He played and I was like, that's it.

And that's the song y'all collaborated on?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay. Zed Stead produced that song.

Heather, I was gonna play the song.

I was like, that's a transition.

Let's hit the song.

Let's talk about jumping.

No, I just love Makonnen 'cause he got that good gray hair too. He knows what we talking about.

I know.

So who be loving me?

He's always singing about it.

Is it who be loving me?

His curls.

Is it who be loving me?

Who be loving me.

Who be loving me.

Yeah.

Y'all wanna talk about his curls? Fine, go ahead.

I'm gonna let that go.

Sway, I'm serious, tell me more. Okay, all right, here it is. Sway in the morning. <LYRICS>Who be loving me.</LYRICS> I could've got a verse on that, haven't I?

I know, that's right.

How many bars you think you would've had, Sway?

I would've had at least 6.

6 bars, okay.

6 bars about girls around the world who be loving me. In my past, Santigold. I'm in a relationship now. So I can't be thinking about those sort of things.

No, you can't.

No. How, how's your child, um, um, affected your writing at all?

Um, well, it's more focused cuz I have a less, a lot less time to write, that's for sure.

Yeah.

Um, but also I would say that, you know, in general this record has a lighter and more playful feel than some of the other records. I mean, there's songs that don't, but in overall, and I think part of that was, you know, just have had, having had a, a baby, having a baby in the house even, and that energy, that like pure, like joy energy in the house. And making a record is really hard. It's really hard work. You can be, especially the way I do it, I'm by myself a lot and I'm just moving around in between different producers. I don't have a partner, you know? And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of stress. And I didn't feel like feeling bad this time, you know? Having just had this little cute little thingy. Mm-hmm.

Munchkin.

Yeah. I was just like, I just wanna feel happy and like have fun. So no matter what I'm talking about, cuz the, the issues that I'm talking about on this record, are not necessarily light, you know, but I approach them in a playful way, kind of like sarcastic, you know, using like comedy or like satire. And I made it a fun record.

And you know, Daymond John was just here from Shark Tank, and of course one of the founders of FUBU. And we had asked him about like that down period, or when the time when you go through when people just tell you no and doors being slammed in your face. But to me, it's a little bit different in music when you go through that down period when you don't want to be bothered with anybody. How did you if you went through that, push through that in the music side of it, being female, kind of feeling doing this kind of music that people really wasn't open to initially, then having a baby. How did you like say, fuck it, I'm just going to keep going and doing my thing?

Um, well, I think I've always been the type of person where if anybody doesn't see value in me or what I'm doing, it just makes me more like driven to like prove You know, that's the competitiveness in me or whatever. I'm just like, I'll show everyone. Like, even when I was like a teenager and a guy would diss me, I'm like, okay, well, he'll be coming back, you know what I mean? And, um, and, you know, that's part of it. The other part of it is that I make music because I have to make music. Like, it's in my spirit, spirit, you know? It keeps me afloat. It keeps me feeling like I have a sense of purpose. And so I'm always going to make music, um, and I'm just a driven person. Like, the harder it gets, I'm like— sometimes I'm like, maybe, you know, the harder it gets, I'm like, I'm going, like, just go, go, go. Sometimes you think maybe you should just step back and be like, maybe there's another way around this and I don't have to keep pounding through, which I think is an important moment to step back and reflect too on Is there a different way that I can get to where I want to get to, you know? Because then maybe that's where you get better ideas sometimes and stuff like that. But I mean, being in this music industry, whether you're a woman, whether you're a man, like whoever you are, you have to have determination and a tremendous amount of drive because it is not easy and it's not consistent. Like, no matter how— I've been in this business for a long time, so you can be on the top and then no one will have heard of you in like 7 years, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Or you can be like on the bottom and then one thing happens happen. Like, so it's just, you, you got to know why you're in it, you know? And it can't be just for the surface stuff because that stuff is— it's not lasting, you know?

