With a Converse ad campaign and collaborations with Jay-Z, M.I.A. and Spank Rock lined up for the future, Santi White, a.k.a. , is one of the music industry's hottest new up-and-comers. The Brooklyn sensation shot into the spotlight with her 2008 release, "Santogold," and her "genre-less" music is slowly etching out a niche in today's popular music scene. Culture Editor Courtney Rogers took a few minutes to talk to Santi about her musical style and what it's like to be nominated for an mtvU Woodie.

Versus Magazine: You say that you've toured with a really broad range of genres. If you could create your ideal tour, who would be on the bill?
Santogold: My ideal tour? I don't know. There are so many tours out that would be so fun. I've always wanted to play with Devo because they're like my ultimate favorite band, so that would be ideal. An inspiration tour, of like the people that I've like always looked up as a band, that would be great.
But then for a fun tour I'd love to go out with all my friends so I'd love to go on tour with like Amanda Blank and Spank Rock and Diplo so we could be out on tour together. That would be a fun tour.
I just did a tour with the Beastie Boys. Well, that was just like a couple of shows for Get Out to Vote with the Beastie Boys, Norah Jones and Jack Johnson, and I actually had so much fun doing those shows. First of all, I think the Beastie Boys are ... I mean, I wanted to be like them when I was little. And they're just so fun and funny and everything.
But also, the tour was around such an important issue, and I think it was really inspirational for all of us to have a chance to talk about what we thought about this election and go out and speak to crowds for the Rock to Vote near college campuses. So that was kind of an ideal tour, too, because it was for a cause and it was built around a reason. I'd love to do another thing like that. It was like a tour of like people who are really committed to a cause and to bring about change.

VM: So you've collaborated with everyone from Mark Ronson to Diplo. Who is your favorite collaboration and how have they aided in evolving your overall sound?
Santogold: I'm really bad at favorites. I value all my different collaborations for different reasons and any time that I'm working with friends of mine it's always really, really fun because, you know, it's always the most comfortable experience where you're just kind of hanging out. So, when I did that song with Mark Ronson it was like that or when I worked with Diplo and Switch it was like that.
But I did do something with David Byrne from Talking Heads, which was totally different because I sang a song that he wrote, so I just went in and sang. And he's also one of those people that you're like, "Oh, my God, I'm in here with David Byrne," you know? That was very different than working with your friends and being very casual. You go in and you try to be all professional and everything. So there's different things that I value from each different collaboration. They're all different and they're all really favorites for different reasons.
As far as how they've helped evolve my sound, I don't really think that they have because that's what's fun about collaborations. I mean, I just did something with Jay-Z, and you go in there and you're like, "What am I going to do?" Sometimes it really takes you out of your element, and they're like, "Do what you do." And you have to find yourself in all these different styles. So I think that you go in, and the object is sort of to stay true to your style.
This isn't really a collaboration, but I went on this radio show called Live Lounge in the UK with Jo Whiley, and you have to cover another artist's song. And I sang a song by Adele, so that's sort of similar to a collaboration. When I did "Pretty Green" with Mark Ronson, for example ... sometimes you end up doing something that you wouldn't normally do by yourself, and it's something that I wouldn't have done on my record, but you try to bring who you are and your style to it. But at the same time, when I sang a song by Adele, it was like I was singing a song that I never would have written, that I never would have thought to write. So I was using a part of my voice or using my voice in a way that I never would have. And it does open up your eyes to think, "Hey, maybe I could do something where I sing this way."

VM: Most award shows involve the voting of professionals in the music industry. What is it like to be nominated for a Woodie award, whose winners are determined solely by college students?
Santogold: Well, I think it's great because unfortunately a lot of the award shows are so far removed from the pulse of like actual music listeners. I mean, maybe that's not 100 percent true, but it seems that way to me because all the people that you see on the award shows are so tied into like the money world of music where you get artists that are like from Disney TV shows or American Idol or who've been around for like eight years.
It's just not very in touch with what's really going on in music, like on the bubbling-up, and you don't get as much of a diverse spectrum of artists. Those who are nominated aren't usually as representative of what's really going on right now in music.
So I think when you have the college students decide, college students are usually right on the pulse and they're really more in tune to a lot of the more underground stuff or the stuff that's not so mainstream. So you really do get an accurate mix and a more accurate picture of where music really is. And I think that's exciting, and it's also a great opportunity for artists. ... When you put us up to like artists like Miley Cyrus, we don't really have a shot because we don't have a TV show.

VM: How would you describe your sound?
Santogold: I'm not that good at describing it. I just pretty much say it's a mash-up of all these different styles and influences that I've had since I was a kid. So I say there's a little bit of dub in it, some like indie rock, some electronic and some new wave, and it's just like a mash-up of all those styles in one. There's no one word that I use to describe it, you know? It defies classification, and that's what's exciting about it. I think you can't really put a label on what kind of music it is. I think if there's any word you can say it is, it's genre-less.

VM: I know you're producer as well as a songwriter and a singer. Do you feel that participating in these different fields of the industry gives you a leg up when it comes to your music?
Santogold: Definitely. I feel like my strength in all different parts of the music industry helps me get exactly what I'm trying to get out of my projects, out of Santogold. As a songwriter having written for other people and having written major pop songs, I can bring that experience to my music, which is more drawn from different subculture genres like dub or like punk. But then, I know that if I want to be more accessible then I have to put in a bigger chorus so listeners can catch the melody and catch the words. And doing that broadens the audience. It allows my music to reach a broader audience because it's more accessible than dub music or hard-core punk.
I think that a lot of times artists struggle because they come up with music and create it as a video, and then when it gets to the mix they don't really know how to keep the sound true to what they had in mind, because they don't know the language. So I think it's very important to keep your hands on it and be involved at every stage of the music production so that you can get exactly what's in your head.
A lot of times you have to let other people come in and do it. It's great sometimes because you get all kinds of things that you don't even know how to achieve, but it's also very important for me to keep my vision very clear and make sure that it turns out exactly how I intend it to sound, and that's what's helpful about being able to be involved with production. And the artwork and everything, too, it just helps the whole package really be true to your vision.