theHotness Grrrl: Santogold (& Lil Mama) @ Virgin Megastore

(Santi & friend Angela Yee)

I couldn't wait to get downtown yesterday to finally see Santogold (aka Santi White) do her thing live. I've seen her perform before and actually produced and hosted a Hot Grrrls Cool Music showcase that featured her when she used to front Stiffed so I already knew homegrrrl had the goods, I was just curious to see how she was gonna gift wrap it this time out the box.

And of course as things would have it, I didn't even get out of my office until 7:15 so I was only able to catch the last two songs of her performance-- Unstoppable and Creator. And of course that totally sucked as, I later found out, fresh from her late night stint on Conan O'Brien, Sant did a full set of new music from her debut joint that dropped the same day. The seven songs she unleashed on the massive crowd were:
1. You'll Find A Way (the remix)
2. LES Artistes
3. Say Aha
4. Shove It
5. Anne
6. Unstoppable
7. Creator

"Unstoppable" with its moody riffs and taunting chants put the crowd right in the palm of her hands as they cheered her on affirming their love and belief that Santogold will indeed rock on and on and on. The cheers of her fans, her friends and fellow bandmates got Sant's usually tough, wise cracking, goofy guise all moist and through tears and a cracking voice she thanked everyone for their support. It was a moment y'all. But as soon as the DJ dropped the track for Creator and those distinctive yelps resonated across the small stage, the tears quickly dried and the windows got even steamier. Folks were jumping up and down and cheering the grrrl Spin hails as "the next big thing." I felt proud-- like I was witnessing the evolution of something special, historic even.

So after mad hugs and kisses-- I saw Jayson Jackson who now manages Santogold (as well as Mos Def), Angela Yee who's now an on-air personality for Eminem’s Sirius Satellite station, Shade 45 and Darryl Philips (of NTZ & Blow! Mag fame) I headed into Virgin to see what was poppin with their $10 sale. I picked up Purple Rain (finally) and the DreamGirls DVDs. Scooped the new Radiohead joint when some dude was like "you need to get that Lil Mama joint too.” Then the chick by his side was like “yeah it just dropped today." Before I could even hide the shmirk on my face, I turn around only to discover it's the lip gloss poppin shawty herself. Talk about your street promotions!

Yep Lil mama was (strongly) urging folk to lay down their $15.99 and cop her CD. I give her mad props for having the mad hustle. I also liked her on that dance competition on MTV and told her as much. I didn't get the CD even though I do like Lip Gloss and the new single that's out. Maybe next time when it's $10.