Hearing you speak, your spirit makes so much sense because the industry, as we all know, is very hard on women. And it almost seems like a prerequisite to being a star as a woman is just being very young in age. And I know for you, you've always been open about your age. And, um, I think your breakout moment happened when you were 30. Or 31, were you ever feeling the pressure? Were people ever in your ear like, "Girl, it's not gonna happen. You too old"?

No, because I think that I had been in music for such a long time that it wasn't like I was just coming out of nowhere, you know? I don't know, I don't know, like, if anybody would even say it if it was the case. I think people are just like, you know, people are not gonna say you're too old, you're too ugly, you're too fat, or any of the things that women have heard. You're too clothed. They're not gonna say it. They just like, you know, wouldn't pay attention.

Right.

But the one thing that I find to be true is good music is good music.

Mm-hmm.

You know, no matter how old you are, no matter what you look like, um, it's undeniable when people hear music, music trumps all that stuff, you know? So I don't really pay attention to that stuff. I mean, I'm so different from, from all the like Pop-Tarts out there for so many different reasons.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Um, And of course I see things and I pay attention in a way. Um, and it can, it can, it's, it's dangerous. It's dangerous business. Um, comparing yourself to other people. Absolutely. Seeing what everybody else is doing. You keep your ear to it, you keep your eye to it just so you know what's going on. Mm-hmm. But it's really, really important that you don't let that, you don't, you don't value yourself or gauge yourself against that stuff. Cuz really deep down, none of that stuff is what I'm about. And as hard as it is to stay true to my values, it's the main ingredient in what Santigold is, is those values and that integrity.

Word. Santigold.

Love it.

Thank you.

This is just the prelude, because she's going to come back for us soon after that album is released and actually perform a couple of songs for us, right? Yeah, that would be dope.

That would be—

I just booked that on air live right here. Right, put that on the show. All right, got mad with it. Look forward to that. No, I just wanted to make you, you know, we've been wanting to have you up here for a while, so I'm glad you're here. And we got one more thing we have to talk about. We can get your feedback on it because Tracy G does our Celebrity Wire.

Okay, I do.

And it's a really important story that's taking place right now. You know you love celebrity drama.

Don't ask me a question like that. I'm not gonna—

I'm not biting.

Especially when it's caught on camera. No, no, don't shut me up. It's time for Celebrity Wire on Sway in the Morning.

Oh God, here we go.

On Shade 45. All right, Tracy G got that Celebrity Wire. Santigold is joining us as a special guest.

So we all know and love Jada Pinkett Smith. Recently she put out a video. I don't know if you saw it, Santi, but she was voicing her desire for everyone to boycott this year's Oscars. Because of their lack of diversity when it comes to the nominees, which her husband did not get. You know, Will Smith did not get any nominations for his role in Concussion, so she was upset about that.

And this is the video she put out: The Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose, and now I think that it's our responsibility now to make the change. Maybe it is time that we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities, into our programs, and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good as the so-called mainstream ones.

So she wasn't being obnoxious. She sounds rather empowering. But somebody who was rubbed the wrong way was Janet Hubert. And if you're unfamiliar with that name, she was the original Aunt Viv in, um, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She had some words to say, so she took a camera and she recorded this.

Uh, first of all, Miss Thing, um, does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak? And The second thing is, girlfriend, there's a lot of shit going on in the world that you all don't seem to recognize. People are dying, our boys are being shot left and right, uh, people are hungry, people are starving, people are trying to pay bills, and you talk about some motherfucking actors, uh, and Oscars.

Oh, number one, that was the quickest motherfucker I ever heard say it in life.

I don't even know if she's just sampling that motherfucker.

Put a new twist to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, right?

But she had one more thing to say as well.

Listen to this.

And here's the other thing. For you to ask other actors and other Black actresses and Black actors to jeopardize their career and their standing in a town that you know damn well you don't do that. And here's the other thing. They don't care.

They don't care.

