WXPN Features Santogold as the XPN Artist To Watch for May

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Created on Thursday, 01 May 2008 11:21

PHILADELPHIA, PA WXPN, the nationally-recognized leader in Triple A music and noncommercial radio service of the University of Pennsylvania, names Santogold as its April Artist To Watch. Host Jim McGuinn will present the first of the month’s on-air segments on May 1 in the 4 p.m. hour.

Self-described as “the first musical outfit capable of claiming the planet’s broiling collective consciousness as their front woman,” Santogold is the creation of Santi White, the hip-hop fusion act who is quite the personality. A Philadelphia native now centered in Brooklyn, Santogold mixes new wave, hip-hop, electronica, and dub, and has been compared to other tongue-in-cheek, genre-bending hip-hop artists like M.I.A. and Spank Rock. Months before the release of her debut album, White had generated considerable buzz from her selection by Rolling Stone as an Artist to Watch, performing as an opening act for Björk on tour, and the circulation of her early singles across the blogosphere. With the long-awaited release of her self-titled album last week, it’s certainly unlikely that her success will wane anytime soon.

“Santi White’s musical interests include everything from punk and new wave to hip-hop to reggae and electronica," said Bruce Warren, assistant general manager of programming for WXPN. “She is creating an exciting new sound that fuses together stylistically diverse genres of music.”

WXPN music director Dan Reed said, “Santogold has loads of talent and some real potential here. We believe that this could be the beginning of a long, interesting career. There’s a lot more than just pop hooks going on here.”

For more on the XPN Artists To Watch series and this month’s featured artist, visit Artist To Watch

The XPN Artists To Watch series reflects WXPN’s commitment to nurturing fresh, new talent and exposing listeners to the best new music. Each month, the XPN Artists To Watch series spotlights a different up-and-coming performer who has produced an album or body of work that demonstrates outstanding vision, creativity and songwriting ability. Month-long on-air promotion is combined with online features to help audiences discover each artist.

WXPN, the nationally recognized leader in Triple A radio and the premier guide for discovering new and significant artists in rock, blues, roots, and folk, is the non-commercial, member-supported radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. WXPN produces World Cafe®, public radio’s most popular program of popular music hosted by David Dye and syndicated by NPR, and the Peabody Award winning Kids Corner hosted by Kathy O’Connell. WXPN also produces the alternative rock service, Y-Rock On XPN as its secondary radio channel in HD. WXPN serves the greater Philadelphia area at 88.5 FM, the Lehigh Valley at 104.9, Worton/Baltimore at 90.5 FM, Lancaster/York at 88.7 FM, Harrisburg at 99.7 FM, and the world via online streaming at XPN.org.