And I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living made their living and made millions and millions of dollars, um, from the very people that you talk about boycotting just because you didn't get nomination, just because you didn't win. That is not the way life works, baby.

Oh my gosh, that's pretty, uh, fire.

First, I like her attitude.

You like, you like it?

I like her attitude.

I do.

Yeah, I think they're both right.

They're both right.

I think they're both right. I think that Um, Jada has a point, uh, and I think that Miss Hubert, yep, she has lots of points as well. What were you gonna say? Because I can talk more on that, but no, keep going.

Let's go, go for it.

I mean, I think that like Hollywood is flawed, you know, we all know this. Everybody knows that Hollywood is flawed. I mean, for women, for Black actors, actresses, women Um, you know, and, and it's true. Um, but you know, the other thing is there are, there are so many things going on, and it's really, um, we're living in like the most apathetic time of that I've ever known of in history where no one stands up for anything, you know. Um, you know, that's not true, you know, people are standing up for like Black Lives Matter, right, right. But I know, yeah, well, the most thing, the biggest thing is that people, the reason that these things don't really go anywhere is because we're in the time where, like, people really have been rendered powerless in so many ways, and people feel powerless. They don't know what to do, you know. They don't know what to do other than go to a rally, and then nothing happened. Like, policy doesn't change. Like, nothing changes for these things. So people really feel stuck and confused and don't really know how to do anything to make changes. So people I mean, this youth culture right now is like all about like drugs. Like everyone just listens to music that talks about drugs, does drugs while they listen to music, and basically watches reality TV and tunes out completely. Like this is the most tuned out culture ever, you know? And so, and I think it does stem from a sense of powerlessness, you know? And so what Jada's saying, you know, to, to act is not a flawed thing. You know, I don't know her reasons. I don't know why she chose this time. Like maybe You know, that's why. But like, calling people to act is not a bad thing, you know?

Yeah.

But there are so many other things that we could be acting on and about that are really, really, really, really important things too, you know? And no one's really calling anybody into action at that level for those things.

Well, you know, Chris Rock is— is he scheduled to host?

Yes, he is.

He's scheduled to host.

He's still hosting.

Okay, Santigold. So I figured, okay, we all meet up with Chris Rock, right?

Okay.

And then we give him our agenda, what we want him to say on that stage, because he's gonna have the whole entire world watching him. So if anybody could be really effective in, you know, sparking some change, it will be Chris Rock.

I think Chris does really well on his own. I had a dinner a couple months ago with Chris and Dave Chappelle. Ooh.

What the hell?

Did you just start on us right there? What kind of power dinner was that?

Yeah, yeah.

You waited this long to tell us that?

What the hell?

Right.

She said, "Ooh, y'all y'all slay." Just kind of slid that in there.

And I was the only girl pretty much. And they decided to talk about, I mean, abortion, divorce, like, I mean, all these like male rape. I think we talked about.

Damn.

We talked about Bill Cosby. We talked about— not to put those next to each other, but we've talked to like all kinds of things. And I was like, I mean, seriously, you guys? It was hard. I was sweating at the end of it.

Like, you was cracking up laughing, or—

It was funny, but they were serious. Serious.

They were serious.

And they were saying some crazy, crazy stuff. And they're like— and then Dave's like, I don't want— I mean, I don't want you to think that, you know what I mean? But it was like crazy. But it was like really, really, really, really, really interesting to hear. It was really like a male perspective versus female perspective debate. And they're both so smart. They're so smart that they were saying all kinds of stuff that I would have like jumped down somebody's throat, but their arguments were so interesting. And I know that they're not— I don't think that they're, um, they're not chauvinist. No, I don't think that they are. And I think that they're so progressive thinking. And so it was just a really respectful and interesting conversation. And I think that Chris We'll find a way to say things that need to be said. And that's the amazing thing about comedy, especially for people like Dave and Chris, is that they tackle tough stuff.

Yeah.

But they keep you laughing. It's like a real clandestine, you know?

That's a great word, by the way. One of the first words I learned in elementary. Clandestine.

Thank you.

Be secretive. Remember? I could put it in a sentence too.

She did that.

Did you? She did do it, but I'm taking credit. Thank you. Did any work come out of this? Are you guys collaborating on something?

I don't know, man. We were talking about it, and time got in the way of the thing we were talking about. And, well, me and Dave. And then, but I definitely, we're gonna make something. Something.

When that happens—

'Cause you know I'm really funny.

We wanna premiere you. I can tell, yeah, you've said some funny little slick stuff in this interview. I peep game. I peep game. We gotta have you come back up, Santigold.

All right?

Okay, thanks, guys.

February 26th, get the new album, 99 Cents. All right, and she'll come back when the album is about to be releasing, maybe do a song or two for us.

Concert series, possibly.

Also, we want to thank our guests for coming by. Chelsea Handler for coming by. Check out our new series Chelsea Does on Netflix on the 22nd— on the 23rd, and it'll be in the Sundance Film Festival on the 22nd. We also want to thank Damon John for coming by. The Power of Broke is the name of his book. Pick that up. Damian Lillard from Portland Trail Blazers, his new song.

Yeah.

It's called Bigger Than Us. He released that today, the new video. He released it today. Uh, you can pick it up on iTunes as well. Tracy, how can I reach you?

Citizens, hit me on Twitter, find me on Instagram, same name, @itsTracyG, I-T-S-T-R-A-C-Y-G. I'm also on Snapchat, it's Tracy G Snaps, and you can pick me up—

It's Sway in the Morning from Shade 45.

Hit me up at The Happy Hour with WHB, Instagram and Twitter. Thank you so much for my YouTube channel and following me there. Uh, that's at The Happy Hour with Heather B. .com. You miss any part of the show today, go to SiriusXM.com/ondemand.

Hey, Santigold, if our citizens want to continue the conversation with you, how can they reach you on social media?

They can just go to santigold.com. It's real easy.

That's easy, right? All just— you see how quick she said hers, everybody? Okay. All right.

I'm not good at promoting social media anyway.

Oh really? Okay. All right. Um, that's a promotion stunt in itself right there. Yeah, that's like the, the act of promoting while not promoting. Yeah, but getting you promotions. Bruce Lee was on to something. Before he passed away.

Real advanced shit, y'all.

Like, he had a saying: boards don't hit back. The act of hitting without being hit. That was his fact. He studied martial arts.

I studied qigong.

Did you really?

I do right now. Yeah, I also studied Wing Chun at some point.

You just fucked way up.

You see that? I just gave her the look. I gave her the up and down.

He said hitting without hitting.

I was like, I know how to do— you know about that? Oh, okay. Thank you, Santigold. They don't believe none of the shit I say. All right, I'm @RealSway on Twitter and Instagram, Sway Calloway on Facebook and Snapchat, and go to Sway's Universe. Please follow us, become a subscriber, and we'll send you all these great interviews that we do on a daily basis. Yeah. I'm headed to Miami to do a Get Schooled event for a high school district.

With Khaled, right?

Yeah, well, yeah, for district, a school district where we challenge kids Santigold, you got to do this with me. We challenge kids to improve their attendance, thusly improving their test scores. And the school in the district that has the highest improvement, we bring an assembly there. I've had Kendrick do it with me.

Oh yeah.

Um, I've had, um, Nicki Minaj do it. Uh, Common, you would do it?

Yeah.

Okay, great. So, um, well, I'm flying to Miami for that today, so I will be doing that. DJ Khaled will be joining me. Um, but thank you for coming by.

Thank you for having me.

And the comedy search will be released on Thursday.

Got it.

The first part of our comedy search we just did last Friday will be released on Thursday, so we'll talk about more of that tomorrow. And until then, we have nothing left to say. It's Sway in the Morning, only on Shade 45.